Tag Archives: AmWriting

Check In, New Book, Snarkey & Putts

The Latest – June 15, 2020

Needless to say, I have once more been less than diligent in keeping up this blog. So I will make the usual excuses.

Excuses, Excuses
It’s all true, I swear.

Not to mention COVID, riots, and let me re-emphasize the locusts. See Locusts Threaten Millions With Famine in Africa and Asia. It’s biblical out there, gentle readers.

Nevertheless, I have managed to get some work done. I’ve opened Kobo and Barnes And Noble Nook accounts, so you can now see most of my writing on non-Amazon sites. My Snarkey & Putts series can be found there, as can my stand-alone novel, Mr. Lake. I’ll be uploading the rest of my works to those non-Amazon sites shortly. I’ll also be putting links to all of the different sites on my book pages on this website shortly, but it’s tedious installing all these links, so bear with me for a week or two yet.

Snarkey & Putts I: Undead ArbitratorGhastly Ghostwriter
The Case of the Undead Arbitrator

In addition, I’ve been working on a new marketing campaign. If you look for Snarkey & Putts I: The Case of the Undead Arbitrator on Amazon, Kobo or B&N Nook, you’ll discover you can download it free. But hold off until next week, because the free download of Snarkey & Putts I will then entitle you to a free copy of Snarkey & Putts II: The Case of the Ghastly Ghostwriter. All I ask in return is that you sign up for my mailing list. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

 

Snarkey & Putts: Ghastly Ghostwriter
The Case of the Ghastly Ghostwriter

I didn’t think so.

Just give me a chance to get the links working. Patience, patience. If you can’t wait to sign up for the list and don’t care about the free book, you can sign up now using the new Mailing List SignUp widget in the right-hand column.

One more thing: my latest collection of short stories, Kid Stuff, featuring the re-issue of The Reincarnation of Lou Gehrig, will be available before the end of this month. It includes a variety of stories all kicking around the theme of childhood as seen through the eyes of grade-school boys.

That’s it for now. I’ll be back when Kid Stuff hits the stands.

 

Check In, Gripes

What’s Going On – March 27, 2020

Here in Boston, we’re not quite locked down because of the coronavirus, but we are hunkered down by choice. Nobody’s going out. People are mostly working from home. We take walks, hoping we won’t run into anybody. We shy away from any kind of social contact. All in all, it’s pretty much the way an author lives all the time.

One good thing, for me at least, is that there’s time to do all the little things that are usually relegated to the back burner. I’ve corrected a few weaknesses in this website: had a long chat with my hosting service’s support staff, at the end of which they determined that they couldn’t help me and I’d have to fix the problem myself. I managed to do it. It only took me the better part of a week. But I now know what “Rest API” is.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say I’m aware of its existence. I don’t really have any deep understanding of it. I know when it’s creating a problem and which button I need to press to deal with it.

When you come right down to it, my relationship with Rest API is magical. I don’t mean that I’m enchanted by it. I mean that, when it acts up, I say the code equivalent of “Abracadabra” and it slithers back into whatever hole it crawled out of.

I suspect the “Abracadabra” factor in modern life explains why fantasy has become such a popular genre. When I was a boy, I knew what electricity was, at least functionally. I knew what a carburetor did. I knew what a distributor cap did. Most gadgets were mechanical. You could open them up, look inside, and, if you paid attention, you could understand them. Now, you have to speak the doggone thing’s language.

You’ll notice I’ve installed a video widget at the top of the right-hand column. Now you don’t have to scroll down my posts to see me in my videos. My bearded mug will always be at the top of the column, staring at you, urging you to press the little arrow button to listen to me read from my assorted writings. I’ll be on every page. In the age of Abracadabra, technology has sealed off every avenue of escape.

I need to get back to work, making sure all my links work and doing other such things. Maybe, before the day ends, I’ll get back to writing my current work-in-progress, “The Molasses Man,” a short story. I don’t know exactly what it’s about yet, but the characters will tell me in time.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m working on two collections at the moment, one of nostalgic stories and the other of fantasies. The former will contain my previously published but currently unavailable story, “The Reincarnation of Lou Gehrig.” It should be out in early summer. As for the latter, I’ve decided to re-issue “The Richest Man in Babylon, Revisited,” as the headliner for a number of new stories. Look for it in late summer or early fall.

That’s it for now. Stay healthy, everyone.

New Book, Writings

News Flash: Another Video and Another Book

Reincarnation of Lou Gehrig Cover
Reincarnation of Lou Gehrig, cover by Angel Nichols

The rights to one of my short works, the novelette, The Reincarnation of Lou Gehrig, previous published by Annie Acorn Publishing, have recently reverted to yours truly. Instead of re-issuing it as a stand-alone work, I’ve decided to combine it with two novellas I’ve written. One of the novellas is a work I’ve had sitting on the shelf for more than a year, entitled The Mystery of Ambrose Pouter; the other is brand new, Down The Cape. Both of them, like Reincarnation, are nostalgic, semi-autobiographical stories based on events that actually happened to me or kids I knew ‘way back in the ’50s and ’60s. To be truthful, Down The Cape reaches even further back, in part, but I have everything in it on good authority. Of course, I tweak these tales a little so that they make sense and come to a point, but less than you’d think.

I’m going to call this proposed collection either A Baker’s Dozen, with some kind of zingy sub-title, or The Reincarnation of Lou Gehrig and Other Stories. Catchy, huh?

Whichever, I’m going to use the same cover I did for Reincarnation. After all, a penny saved is a penny earned. I’ll pay myself the extra money and pad the thing with a few shorter stories I’m writing. Maybe the one I’m working on right now, Tempest In A Teapot, about an author who must face a revolt by his own characters.

Eh, on second thought, no, it won’t fit. But some other things will. The collection will be out by summer.

In the meantime, I’ve prepared another video, in which I read a ninth excerpt from Mr. Lake: The A-1. I hope you like it.

Writings

New Mr. Lake Video – The Favor

Mr. Lake Cover
Mr. Lake

I’ve posted a new YouTube video, my first in several months. It’s me, reading another excerpt, the eighth, from my Arthurian coming-of-age fantasy-dramedy, Mr. Lake. In this excerpt, their “frenemy,” Larry Tucci, tries to recruit our hero, Joe Marino, and his faithful if reluctant companion and best friend, Billy Harwell, into an endeavor that smells of skullduggery. Larry tries to convince the boys that Mr. Lake himself has asked Larry to break into Lake’s house and steal some ill-defined personal items, which Larry calls Lake’s “things.” Lake, according to Larry, fears that a local gang of toughs, the River Rats, wants the “things” and is keeping Lake under observation. He allegedly fears to go home himself.

Joe doesn’t buy Larry’s story. Billy shows unusual spunk in daring to question Larry, which leads to a degree of vein bulging and eye bugging.

I sometimes think I should have subtitled Mr. Lake, maybe “An Arthurian Fantasy Set in 1960s Suburbia.” But no, it struck me as too long and more of advertising copy than title. Alas, in the words of Pontius Pilate, “What I have written, I have written.”

Mr. Lake is available in Kindle eBook and paperback formats on its Amazon bookpage. Please hop over there and try out the “Look Inside” feature for a sample. I think you’ll like it.

 

Snarkey & Putts

My Latest YouTube Video

I will never play “pantser” again.  In case you don’t know, a “pantser” is an author who writes by the seat of his pants. I am naturally a “plotter,” an author who plots out the action in his novels, at least at the chapter level, all the way to the conclusion.  A plotter knows how the story gets to its end before he writes word one.

Of course, no plotter anticipates every detail and no pantser is a pure stream of consciousness. Usually, I create an outline with a fair amount of detail, but I get ideas as I go along and am pretty flexible about inserting them and creating new threads in the outline. Then, I do a second draft in which I work all the unanticipated ideas of the later chapters back into the first few chapters. One thing I’ve learned is that, unless you’re a genius, you build complexity into a novel by such retroactive “layering.”

But with my latest novel, Snarkey & Putts IV: The Case of the Unchained Immigrant, I had such a strong sense of what would happen in the first few chapters that I threw plotting to the winds. I thought I’d get the first three or four chapters down and then do a detailed outline of the rest. But, after finishing the first three chapter, I got a feeling for the next few chapters; instead of forcing myself to outline, I kept writing. Then, the next few chapters came to me, and the next few.

Now I’ve got thirty chapters and 75,000+ words. The novel’s climax is clear in my mind, but the path to it has become obscure. It could be another 75,000 words away… and I swore to myself that no Snarkey & Putts story would ever be more than 60,000 words.

John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck

One of my literary heroes, John Steinbeck, once advised authors to put aside any thought that you would ever finish. I find myself taking comfort in his words, but I have the nagging suspicion that my current predicament is not what he was talking about.

Starting with my next book, I’m going back to being a plotter. The unfortunate truth is, whatever time pantsers save by launching directly into writing, they lose at the tail end by massive editing to get the work down to size. At least, that’s what it looks like I’ll be doing.

While I wrestle with this problem, here’s the latest of my YouTube videos, my humble self reading an excerpt from Snarkey & Putts, Paranormal Attorneys-At-Law III: The Case of the Canine’s Curse, a tid-bit from a chapter entitled, “Dog Rescue.” Pardon the fierce countenance. I was getting into it.

Check In

New Stuff as of March 7, 2018

Time for a progress report. I’m in the middle of my next Snarkey & Putts novel. It’s turning out better than I expected. That’s because, being an author, I always expect disaster. Whenever it turns out that I’ve actually come up with a plot and can see my way to the end of a story, I’m surprised. Make that “shocked.”

My sketch of the cover for "Mr. Lake."
My sketch of the cover for “Mr. Lake.”

After a great deal of deliberation, I’ve come up with a cover design for “Mr. Lake,” my fantasy novel about a 1960s sixth-grader who suspects his school janitor is the undying Knight of the Round Table, Sir Lancelot du Lac. I’ve attached my own hand-drawn sketch of the cover, the sketch I plan to send to my professional artist, Angel Nichols, who’s done all of my Snarkey & Putts covers. (See the video below, for instance. )Aren’t you glad I’ve got Angel?

In the meantime, I’ve posted a new, free story, entitled The Sweet Science. It’s a story my Dad told me about a young fellow who aspired to a boxing career. It never quite happened. Find out why by reading it, and let me know what you think. I’m starving for feedback, by which I mean praise.

Finally, I’ve done another video reading from Snarkey & Putts III, The Case of the Canine’s Curse. I won’t stop until you buy the book. You can get it as either a Kindle ebook or in paperback.

To tell the truth, I won’t stop even if you do buy it. But I might have the money to hire a professional voiceover artist instead of doing it myself.

Here’s the video. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by.

Snarkey & Putts, Writings

Snarkey & Putts 3: A New Excerpt From The Case of The Canine’s Curse

Case of the Canine's Curse Cover
The Case of the Canine’s Curse

My Snarkey & Putts werewolf tale, The Case of the Canine’s Curse, has been available on Amazon for a while now.  It’s the most intricately plotted of all my S&P stories so far, taking my paranormal attorneys to a whole new level of wicked, nail-biting fun. I’ve finally gotten around to doing some video readings. The characters bring out the ham in me, so much so that one of my Twitter pals remarked that I gave “a pretty heated performance.”

Here it is. See what you think.

 

New Pages, Snarkey & Putts, Writings

New Things

I’ve been neglecting this blog. I know… I know… I’ll try to be more consistent. I really will try, but you’ll just have to live with me as I am.

Anyway, I’ve posted two new free stories since I last blogged: Friendship, a tale about my Dad, his friends and food, and Raiders of the Lost Docs, based on a real incident in my life as a litigator. For some reason, I can’t insert links today. While I’m figuring out the problem, you can use the scroll-down menus to find the stories.

Last, you should check out my YouTube channel at

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjviP7tfEcCEHGz6khwP0CQ

and my latest Snarkey & Putts video at

Well, at least I can insert videos.

 

 

 

Snarkey & Putts, Writings

Snarkey & Putts II is LIVE on Amazon Kindle

Snarkey & Putts: Case of the Ghastly Ghostwriter Cover
Snarkey & Putts: Case of the Ghastly Ghostwriter Cover

My big news this week is that Snarkey & Putts, Paranormal Attorneys-at-Law II: The Case of the Ghastly Ghostwriter is now live and available for purchase as an Amazon Kindle ebook. Only 99 cents for a limited time. Follow Jack Snarkey and Andrew Putts as they counsel a club of amateur cozy mystery writers on how to deal with copyright infringement from beyond the grave. Buy the book now here, read it and, if you’re feeling specially generous, review it.

I’ve been posting a series of S&P2 excerpts on my YouTube Channel. Here’s the latest one I recorded and posted earlier today.

Not exactly a flattering image, is it? Sometimes, reading my own stuff out loud, I get carried away.

Other news: I’ll be posting a new vignette under Family Stories shortly. It’s derived from my Work In Progress, Mr. Lake, and it’s tells the story about how I acquired my first dog.

Just to round out this post, here’s another video excerpt, this time the seventh in my S&P1: The Case of the Undead Arbitrator series. It’s very short. I don’t want to overstay my welcome.

That’s it for now. Thanks for stopping by.