Uncategorized – Page 18 – Ted Clifton's Grain of Salt Commentary

Durango Two Step

Currently working on Vincent Malone #4, Durango Two Step. If you have read the other books (#3 Fiction No More isn’t out yet, but will be soon) you might have a guess as to the meaning of the book title. Vincent Malone will have a return engagement to Durango, Colorado, with some ugly consequences. He will be teaming up again with the ever interesting George Younger.

Durango is another fascinating tourist town. Located in southwest Colorado it is definitely a place you should visit. Little Wikipedia info below:

The town was organized in September 1880 to serve the San Juan mining district. The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) chose the site on the Animas River for its depot following a brief and most likely perfunctory negotiation with Animas City, two miles to the north. The city was named by ex-Colorado Governor Alexander C. Hunt after Durango, Mexico, based on his favorable impression of that city resulting from a scouting trip undertaken on behalf of William J. Palmer, the head of the D&RG.

Main Avenue is a Nationally Registered Historic District that cuts through downtown Durango and is home to galleries, boutiques, restaurants, bars, and other businesses. Two notable and historic hotels, The General Palmer and The Strater, lie at the south end of the avenue, near the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad depot. With its combination of historic architecture, entertainment, and shopping, Main Avenue has historically comprised the center of Durango and is a popular year-round tourist destination.

Durango is one of those places that feels somewhat out of place in the real world. Obviously it’s a tourist attraction but something about the location makes it feel like it has escaped much of the outside world and time has stood still. Great restaurants alone are worth a visit; unless you’re on a diet. Then, of course, there is the train; I’ve always loved trains so it was absolutely required to ride the train to Ouray.

One of those great Durango restaurants is featured in Blue Flower Red Thorns; The Steamworks Brewery. Vincent and George Younger had their first meeting there. Fun place with great food and drink, well worth your time.

Mesa Verde is not far and worth the effort. When my wife and I were there, some years ago, they would allow you to climb into the caves, seemed unwise at the time so that might have been discontinued. Actually being able to walk around these ancient dwellings was a unique emotional experience.

Quick book update. Santa Fe Mojo audiobook is now in post production and should be available soon. Once SFM is complete, work on Blue Flower Red Thorns audiobook will begin with the same narrator and production team. I have mentioned this before, but it surprises me how different the audiobook feels compared to reading–it is a different experience. Hope you enjoy!

Developing Characters

My first book The Bootlegger’s Legacy was loosely based on people very much like myself. The two main characters of Joe and Mike could have been one of several people in my life. These were very ordinary people living somewhat boring lives dealing with mundane problems like money and family. They weren’t very happy but didn’t really feel like that was a big problem; after all nobody they knew was real happy; it was life.

The character who was at the heart of the story Pat Allen, the bootlegger, was not like that at all. He was a larger than life character. He experienced life as joy not a burden; until it was. There was also four strong female characters who matched their male counterparts in attitude and morality; with the possible exception of Pat Allen’s suffering wife, Bugs.

All of these characters and most of the people in my books have one thing in common, they are flawed. Some more so than others, but they have serious faults. Of course, that should be expected. The perfect person would not make a very interesting character in a book. Sure it would be nice to have perfect people as husbands, wives, sons, daughters, fathers and mothers–but would you want to read about a perfect person? Probably not.

One aspect of my writing that is mentioned by reviewers is the language. Some like it; many don’t. The words used by the characters are part of who they are. The gangster Giovanni would not be a soft spoken polite man; he would be loud and offensive–which he is. I’ve tried to match the language with the people and the circumstances. A good example is Mike Allen, the son. He goes through a transformation during the book from a more rowdy character to a religious reawakening. As a result at one point he scolds Joe for his language. Words that they have often used in the past — now were offensive to Mike. He was a new person.

Before I started writing I was a mega reader. I read all kinds of books. Some I liked some I didn’t. But I read a lot. Never thought to much about the process of writing; after all I was a reader and all I wanted to know was who did it? When I first thought of writing myself I revisited some of my favorite books and re-read with a different perspective. Several that I really had liked had a new quality I had not noticed much before–they were consistent in how the characters acted within the story. Each character had their own personality and quirks. They could do something out of character but as a reader you knew it was out of character. This may have been the most important lesson I took from reading to writing. Know you characters and let them be themselves.

I have written before about how characters almost write the book themselves. Once I get going and I know who they are I let them just be. I know that sounds weird but it is what happens–the story goes this way because that is what this character would do. Of course on some occasions I will mix that up just to make it interesting. But my goal is to let you the reader get to know the characters; who they are, what they think and how they will act; and of course what they will say, even if it is a few bad words.

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My favorite character right now is Vincent Malone. A man so flawed he is almost toxic. From what was going to be a great life of privilege and honor; disaster occurred as everything fell apart due to his weaknesses. For the next few decades he punished himself because of his failings. I wanted the reader to sense that Malone was a good man who had lost all of his confidence and was merely looking for a way to die in peace. He was done, a broken man. He had paid the price for his tremendous shortcomings and now he wanted to be left alone. That is how the first book starts–he’s just about at the end.

What we get to see is how he re-builds his life from one strange circumstance to another. He starts to become a whole person again–still with an impressive list of faults; but we care about the man and we want him to experience happiness.

Just finished Fiction No More the third Vincent Malone book. Not to give anything away but at the end of this book Vincent does something that is generous, kind and selfless; all qualities he had lost. It is odd as the author to be proud of one of your characters because they are becoming a better human being–but I’m proud of Vincent.

Murder So Final now available on Amazon

Murder So Final, the last book of the Muckraker Trilogy is now available on Amazon. Special limited time pricing $2.99.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07M8Y6SR2

Tommy Jacks, a political reporter covering the 1972 Oklahoma U.S. Senate race, finds new love and old threats. The campaign reaches new lows as a violent world mixes with vicious political rhetoric. Tommy says, “there’s just too much hatred in the world right now,” but he hasn’t seen anything yet. It’s a three-man race—an oil baron, a college professor and a preacher. And it’s going to get ugly.

Books 1 and 2 are also priced at $2.99 for a limited time.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076VV23TN/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B6CPYFD

Free Signed Paperback Books and More ……..

New. Signed paperback edition giveaway. Enter contest to win a signed book of your choosing from my paperback editions. Go to the web site to enter. Will be giving away two books a month to readers who have entered. Winners will be selected at random. Nothing to buy just sign up and have a chance to win a signed paperback book.

This giveaway has just been running a few days–so far the two favorite books are:

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Latest draft of cover for Murder So Final.

Release date will be soon. Once cover is approved should be days after that.

Marketing Blurb.
Tommy Jacks, experiencing success as a newspaper columnist, finds new love and old threats while covering the most brutal, ugly U.S. Senate race ever. The 1972 campaign in Oklahoma is between a ruthless oil baron, an idealist college professor and a reverend running under the God Party, set against the backdrop of a massive oil tank-farm inferno that threatens a major city. As Tommy puts it, “Electing lousy politicians is an American right—not one spelled out in the Bill of Rights, but a right, nonetheless. You just hope that the bad ones don’t outnumber the good ones, and the damage isn’t drastic.” But politics as usual suddenly turns deadly. The winner may be the last man standing.

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Vincent Malone #4 is in the works; Durango Two Step.

This book opens with an amazingly violent accident which follows a cold-blooded killing at a truck stop diner. The truck driver causing all of this mayhem was hauling, illegally no doubt, a load of toxic something; and he was now dead. Soon Malone is in the middle of this stinky mess.

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Been having some discussions about readers expectations regarding characters in a series. There seems to be good evidence that readers prefer a character to remain the same even though the series may cover an extensive number of years. I have trouble with that as a writer. I want my characters to grow, expand their experiences, find new loves—experience life. I can see the benefit of staying the same for readers wanting to not deal with a character becoming someone else. They liked the character in the first book and that is who they want to meet in the fifth book. But it seems stale to me as a writer. Vincent Malone was a broken man at the end of his rope; obviously he could not stay that way or no one would want to read about him and his associates. But should he find a new love or get married? Maybe there are limits to how much change readers find acceptable? What do you think?

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I’ve written a couple of pieces about my favorite books and the ones that influenced me the most. Not on either one of those lists were a couple of items worth mentioning.

I’m not going to do a list of books I hated; instead, I will just forget them. If I did such a list, on it would be Atlas Shrugged. Actually any book by Ayn Rand. I know this moves into the political world and I don’t want to go there, but these books were just bad, I thought. I read Atlas Shrugged a very long time ago, and then re-read it in the last ten years or so. Maybe I was in high school or college when I first read this book; but I thought it was horrible. After a second reading I still do. At the time I thought it was a divisive book. Laying out class distinctions while claiming some moral high ground for achievers. Achievers mostly being defined as successful business people. But my biggest complaint about these books—they were silly. Even at my young age I could see that the characters were cardboard people with superficial emotions. Ayn Rand, who apparently believed selfishness to be the most desired human trait, left me cold. Like I said I’m not doing a bad book list, it’s too depressing, but Atlas Shrugged would be on top.

On the “influenced me the most” list I was remiss in not adding “Classics Illustrated” –all of them. Of course I didn’t read all of them, but I did read a lot. I loved those comic books. My favorite was The Three Musketeers. I would read them over and over. This was in the 1950s and those books meant a lot to me. Although I think technically they mostly belonged to my big brother, he seldom read them. During the last years of my parent’s lives those books were for some reason given away or discarded—besides the fact that they might have been valuable (probably not)– I really miss those wonderful comic books. My love of reading may have been born with Classics Illustrated.

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The Beginning

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My first “real” book The Bootlegger’s Legacy was a story of desperation. The two main characters were both desperate, one financially and the other emotionally. Mike Allen and Joe Meadows had been friends since grade school and now in middle age they both were just surviving, waiting on something to happen; their futures did not look bright. Mike had inherited a business from his mysterious father and was experiencing failure; Joe was his CPA and had no idea how to help his friend survive his current financial cesspool.

Some characters in my books are based on people I have known or maybe a combination of people, sort of mashed together. In many ways Joe Meadows could have been based on me; we shared a list of faults and an occupation. But he is not me. In order to make the character fit the story Joe had to have a real messed up life; that was not my life, but I saw a lot of people who fit Joe’s pattern. Joe had no real ambitions left; he had reached a level of success and stopped. Now, he just wanted to get by, in many ways he had already given up on life; at a very early age. Joe was at an emotional crossroads when he decided to help his friend with his money woes.

Mike Allen had been dominated by his bootlegger father, a much larger than life character who had dramatic influence on many people; good and bad influence. His bootlegger dad had retired and purchased a hardware store to ease into old age with something to do. After a few years most people just thought of him as the old man who ran the ancient hardware store, not the gangster fighting, mistress loving bootlegger of old. After his father’s death Mike began running the store. He hated his very existence but had no real ambition to do anything else. With a new Home Depot opening down the street he was now facing financial doom.

This is the core of the Bootlegger’s Legacy story. Brainstorming with Joe how Mike might raise enough money to keep his business alive; Mike recalls his dad’s strange letter talking about hidden millions, at the time he thought it was old age madness. But now with nothing to lose the two friends begin a journey to find the lost treasure and in the process they both found a new beginning.

An element of the Bootlegger’s Legacy that pleased me the most was the backstory about Mike’s dad, the bootlegger, Pat Allen. This part of the book takes place in the 1950s in dry Oklahoma. Prohibition had ended for most of the country but not completely in Oklahoma; bootleggers were still doing business in the Bible belt during the Eisenhower administration. Everything in The Bootlegger’s Legacy begins with the story of Pat Allen and his mistress, Sally; it lays the groundwork for what happens later.

The Bootlegger’s Legacy was published in 2015, since then I have written eight other books, two to be published soon; but I still believe this is my favorite. The story about Sally is a powerful tale about forgotten people who struggle to just make it in life; but who leave a great impact on so many. While only a small part of the book, the story of Sally had great impact on me as I wrote it. As stated in a 2015 Kirkus review—

“After several misadventures, the duo begin to piece together Mike’s father’s wild history, which includes a heart-rending story involving his lover, Sally Thompson. Although the mystery elements in this novel are certainly engaging enough to keep readers turning pages, it’s Clifton’s superb character development that makes this story a transformative journey of self-discovery. The cast of characters is so fully realized that even secondary players, such as Samantha, Mike’s manipulative wife, and Ray Pacheco, a Las Cruces sheriff, are memorable. In fact, Sally’s tragic tale steals the show.”

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Free download of my short story “A Christmas Tradition” is still available on the web site www.tedclifton.com.

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The Bootlegger’s Legacy was the beginning of the Pacheco and Chino series. Ray Pacheco was the sheriff of Dona Ana County and had encounters with Joe Meadows and Mike Allen. In Dog Gone Lies Ray has retired to a lake cabin near Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico where he finds a stray show dog which leads to a new beginning for him after he thought he was done.

Tommy Jacks and Taylor Albright; Student and Mentor

The above is a marketing blurb for Murder So Final the third and last book of the Muckraker series. Tommy Jacks is the protagonist in all three of these books and a favorite character of mine. Tommy is young, enthusiastic, smart and often wrong about things he has not experienced, yet. He is smart enough to seek advice from his elders, including his father; but most importantly a man named Taylor Albright. Albright had been one of the original people who had started the paper where Tommy is working, Albright made a serious mistake and had to leave the paper; he became bitter, but he still knows a lot.

The interaction of Tommy and Albright in all three books provides a lot for the reader to decipher. Albright has become Tommy’s mentor but that is not the role Albright wants in life; he’s still looking for the home-run, the big story; the scoop. He is worried about his legacy not Tommy’s. They both live and breathe the political world and the often strange and ruthless inhabitants.

The inspiration for these three books is drawn from real experiences I and my co-author, Stanley Nelson, had in the 60s and 70s in Oklahoma, related to the ultra-competitive newspaper market at the time.

Taylor Albright is based on someone I knew. Most of the mannerisms of Albright and his lust for scoops and love of politics came directly from that person. He was writing a political column for the Oklahoma Journal when I met him.

It was a strange encounter at a Denney’s where he was encamped with several of his unusual hangers-on. One of the group I happened to know and I was invited to join their table. That was my first opportunity to come into contact with my Taylor Albright. He was the most brash and opinionated New Yorker I had ever met. He had the aura of a prophet even though he was disheveled—did not know how to drive a car and carried a bag of old newspapers everywhere he went. I could not decide if he was a genius or an idiot; but I knew he was unique. I soon dropped into Denney’s on a regular basis to listen to his narrative; often about the events of the day, or maybe some good amount of local gossip regarding the political elites and, of course, his strange wisdom about most things that didn’t have anything to do with day-to-day life–the more obscure the better.

This was the 1970s with lots of promise in the air for a country experiencing some bad things but also enjoying great economic growth. The future looked bright. My Albright was not so optimistic. He said in the future the free press would be dead, bought without objection by corporations; and once the press no longer worked for the people, democracy would be over. Politicians and corporations would join forces and control every aspect of our lives. Workers would become slaves to their bosses. At the time I thought it was more of his usual hyperbole; but now over forty years later, maybe my Albright was right.

My Albright was fired from his job at the paper. He was vague about why, but I learned from others it had to do with a powerful politician accusing him of lying. Apparently, My Albright had run a gossipy piece suggesting the leader was having financial trouble and as a result his mistress was moving to a cheaper apartment. Nobody knew how that bit of news got by the editors. My Albright backed up his story with statements from others and documentation about the apartment move; but he was fired. The paper was already in financial difficulty and could not afford any kind of lawsuit.

He approached me and asked if I would help him put out a free “paper” focused on politics. The reason he would do that is that I owned a printing company. Not real sure why, but for whatever reason, I said yes. For months he drove my employees mad. His unique, odd personality could be kind of amusing if listening to his musings at Denney’s but he was a demanding, self-center monster at work. He put out several papers, which were increasingly aggressive in their content. After a while I had to tell him I could not subsidize his venture any longer. It was not so much the actual out-of-pocket costs; it was the fact that he was on the verge of running off every employee. We parted friends. He soon disappeared and I never heard from him again.

He had left me a copy of an article he had written for the next edition of his rag. It was about truth. His focus was politics, of course, and he was thinking about a future where truth was lost. He said we could withstand most things; such as corruption, even lying—but as a society we could not survive if we lost the ability to identify truth. We needed to maintain core beliefs that everyone, democrat or republican or independent knew to be true. We would also need a free press to help us sort out the facts and find truth. If that was ever gone, we were done. My Albright was a man of vision; and also something of a con-man.

Update

Waiting on the exact publishing date for Murder So Final, but hopefully in the next ten days.

The blog has a new layout. Hope you like it.

Fewer Readers Reading Less

I grew up in an household where reading was honored. This was mostly based on my father’s love of books. There wasn’t a lot of family discussion about books, but it was obvious they were important. My father’s bookcase was held in high regard and given a prime location in the living space. Both of my parents grew up in households that did not have a lot of possessions. Books would have been a luxury. My father in particular was raised in very humble conditions. As his own new family became more prosperous in post WWII America he purchased books and they became his treasures, a luxury he had never experienced as a child. Coming from this background reading became a habit and a source of great pleasure for me. Reading books was something I just did, it was natural.

Taking an unscientific survey during Thanksgiving, it is apparent people are reading less and in many cases not at all. I have read the stories about the decline in hours spent reading books and knew this was happening; but it is still kind of shocking to talk to relatives and realize the new normal is to not read; at all. Not one book in years or maybe decades, I can’t imagine not reading. Of course, I write books so I have lots of reasons to be shocked at this trend.

And it is a trend. The decline in reading has been going on for a couple of decades. Lots of factors but the most likely culprit is TV. You would think the number of hours spent watching TV would have peeked somewhere in the past and leveled off, nope. It is increasing. People are watching more and more television. Some of this, I’m sure, is due to the increased options being offered, streaming services and vast numbers of channels on cable. With the average hours of daily TV watching increasing substantially in the last ten years; there is no time to read.

Reading, TV watching, smoking are all habits. Once you stop some activity the habit goes away and usually something else fills that need. TV apparently has filled the entertainment, information need of books. Many people will think so what, entertainment and information from TV is just as good as books. Maybe so; but most experts (whoever they are), say it is not the same.

In a article for The New Yorker, Caleb Crain observes: “In a culture of secondary orality, we may be less likely to spend time with ideas we disagree with,” (He) wrote. “I suspected that people might become less inclined to do fact checking on their own; “forced to choose between conflicting stories,” they would “fall back on hunches.” Note–“secondary orality”—(is) a sociological term for a post-literate culture.

A post-literate culture–doesn’t that sound alarming? To me it does. Our brains function in certain ways and it matters how we get our information. Reading seems to reinforce many good qualities about “thinking” that do not seem to transfer to such things as television watching.

I don’t have any answers to this trend of fewer readers reading less; but I do find it disturbing. And not because of book sales. I think it makes us less capable of deeper more complex thoughts. I believe we lose the ability to digest nuances in all sorts of matters, from basic living circumstances, to politics to personal relationships. I also believe we become more susceptible to misinformation; especially well-crafted propaganda.

Or maybe it is more simple than brain functions declining; it is that the love of books is disappearing. It makes me sad.

On a happier note—–

Free download of one of my short stories “A Christmas Tradition” is available on my web site www.tedclifton.com.

Thanks for reading!

Books That Mattered To Me

Tweeted a list of 40 books you should read before you die made up by some book critics for a British web mag. Thought they were interesting with some odd choices. Made me rethink my list of books that mattered to me.

Started to wonder what books had influenced me the most. This is different then the best books. These are books that had an impact on me for one reason or another. Some of this list is authors rather than any one book.

Lord of the Flies—William Golding. I found this book to be very disturbing. The world of stranded children was fascinating and troubling in its assumptions. It has stayed with me for a long time.

Catch-22—Joseph Heller. One of the most powerful and funny books I have ever read. How the humor was mixed with war horror was an amazing job of writing. This is the only book this author wrote and it’s one of the best. Went to the movie, was offended and left early, this was a story that could only be told as a book inside someone’s head.

Dune—Frank Herbert. I have read a lot of sci-fi while growing up and tended to enjoy most of it. This was a classic from the moment I read the book. Capturing the texture of an entirely different place with such depth was great writing and a offered a splendid experience for the reader.

The Great Gatsby—F. Scott Fitzgerald. Rich people partying, how can that make a great book; well it did. Amazing characters both good and bad. I thought it was a very sad book. Usually that’s not what I want to read but this book provided a greater depth to the sadness and had real impact.

Lord of the Rings/Hobbit—J.R.R. Tolkien. The great adventure book. This series of books absorbed me for hours. One of many writers who has taken me to a new world to explore good versus evil in unique and insightful ways; but this is the best.

Raymond Chandler. I loved his books. Great influence regarding my series Vincent Malone. Thank you Mister Chandler. The Big Sleep was my favorite.

Robert B. Parker. This is not great literature, thank god. Enjoyed every one of these even when they became obviously just another short story sold as a book to make money. Spenser is a great character along with his pal Hawk.

Great Expectations—Charles Dickens. Dickens was a great writer of popular fiction; which is to say he told stores people liked. This one stuck with me in its unusual analysis of some of our more human flaws. Another sad book to me; and I keep saying I don’t like sad books.

The Catcher in the Rye—J.D. Salinger. Never was real sure if this was a great book or just a popular book; maybe that is not important. The book felt important to me when I read it and definitely provided a lot of adolescent deep thought.

One more thought. I read all of the Ayn Rand books back in the day. I know these books have some lingering importance in our political world but these were some of the worst books I have ever read. They were not only bad but very, very long. What a waste of time. I read them because they were “important”, they were not.

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Updates.

Murder So Final, the last book in the Muckraker series is in it’s final review stages. Anticipating an e-book release date in December. If you have not read the first two books you should check them out. Murder So Wrong is the first book in the series.

Fiction No More, the third Vincent Malone book is in the editing stage. Release date for this book looks like February 2019. Good time to catch up with Vincent in the second book; Blue Flower Red Thorns.

Reading For Pleasure

As an author I’m obviously very interested in the trend where people say they can no longer read for pleasure because they can’t maintain concentration. Great article in The Guardian that discusses this and relates it to our use of social media and our always on communication tools, which seems to teach us to scan but not to concentrate for very long on what we are reading.

Here was a key paragraph about reading for pleasure:

“One thing that many people who feel they have lost the ability to concentrate mention is that reading a book for pleasure no longer works for them. We have got so used to skim reading for fast access to information that the demand of a more sophisticated vocabulary, a complex plot structure or a novel’s length can be difficult to engage with. Like anything, single-minded attention may need relearning in order to enjoy reading for pleasure again, but close reading in itself can be a route to better concentration. To help that, read from an actual book, not a screen: screens are too reminiscent of skim reading and just turning pages will slow your pace. Read for long enough to engage your interest, at least 30 minutes: engagement in content takes time, but will help you read for longer.”

I know there will always be people who read for pleasure and who love books; but those numbers are decreasing. The ability to concentrate, of course, is more critical than just reading books for pleasure. This article mentions interruptions and distractions leading to a drop in IQ.

“In 2005, research carried out by Dr Glenn Wilson at London’s Institute of Psychiatry found that persistent interruptions and distractions at work had a profound effect. Those distracted by emails and phone calls saw a 10-point fall in their IQ, twice that found in studies on the impact of smoking marijuana.”

Dumber and no ability to concentrate on complex matters; wonder what that will lead to?

The final book of the Muckraker series Murder So Final will be available soon–most likely in November. Still a few editing steps, but it’s close. In light of the above article I started thinking about these books. You talk about a challenge, the Murder books maybe an example of a good story that some might find too complex. Not by design but because of the time frame of the books and the true nature of the story there are lots of characters. So many that some may find it hard to keep it all sorted out.

I’m in the process of putting together a character list with some brief info on each character–there really are lots of them. That’s not to say the story is confusing, just detailed. I think these books tell a fast moving story with lots of twists and turns, along with humor and irony; but of course I helped write them. This character list will be included in the “back of the book’ section in Murder So Final.

You should check these books out- I think they are worth the effort.

https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Wrong-Muckraker-Mysteries-Book-ebook/dp/B076VV23TN

Audiobooks

AUDIOBOOK IN THE WORKS!

The preliminary work for an audiobook of Santa Fe Mojo has started. This is new to me so each step has an exciting but cautious feel. When you write a book, or for that matter when you read it–there is a voice in your head telling the story. This is of course very customize-able. As the reader you get to hear the voice you want–it fits your impression of the written words describing the characters and the scene. I guess to me that is the way it should be–you hear the story in the voice that makes sense to you. I think that is why reading books is more immersive than say watching a movie or TV. You help construct a key element of the book in your head–the voice.

Today the market for audiobooks is reaching the same levels as e-books and the audiobook market is projected to grow substantially larger than written books. Of course some readers will always prefer to “read” rather than “listen”. But as an indie author I can’t ignore this growing market. So soon my first audiobook will be available.

The process involves selecting a narrator. And yes, for sure, I’m not doing the narration. It might take years for me to get a clean reading of one of my books; and then it most likely would be bad. So the fist step in this process is to hire someone who knows what they are doing and who sounds “right”. Sounds right is of course very subjective. So this may take awhile. My guess at this point, this is probably a three month project to have a completed audiobook, but since I’m new at this there could be delays I can’t see right now. I will keep you informed. I would appreciate any thoughts you have about audiobooks in general or specific things you have liked or disliked. Thanks.

UPCOMING BLOG TOUR

Those very words may not mean much–but think about a book tour of book stores only on-line with bloggers who write about books. The tour will last one week and involve 7 blogs with interviews, reviews of the book and more. I will be giving interviews discussing my books, writing process and future plans–but never leave home. (easy way to tour).

LIBRARIES

Next time your in your local library you might request a paperback copy of one of my books. Libraries quite often honor these requests (there are easy ways for them to order one or a few books) and it would give you a chance to read the paperback version if you have not. An actual book has a different feel to me than reading the e-book–plus it helps me sell some more books. Crass commercialization. Okay, sorry.