About the Books & their Art Direction
A View from the Bottom
The title of this book was in part inspired by an old Garth Brooks favorite, "Friends in Low Places". (Which for non-native English speakers I'll say is a take off the threatening saying, "I have friends in high places", meaning rich and powerful, well-connected friends. And we have expressions about "a view from the top", like the view from a top executive's office.) Here my characters are generally poor, working class people and I want to tell their stories from their own perspectives since the working class are generally written about as objects of either derision or pity rather than human beings with their (our) own voices. I experimented with other titles during my undergrad years that were far less diplomatic (e.g. angry about social class injustice) but as I came to spend more time around people from financially wealthy backgrounds I began to have more sympathy for issues in their lives as I came to know them as people rather than as abstract objects of reverse-classist derision.
I had a great many story ideas and characters rattling around in my brain, from Oregon, California, Minnesota, and Ireland, and this was a great opportunity to give them a new home to live in so I could have my brain back, so to speak. I also included a few stories from my parents that they used to tell all of their kids over the years since they both had artistic aspirations that for various reasons, most of them to do with having to actually make money or with raising kids, went unfulfilled in their lives. Two particular favorites of mine are the one my dad told me about the black guy from Chicago that he met while doing his mandatory military service and how this man proved to be smarter than everyone around him, escaping racists that wanted to beat him up and take his money, and the one my parents told us about the time they were alone with us in the old family cabin they were building in the woods near Mount Hood when they heard two strange men coming out in the dead of night. I also used it as a new home for two characters that had previously had their own books but that weren't selling well: Bridget (The Self-Made Woman) and Adrian (The Price of Peace). I think it's always that way with artists; Craig Ferguson has talked about that one joke every comedian has that they love but no one else does. My friend and colleague Carol Azams has talked about her book Teen Mums R Us that she really thought would be popular but wasn't. I still wanted to share these characters and their stories.
This was also an exercise in me trying to see how many different ways I could write; from novelette to micro fiction, horror to science fiction to erotica. You know when you're still really passionate about your art because you want to try everything, at least once! (And it's interesting if you read the sex scenes in Live Boldly then read them from A View because I wrote Darian's story when my father was still alive and I knew he would read the book but I finished the short story collection after he'd moved on (from this world) so I think the sex scenes flowed better and felt less awkward (at least they felt less awkward to write!)) This was not the first manifestation of my collection of short stories, but it was the last.
For the photo art direction I chose a sort of lowly view looking up at a 13th Century castle that now has security cameras set around it. You really feel like an unprivileged outsider looking at that view. The author photo is me learning more "professional" rock climbing and proper words like "belay". When I was a teenager I used to climb up a real cliffside rock wall near where my family and I lived, sometimes on a daily basis, but without any gear. In this photo I was having a great time climbing with ropes. It is of course a metaphor for being a social climber.
(US: Amazon, (and paperback), UK/Eur: Amazon, (and paperback), AUS/NZ: Amazon (e-book only), CAN: Amazon, (and paperback), India: Amazon, (and paperback), and elsewhere.)
The title of this book was in part inspired by an old Garth Brooks favorite, "Friends in Low Places". (Which for non-native English speakers I'll say is a take off the threatening saying, "I have friends in high places", meaning rich and powerful, well-connected friends. And we have expressions about "a view from the top", like the view from a top executive's office.) Here my characters are generally poor, working class people and I want to tell their stories from their own perspectives since the working class are generally written about as objects of either derision or pity rather than human beings with their (our) own voices. I experimented with other titles during my undergrad years that were far less diplomatic (e.g. angry about social class injustice) but as I came to spend more time around people from financially wealthy backgrounds I began to have more sympathy for issues in their lives as I came to know them as people rather than as abstract objects of reverse-classist derision.
I had a great many story ideas and characters rattling around in my brain, from Oregon, California, Minnesota, and Ireland, and this was a great opportunity to give them a new home to live in so I could have my brain back, so to speak. I also included a few stories from my parents that they used to tell all of their kids over the years since they both had artistic aspirations that for various reasons, most of them to do with having to actually make money or with raising kids, went unfulfilled in their lives. Two particular favorites of mine are the one my dad told me about the black guy from Chicago that he met while doing his mandatory military service and how this man proved to be smarter than everyone around him, escaping racists that wanted to beat him up and take his money, and the one my parents told us about the time they were alone with us in the old family cabin they were building in the woods near Mount Hood when they heard two strange men coming out in the dead of night. I also used it as a new home for two characters that had previously had their own books but that weren't selling well: Bridget (The Self-Made Woman) and Adrian (The Price of Peace). I think it's always that way with artists; Craig Ferguson has talked about that one joke every comedian has that they love but no one else does. My friend and colleague Carol Azams has talked about her book Teen Mums R Us that she really thought would be popular but wasn't. I still wanted to share these characters and their stories.
This was also an exercise in me trying to see how many different ways I could write; from novelette to micro fiction, horror to science fiction to erotica. You know when you're still really passionate about your art because you want to try everything, at least once! (And it's interesting if you read the sex scenes in Live Boldly then read them from A View because I wrote Darian's story when my father was still alive and I knew he would read the book but I finished the short story collection after he'd moved on (from this world) so I think the sex scenes flowed better and felt less awkward (at least they felt less awkward to write!)) This was not the first manifestation of my collection of short stories, but it was the last.
For the photo art direction I chose a sort of lowly view looking up at a 13th Century castle that now has security cameras set around it. You really feel like an unprivileged outsider looking at that view. The author photo is me learning more "professional" rock climbing and proper words like "belay". When I was a teenager I used to climb up a real cliffside rock wall near where my family and I lived, sometimes on a daily basis, but without any gear. In this photo I was having a great time climbing with ropes. It is of course a metaphor for being a social climber.
(US: Amazon, (and paperback), UK/Eur: Amazon, (and paperback), AUS/NZ: Amazon (e-book only), CAN: Amazon, (and paperback), India: Amazon, (and paperback), and elsewhere.)
Live Boldly, Fear Nothing
Darian leads this story about how violence begets violence in our society. He is a character that walked into my head when I was 12 and he stayed there--literally! The first picture I had of him in my mind's eye was him walking in from the side smiling/smirking, and me not yet knowing who he was or what I was going to do with him. I paid attention to him on and off for 13 years, sometimes feeling like I wished he'd chosen someone else's head to walk into, someone with the talent to write his story, but finally I was able to tell his story. I wrote a few different versions of his story over the years, then wrote the first draft of this novel in three weeks, but it would take several more edits for it to be finished.
The first draft/version of this novel was called The Scenery of North America because the character is a fantasy scenery painter but becomes a vigilante for both reasons of morality and reasons of growing insanity and moral ambiguity--the "scenery" of North American culture and society these days, I think especially in the US and Mexico. And he does travel to all three North American countries in the story. In the final version he also goes to Europe for a while so I obviously had to change the title. I played with the title, Live Boldly, Regret Nothing, and I generally don't think one should waste time with regret but should instead learn from experiences, good and bad, and from mistakes (which is always what my dad said, emphasizing after his Catholic upbringing that guilt is something you should never feel since that just means someone is trying to shame and control you; he emphasized learning from mistakes instead). But given the somewhat murderous nature of the story I didn't want to risk sending out a message that might suggest that if you really hurt others you shouldn't care. So I decided it would be better to have a title that simply says not to have fear. (Even my mom used to say about things like child abductors, "Don't be afraid, be aware." She said not to live in fear because fear would paralyze you and it's much better to be proactive, to see dangers coming by keeping a look out for them and be smart enough to avoid them.)
It is a rare story of mine led by an upper class, very wealthy character. But with two dead parents and a crushing sense of obligation to live up to the family reputation and live a life that would make his parents proud of him, this story shows some of the benefits of financial wealth while simultaneously proving that it cannot buy you happiness. Inheriting a million dollar house, a classic car, and a full time maid doesn't bring Darian happiness.
For the photo art direction I chose to emphasize both the dark, disturbing and the freeing nature of the story. The cover photo was taken while flying into a city just before dawn. The author photo is one my father took of me after we took a boat ride, which was a gift from a friend. (After our friend read 8 Days a Week as one of my "test readers"--since I couldn't afford an editor--he was inspired to repair his post-divorce relationship with his daughter.) The friend enjoyed kicking back so I did most of the driving, much to my delight. I preferred to use a photo that emphasized how I live and where my writing comes from--real experiences, going out and living life, rather than using a typical boring photo of an author sitting in a room, possibly with books in the background. Admittedly the pixel quality isn't the best in either photo but for my art and I that isn't the point. They're not the "best" photos but they are the correct photos, especially as one involves my dad and since my parents both wanted to write and pursue artistic projects more but didn't get to, I often tried to include them in my projects in little ways.
(US: Amazon, (and paperback), UK/Eur: Amazon, (and paperback), CAN: Amazon, (and paperback),
AUS/NZ: Amazon (e-book only), India: Amazon, (and paperback), and elsewhere.)
Darian leads this story about how violence begets violence in our society. He is a character that walked into my head when I was 12 and he stayed there--literally! The first picture I had of him in my mind's eye was him walking in from the side smiling/smirking, and me not yet knowing who he was or what I was going to do with him. I paid attention to him on and off for 13 years, sometimes feeling like I wished he'd chosen someone else's head to walk into, someone with the talent to write his story, but finally I was able to tell his story. I wrote a few different versions of his story over the years, then wrote the first draft of this novel in three weeks, but it would take several more edits for it to be finished.
The first draft/version of this novel was called The Scenery of North America because the character is a fantasy scenery painter but becomes a vigilante for both reasons of morality and reasons of growing insanity and moral ambiguity--the "scenery" of North American culture and society these days, I think especially in the US and Mexico. And he does travel to all three North American countries in the story. In the final version he also goes to Europe for a while so I obviously had to change the title. I played with the title, Live Boldly, Regret Nothing, and I generally don't think one should waste time with regret but should instead learn from experiences, good and bad, and from mistakes (which is always what my dad said, emphasizing after his Catholic upbringing that guilt is something you should never feel since that just means someone is trying to shame and control you; he emphasized learning from mistakes instead). But given the somewhat murderous nature of the story I didn't want to risk sending out a message that might suggest that if you really hurt others you shouldn't care. So I decided it would be better to have a title that simply says not to have fear. (Even my mom used to say about things like child abductors, "Don't be afraid, be aware." She said not to live in fear because fear would paralyze you and it's much better to be proactive, to see dangers coming by keeping a look out for them and be smart enough to avoid them.)
It is a rare story of mine led by an upper class, very wealthy character. But with two dead parents and a crushing sense of obligation to live up to the family reputation and live a life that would make his parents proud of him, this story shows some of the benefits of financial wealth while simultaneously proving that it cannot buy you happiness. Inheriting a million dollar house, a classic car, and a full time maid doesn't bring Darian happiness.
For the photo art direction I chose to emphasize both the dark, disturbing and the freeing nature of the story. The cover photo was taken while flying into a city just before dawn. The author photo is one my father took of me after we took a boat ride, which was a gift from a friend. (After our friend read 8 Days a Week as one of my "test readers"--since I couldn't afford an editor--he was inspired to repair his post-divorce relationship with his daughter.) The friend enjoyed kicking back so I did most of the driving, much to my delight. I preferred to use a photo that emphasized how I live and where my writing comes from--real experiences, going out and living life, rather than using a typical boring photo of an author sitting in a room, possibly with books in the background. Admittedly the pixel quality isn't the best in either photo but for my art and I that isn't the point. They're not the "best" photos but they are the correct photos, especially as one involves my dad and since my parents both wanted to write and pursue artistic projects more but didn't get to, I often tried to include them in my projects in little ways.
(US: Amazon, (and paperback), UK/Eur: Amazon, (and paperback), CAN: Amazon, (and paperback),
AUS/NZ: Amazon (e-book only), India: Amazon, (and paperback), and elsewhere.)
8 Days a Week
There are many historical accounts of the lives of the "great men" of history but what about the everyday "work men" that I came to know from working in my father's landscaping and handyman business? Their stories may be great and untold; stories of hardship, disappointment, and ultimately an incredible drive to provide for one's family at great personal sacrifice to self. Despite the male privilege of our society, especially for whites, this does not guarantee good lives for men. And physical dominance (generally speaking) does not mean that men are never abused, never emotionally manipulated or taken advantage of by women. Further, it is an often untold truth what social and emotional terrorists women can be to girls and to other women and the irrevocable destruction this can wreak on individuals and families.
This novel is the convergence of social issues and family drama exploding on the page. This story lived in my head for a few years, gestating, then I wrote it out by hand, to over 72,000 words, in under three weeks at 25. This was before I'd had any education (I was home-schooled and had to teach myself to read). It was always very important to me to write, edit, and self-publish it before I had any education to prove a very strong point about the value of people from a working class background; of all people from all walks of life. Unfortunately I never had any money for a marketing budget so it was nearly impossible to drive any sales.
For the photo art direction I chose to emphasize the working class nature of the characters' lives; there are two cover photos. One shows protagonist Sean Flangan's work life: tools in grass and a general dead-end feel. (And my trustee electric blue/silver Oregon Leatherman Juice multi-tool makes a cameo.) The other is a woods in Oregon, the setting of much of the story. It's a very beautiful place but can also feel very confining and isolating. The author photo is a humorous picture my father took of me at work after we'd "culled" some blackberry vines; I'm holding a rifle as if it's a trophy I've shot. Just a joke for two people who never hunted animals (he did teach me how to shoot though; it was a great bonding moment between us).
(US: Amazon, UK/Eur: Amazon, CAN: Amazon, AUS/NZ: Amazon (e-book only), India: Amazon, and elsewhere.)
There are many historical accounts of the lives of the "great men" of history but what about the everyday "work men" that I came to know from working in my father's landscaping and handyman business? Their stories may be great and untold; stories of hardship, disappointment, and ultimately an incredible drive to provide for one's family at great personal sacrifice to self. Despite the male privilege of our society, especially for whites, this does not guarantee good lives for men. And physical dominance (generally speaking) does not mean that men are never abused, never emotionally manipulated or taken advantage of by women. Further, it is an often untold truth what social and emotional terrorists women can be to girls and to other women and the irrevocable destruction this can wreak on individuals and families.
This novel is the convergence of social issues and family drama exploding on the page. This story lived in my head for a few years, gestating, then I wrote it out by hand, to over 72,000 words, in under three weeks at 25. This was before I'd had any education (I was home-schooled and had to teach myself to read). It was always very important to me to write, edit, and self-publish it before I had any education to prove a very strong point about the value of people from a working class background; of all people from all walks of life. Unfortunately I never had any money for a marketing budget so it was nearly impossible to drive any sales.
For the photo art direction I chose to emphasize the working class nature of the characters' lives; there are two cover photos. One shows protagonist Sean Flangan's work life: tools in grass and a general dead-end feel. (And my trustee electric blue/silver Oregon Leatherman Juice multi-tool makes a cameo.) The other is a woods in Oregon, the setting of much of the story. It's a very beautiful place but can also feel very confining and isolating. The author photo is a humorous picture my father took of me at work after we'd "culled" some blackberry vines; I'm holding a rifle as if it's a trophy I've shot. Just a joke for two people who never hunted animals (he did teach me how to shoot though; it was a great bonding moment between us).
(US: Amazon, UK/Eur: Amazon, CAN: Amazon, AUS/NZ: Amazon (e-book only), India: Amazon, and elsewhere.)
The Irish-American Experience
In continuing with my ongoing, underlying project to show the often overlooked and wasted human potential in the working classes I decided to turn all my college-era research papers into a collection showing a proletariat's view on things academic. Generally people from the working class who go on to earn higher degrees (I've an MBA now) try to hide their roots and blend in. I do not. I'm certainly not the same as I was seven years ago, before I'd ever attended university, but I haven't changed into another person either. And I have nothing to hide or be ashamed of because I came from a salt-of-the-earth, work-a-day family. Further, I wanted to publish this book to further impress some of the youngest members of my family, who are growing up very poor and socially disadvantaged, to believe that we really can do anything we set ourselves to. The title of the book is simply because I am from US America and was studying in Ireland, and because I'm part Irish by blood.
For the photo art direction I chose a view of modern Dublin City from a rooftop in the city centre. Not the pastoral image of Ireland that still lingers in the minds of the Irish diaspora abroad. Much of Ireland is still pastoral, especially on the west side, but Dublin is a very modern city. In fact, the Grand Canal Docks area in Dublin 2 has become a kind of European Silicon Valley. The author photo is of course of me in Oscar Wilde's childhood home which is the cultural centre of my alma mater, American College Dublin. (If you looked at all my author photos you'd think I was there all the time. I'm actually not, though the free Wi-Fi has been useful at times (I mean, free for me because I still have the password.) And I love the people.)
(US: Amazon, UK/Eur: Amazon, CAN: Amazon, AUS/NZ: Amazon (e-book only), India: Amazon, and elsewhere.)
In continuing with my ongoing, underlying project to show the often overlooked and wasted human potential in the working classes I decided to turn all my college-era research papers into a collection showing a proletariat's view on things academic. Generally people from the working class who go on to earn higher degrees (I've an MBA now) try to hide their roots and blend in. I do not. I'm certainly not the same as I was seven years ago, before I'd ever attended university, but I haven't changed into another person either. And I have nothing to hide or be ashamed of because I came from a salt-of-the-earth, work-a-day family. Further, I wanted to publish this book to further impress some of the youngest members of my family, who are growing up very poor and socially disadvantaged, to believe that we really can do anything we set ourselves to. The title of the book is simply because I am from US America and was studying in Ireland, and because I'm part Irish by blood.
For the photo art direction I chose a view of modern Dublin City from a rooftop in the city centre. Not the pastoral image of Ireland that still lingers in the minds of the Irish diaspora abroad. Much of Ireland is still pastoral, especially on the west side, but Dublin is a very modern city. In fact, the Grand Canal Docks area in Dublin 2 has become a kind of European Silicon Valley. The author photo is of course of me in Oscar Wilde's childhood home which is the cultural centre of my alma mater, American College Dublin. (If you looked at all my author photos you'd think I was there all the time. I'm actually not, though the free Wi-Fi has been useful at times (I mean, free for me because I still have the password.) And I love the people.)
(US: Amazon, UK/Eur: Amazon, CAN: Amazon, AUS/NZ: Amazon (e-book only), India: Amazon, and elsewhere.)
Disarm
Poems either make themselves clear or they don't and if they don't that's often the artist's intention. Why you write them is because you write.
Throughout my life I usually preferred to write poems because I like how simple and to the point they are. I usually don't like "abstract poems"; I think an artist's job is to communicate, so I do. I actually have something to say, I don't just have too much time on my hands (and want to waste yours).
In my teen years I wrote songs as well. I used to live in L.A. and entertained the idea of writing songs for others. I also read a few books in my teens about music industry business and law basics and used to design album covers and art direction and write music video scripts. I liked the idea of being the behind-the-scenes power for a band, but that didn't work out in the end due to artists' flakiness when trying to make actual plans, and the fact that in the end I just wanted to leave L.A. and go home to my beloved Oregon and its general greenness (at least in the northwest part; part of Oregon is a desert and touches Nevada of course.)
I found submitting poems for publication to be a better use of my time because I didn't have to try to rely on others to do it so it would actually get done.
For the photo art direction I chose a 13th Century castle in Ireland that in places is slightly falling apart, marked by partially undone barbed wire, surrounded by beautiful nature. The author photo is me in Oscar Wilde's childhood home, also the cultural center of American College Dublin, my alma mater, where I took some writing classes for my electives; one about short stories taught by Sean O'Reilly and two about script writing (for theatre and film) taught by Roger Gregg and Ferdia MacAnna. The male writing tutors was an interesting change of pace for me since most of the writing workshops I'd done before had been led by women. The college is actually a somewhat inappropriate setting given that I wrote most of the material in the book before I was ever in college. But I had the extra photo from a few I took to get a good one to update my LinkedIn profile with a post-graduation picture. (And I've since changed my LinkedIn photo again to a photo taken in a different place in Dublin, and with a different look.) So, I just had this extra, spare, nice photo in a beautiful historical building.
(US: Amazon, UK/Eur: Amazon, CAN: Amazon, AUS/NZ: Amazon (e-book only), India: Amazon, and elsewhere.)
Poems either make themselves clear or they don't and if they don't that's often the artist's intention. Why you write them is because you write.
Throughout my life I usually preferred to write poems because I like how simple and to the point they are. I usually don't like "abstract poems"; I think an artist's job is to communicate, so I do. I actually have something to say, I don't just have too much time on my hands (and want to waste yours).
In my teen years I wrote songs as well. I used to live in L.A. and entertained the idea of writing songs for others. I also read a few books in my teens about music industry business and law basics and used to design album covers and art direction and write music video scripts. I liked the idea of being the behind-the-scenes power for a band, but that didn't work out in the end due to artists' flakiness when trying to make actual plans, and the fact that in the end I just wanted to leave L.A. and go home to my beloved Oregon and its general greenness (at least in the northwest part; part of Oregon is a desert and touches Nevada of course.)
I found submitting poems for publication to be a better use of my time because I didn't have to try to rely on others to do it so it would actually get done.
For the photo art direction I chose a 13th Century castle in Ireland that in places is slightly falling apart, marked by partially undone barbed wire, surrounded by beautiful nature. The author photo is me in Oscar Wilde's childhood home, also the cultural center of American College Dublin, my alma mater, where I took some writing classes for my electives; one about short stories taught by Sean O'Reilly and two about script writing (for theatre and film) taught by Roger Gregg and Ferdia MacAnna. The male writing tutors was an interesting change of pace for me since most of the writing workshops I'd done before had been led by women. The college is actually a somewhat inappropriate setting given that I wrote most of the material in the book before I was ever in college. But I had the extra photo from a few I took to get a good one to update my LinkedIn profile with a post-graduation picture. (And I've since changed my LinkedIn photo again to a photo taken in a different place in Dublin, and with a different look.) So, I just had this extra, spare, nice photo in a beautiful historical building.
(US: Amazon, UK/Eur: Amazon, CAN: Amazon, AUS/NZ: Amazon (e-book only), India: Amazon, and elsewhere.)
Unity is Now
This was a fun project to work on in many ways. I got my poetry group from church interested in having our own collection together and got a copy of it in our church’s library and the Multnomah County Library System (in Portland, Oregon.) The participants were very excited. One of the poets, Vince Fitzgerald had Parkinson’s Disease but still wrote poetry and shared his interesting experiences and opinions until his death.
I was attending the group at the First Unitarian Church of Portland for over two years before I convinced my dad to come along (since I was concerned that most of his family and friends had died over the years and he wasn’t getting out enough). He was very reluctant but later became possibly everyone’s favorite group member. He was thrilled to have some of his work included in the book. (I included a few of mine which I later put in my poetry collection Disarm). He was also thrilled when I told him he no longer had to, as a man, wear a shirt and tie to look “dressy”. Times had changed since the 1970’s and now he could wear a V-neck sweater over a T-shirt and some nice slacks with matching leather shoes and belt. That was fine. He really hated wearing ties and used to have to for his old job.
I particularly liked convincing one poet, Barbara Steffeck-Shram, to let me publish her excellent poem “Rape Undressed”, which women generally love and men generally don’t get. She was very reluctant but I kept insisting that it was a really good poem and should be shared with the world.
Claire Carder had an interesting experience where her car stopped working for a while so she had to start taking the bus and then she was inspired to write a series of poems about the many characters you see and meet on the bus.
This is obviously a very, very small niche book, but we sure enjoyed putting it together! It added to all our lives, and often that’s what matters. Also, there were some job interviews I had over the years where I referenced it as an example of a time when I was a team leader on a project. I’m one of those people who makes work when I don’t have it. I just don’t like sitting still, doing nothing, wasting life. It’s short, so we’d better use it!
(US: Amazon, UK/Eur: Amazon, CAN: Amazon, AUS/NZ: Amazon (e-book only), India: Amazon, and elsewhere.)
This was a fun project to work on in many ways. I got my poetry group from church interested in having our own collection together and got a copy of it in our church’s library and the Multnomah County Library System (in Portland, Oregon.) The participants were very excited. One of the poets, Vince Fitzgerald had Parkinson’s Disease but still wrote poetry and shared his interesting experiences and opinions until his death.
I was attending the group at the First Unitarian Church of Portland for over two years before I convinced my dad to come along (since I was concerned that most of his family and friends had died over the years and he wasn’t getting out enough). He was very reluctant but later became possibly everyone’s favorite group member. He was thrilled to have some of his work included in the book. (I included a few of mine which I later put in my poetry collection Disarm). He was also thrilled when I told him he no longer had to, as a man, wear a shirt and tie to look “dressy”. Times had changed since the 1970’s and now he could wear a V-neck sweater over a T-shirt and some nice slacks with matching leather shoes and belt. That was fine. He really hated wearing ties and used to have to for his old job.
I particularly liked convincing one poet, Barbara Steffeck-Shram, to let me publish her excellent poem “Rape Undressed”, which women generally love and men generally don’t get. She was very reluctant but I kept insisting that it was a really good poem and should be shared with the world.
Claire Carder had an interesting experience where her car stopped working for a while so she had to start taking the bus and then she was inspired to write a series of poems about the many characters you see and meet on the bus.
This is obviously a very, very small niche book, but we sure enjoyed putting it together! It added to all our lives, and often that’s what matters. Also, there were some job interviews I had over the years where I referenced it as an example of a time when I was a team leader on a project. I’m one of those people who makes work when I don’t have it. I just don’t like sitting still, doing nothing, wasting life. It’s short, so we’d better use it!
(US: Amazon, UK/Eur: Amazon, CAN: Amazon, AUS/NZ: Amazon (e-book only), India: Amazon, and elsewhere.)
Unending Horizons
This is an adapted version of a blog I ran for three years. I got exhausted running this and another blog (All Voices Heard, which was about myriad social issues), and the time they took was taking away from me living an actual life so I ultimately dismantled them and took the best parts of them for use in other projects. (For All Voices I gave the most original ideas about social issues to my character Bridget from The Self-Made Woman and incorporated them into the character's story and a blog she writes, which is now part of my short story collection, A View from the Bottom.) I took the advice for writers and turned it into a book to help aspiring writers to have some kind of a loose road map for their journeys.
For the photo art direction I chose a horizon and open sky. The author photo is me after a flying lesson; very fitting I thought. I actually always wanted to be a pilot gallivanting around the world; it was much more my parents, especially my mom, that wanted their/her kids to be artists and social activists. I thought this was a very fitting picture as it's part of the whole theme of the project: pursuing our dreams, whether we get to live our dream as a full time, paid job or not. (US: Amazon, UK/Eur: Amazon, CAN: Amazon, AUS/NZ: Amazon (e-book only), India: Amazon, and elsewhere.)
This is an adapted version of a blog I ran for three years. I got exhausted running this and another blog (All Voices Heard, which was about myriad social issues), and the time they took was taking away from me living an actual life so I ultimately dismantled them and took the best parts of them for use in other projects. (For All Voices I gave the most original ideas about social issues to my character Bridget from The Self-Made Woman and incorporated them into the character's story and a blog she writes, which is now part of my short story collection, A View from the Bottom.) I took the advice for writers and turned it into a book to help aspiring writers to have some kind of a loose road map for their journeys.
For the photo art direction I chose a horizon and open sky. The author photo is me after a flying lesson; very fitting I thought. I actually always wanted to be a pilot gallivanting around the world; it was much more my parents, especially my mom, that wanted their/her kids to be artists and social activists. I thought this was a very fitting picture as it's part of the whole theme of the project: pursuing our dreams, whether we get to live our dream as a full time, paid job or not. (US: Amazon, UK/Eur: Amazon, CAN: Amazon, AUS/NZ: Amazon (e-book only), India: Amazon, and elsewhere.)
Learning to be a Good Editor
This book was inspired by what I learned to improve my writing by trying to adapt one of my novels, 8 Days a Week, into a screenplay and later a stage play. I first tried to adapt 8 Days into a screenplay within the first year after I'd written it. This ultimately led me to change the last chapter from being narration-based to making it mainly dialogue; that the protagonist Sean comes more out of his head and is interacting with others more and has a better life. I later took this script and used it in a play writing class I was taking as an elective in college. I didn't mention that I'd written it a few years beforehand. I wanted to dig deeper into it anyway and I found it very interesting how the work needed to change over the course of the class and what life my classmates, most of whom were actors, put into it and how it changed with each new performer that played one of the characters. I took that script out again later for use in a screenwriting elective. 8 Days was really just the gift that kept on giving.
I've been given out to before about this book because it has a limited amount of advice and then contains the actual full length screenplay and stage play versions of my novel but for me that is the point; 'here are my experiences and insights and here are the examples.' If you read the novel then read these other versions of it you'll really see what I'm talking about and hopefully try it and experience it for yourself. So the book isn't for everyone (and that's art, in a nutshell).
For the photo art direction I chose a giant pile of 8 Days a Week adaptations with books. Most of the books are actually the kinds of things I read in undergrad like colonial history books. I prefer reading nonfiction, though I know it's supposed to be a veritable crime for any writer to not read extensively in their own genre before they write in it. I'm not sorry that I generally prefer to go out and experience life and write about that. And actually that reminds me of something I heard singer/songwriter, pianist, and social activist Tori Amos say in a radio interview for a station in Portland, Oregon in 1999; that she often got her inspiration from paintings and visual arts because it can a very good way to guard against accidentally borrowing from your contemporaries. The author photo is me reading one of these great books (about the history of airplanes in war) out in the back garden of where I lived at the time. I read this book out of my own interest then that fall found a way to build a research paper around it for one of my history classes. I'm wearing my alma mater's blue jersey in it. (US: Amazon, UK/Eur: Amazon, CAN: Amazon, AUS/NZ: Amazon (e-book only), India: Amazon, and elsewhere.)
This book was inspired by what I learned to improve my writing by trying to adapt one of my novels, 8 Days a Week, into a screenplay and later a stage play. I first tried to adapt 8 Days into a screenplay within the first year after I'd written it. This ultimately led me to change the last chapter from being narration-based to making it mainly dialogue; that the protagonist Sean comes more out of his head and is interacting with others more and has a better life. I later took this script and used it in a play writing class I was taking as an elective in college. I didn't mention that I'd written it a few years beforehand. I wanted to dig deeper into it anyway and I found it very interesting how the work needed to change over the course of the class and what life my classmates, most of whom were actors, put into it and how it changed with each new performer that played one of the characters. I took that script out again later for use in a screenwriting elective. 8 Days was really just the gift that kept on giving.
I've been given out to before about this book because it has a limited amount of advice and then contains the actual full length screenplay and stage play versions of my novel but for me that is the point; 'here are my experiences and insights and here are the examples.' If you read the novel then read these other versions of it you'll really see what I'm talking about and hopefully try it and experience it for yourself. So the book isn't for everyone (and that's art, in a nutshell).
For the photo art direction I chose a giant pile of 8 Days a Week adaptations with books. Most of the books are actually the kinds of things I read in undergrad like colonial history books. I prefer reading nonfiction, though I know it's supposed to be a veritable crime for any writer to not read extensively in their own genre before they write in it. I'm not sorry that I generally prefer to go out and experience life and write about that. And actually that reminds me of something I heard singer/songwriter, pianist, and social activist Tori Amos say in a radio interview for a station in Portland, Oregon in 1999; that she often got her inspiration from paintings and visual arts because it can a very good way to guard against accidentally borrowing from your contemporaries. The author photo is me reading one of these great books (about the history of airplanes in war) out in the back garden of where I lived at the time. I read this book out of my own interest then that fall found a way to build a research paper around it for one of my history classes. I'm wearing my alma mater's blue jersey in it. (US: Amazon, UK/Eur: Amazon, CAN: Amazon, AUS/NZ: Amazon (e-book only), India: Amazon, and elsewhere.)