A Short Q & A

The following is a short Q & A about me and my novel The Last Word.

Sum up "The Last Word" in one sentence.
It's the story of what happens when "The Sopranos" meets "Fawlty Towers"...in a bookstore.

Why did you write book?
Because I simply couldn't get away from it. It actually started as an idea my best friend and I had for a TV series, but that never got off the ground. Then it expanded into a screenplay, and finally became a novel. Sal is who I would be if I could be a fictional character from Jersey. If I could be a real person from Jersey, I'd be Springsteen.

What makes this book different from everything else coming out right now?
As one agent told me: "There are no zombie vampires seeking BDSM-love in a dystopian future society here! No one will buy this!" It's true: my novel has no sex-crazed zombies. Maybe I'll put some in the sequel.

Who are your favorite authors?
That's a hard one to narrow down. I'm particularly fond of Jasper Fforde's "Thursday Next" series and John Dunning's "Bookman" series (I tend to like books about books, which is probably why I wrote one about a bookstore). But if pressed, my Top 5 today would be Ernest Hemingway, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Robert B. Parker, Jasper Fforde, and W. Somerset Maugham. And J.K. Rowling of course. She's a genius.

What is the capital of Slovenia?
Ljubljana (and you were probably looking for Wikipedia, by the way).


What am I working on?
At the moment I’m working on a series of interconnected short stories. I’ve also been writing scenes for the sequel to my novel The Last Word. Whichever character screams the loudest (in my head) is the one that gets attention on any particular day.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?
According to the agents I’ve queried I don’t have a genre, which is a problem for them. Apparently the current acceptable genres are BDSM, Vampires, Zombies, Dystopian Future, Teens Hunting Each Other, and Paranormal Romance. My stuff tends to be more in the humorous vein, with the occasional magical realism thrown in.

Why do I write what I do?
I write the world as I see it, then spin it around a bit so it’s more like I want it to be. Either way, it’s a shade left of reality. A lot of the time I write what the voices tell me to, and I don’t mean voices in a serial killer or delusional prophet kind of way. These are good voices. Except when they’re pissed about something.

How does my writing process work?
Process? Man, I wish I had a process; life would be easier with a process. With a novel I like to set a 30-day goal and write like crazy during that 30 days; the pressure of a deadline seems to help. With short stories and flash fiction it’s less planned; when an idea presents itself I try to grab it before it goes away. My muse has a sense of humor though (she’s Scottish and listens to Russian Death Metal, of all things): my best writing time is 6 am to noon…which is when I’m at my day job. Muses can be mean.

What's the last book you read?
The last new book I read was The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, an excellent novel I highly recommend, especially if you like books about books and bookstores as I do. I finished my most recent book (a re-read) this morning: High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. Somehow, in my overly strong devotion to the movie version, I had forgotten how much better the novel is. If you have never read it (especially if you are a guy born between, say, 1960 and 1970) stop reading this and go buy it now. Seriously, go now...I'll wait.

Update on "The Last Word" and a New Story Collection

Things are heating up on The Last Word front; my editor has sent back edits for roughly half of the novel, and I have been wading through them. My reaction is split pretty evenly between agonizing over a suggested change and wondering how I could have so many typos and still be considered literate. In any case, we are still on target for a Fall 2014 release, with the only question being whether it will be early or late fall.

On a different publishing note, last week I published The Collector: Stories, a short book of flash fiction, short stories, and the first three chapters of The Last Word as a preview of what's coming. Some of the stories have appeared in online journals before, and one in a print anthology, but this is the first time you can get them all in one place. You can find the Kindle version here, and the paperback version here.

Putting the story collection together has been a valuable experience as I move forward with publishing The Last Word. I have learned a few things that will make that process, and hopefully the end product, much better.

Now back to working on the edits...writing is re-writing, and all that drivel.

The Last Word is coming...stay tuned.

A Fortunate Discovery

Serendipitous -(adj) found by accident; a fortuitous or beneficial discovery

Serendipity is not a word I use often (except when talking about the John Cusack/Kate Beckinsale film), but it perfectly describes what happened about ten days ago. While researching various aspects of the publishing process for my novel The Last Word, I accidently typed "publish" wrong in a Google search. The top results: Pubslush.

I would normally just retype the word, but the second entry caught my eye. It was a Forbes article titled "Pubslush: Crowdfunding Just for Books." Considering that I was near the end of an unsuccessful crowdfunding campaign that had gotten lost in the crowd (pun intended) of film, music, and video game projects (books aren't as sexy to some people), this looked very interesting.

As it turned out, interesting didn't even scratch the surface. Pubslush is indeed a crowdfunding platform dedicated solely to books and authors. No Zach Braff or Veronica Mars movie projects, no indie bands that really aren't indie anymore, no latest knockoff of World of Warcraft. Just books.

The site is clearly designed with books in mind. In addition to the standard video and contributor level/rewards sections, the landing page of a project includes things like a short blurb of the book, a longer synopsis, a 5-10 page sample of the book, and an author Q&A section.

They also grasp that in most cases you don't need to raise the same amount of funds to bring out a book as you do to produce a feature film. Books can now be produced very cost-effectively (something I learned a great deal about through contacts I've made in the past month or so), and Pubslush encourages realistic funding goals.

Even better, unlike other sites they allow both a minimum goal and a higher target goal. For example, you can set a minimum goal of $500 with a higher target of $2500, and as long as you reach the $500 level, the project will be funded. The fee they charge is a flat percentage regardless of whether you reach the minimum or higher goal and is among the lowest out there; no other site offers this flexibility.

If you need assistance with any part of your project, Pubslush has an Author Relations Coordinator that you can contact. And this is not some automated chat feature; I have emailed them several times and always received a response the same day, usually within an hour or two. Try that with any other crowdfunding site.

Finally, and maybe most impressive of all, is their commitment to literacy. Through their Pubslush Foundation they aid in the fight against illiteracy by providing books to children with limited access to literature. All campaigners have the option to donate a portion of their proceeds to The Pubslush Foundation.

After looking over the Pubslush site itself and the volume of positive reviews it has received on other sites (like Forbes), there is no doubt this is the route any author looking for a crowdfunding platform for their book should take. And because I try to follow my own advice as much as possible, that's exactly what I'm going to do. Look for the Pubslush project for The Last Word on April 1...or maybe even March 31. Like I said, their Author Relations Coordinator is very responsive. I will post the link here as soon as it's available.

The Last Word is coming...stay tuned.

Print Still Matters

A few questions sometimes come up when I tell people about my plans for publishing The Last Word: “Why bother releasing a print copy? Isn't it easier to just release an e-book? Do we really still even need printed books?” In most cases this is a reaction to media stories on the death of print, all of which have proven to be completely inaccurate. Over the past year or more, sales of e-books have leveled off, while sales of printed books have remained fairly consistent. In other words, the two formats are coexisting quite nicely, thank you very much.

As to why I am taking the more difficult path of releasing The Last Word in print (there will be an e-book version as well), here are a few reasons:

1. Printed books provide a tactile experience. Music is heard, and films are both seen and heard, but books are experienced both visually and by touch. There is an aspect to the feel of books (the smooth glossy cover, the roughness and even smell of the paper) that provides a physical sensation that is both separate from and intimately linked to the story you are reading. We bond not only with the author (novels being the only art form that requires many hours of commitment on the part of the audience) but with the book itself.

2. Great novels, from War and Peace to The Shadow of the Wind were not meant to be read on a digital screen, no matter how much “like paper” they try to make that screen. Most of us spend our entire workday staring at a computer screen, plus additional hours in front of a computer, television, or iPhone after we get home; in fact, you're looking at screen right now. The last thing many readers want to do is spend even more time staring at a screen to read a book.

3. Books can be written in, dog-eared, loaned to friends, stuffed in your back pocket, browsed for on rainy afternoons, and then sold to a used bookshop for cash to buy yet more books. Try that with a Kindle.

4. Most readers (and we have always been remarkably few as percentage of the total population) like having a personal library. It may or may not contain highly collectible items like a signed Hemingway or first-edition Faulkner, but a bookcase loaded with books can be much more than a simple collection. It can serve as a timeline of our lives: the copy of Homer you read in the same college class as your future wife, that Robert Parker Spenser novel you read in the hospital waiting for your son to be born, that copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets you read to your daughters over a snowy weekend, or the biography of Somerset Maugham you discovered in a cool little shop in London. These are books you pass down through generations, even though they may have value only within the context of your own family. 

 5. Finally, on a more self-centered note I like the idea of holding the book I wrote in my hands, and putting it into other people's hands. I see my name on a screen every single day, from e-mails to work presentations to this blog. But seeing it on an actual book is something special. On a bookstore shelf I would fall somewhere between Wilkie Collins and Joseph Conrad...bookshelves make strange bedfellows.

I was initially against the very idea of e-books; like others I saw them as a threat to printed books, and as you can see I have a fondness for printed books. But in reality, e-books have been more blessing than curse. More people are reading, and more books are affordable to them. So I have buried the hatchet with e-books, but I still love printed books more. Which is why I'll go through the added work and expense to publish mine both ways.

The Last Word is coming...stay tuned.