Self-Published Authors Behaving Badly

I received the following email earlier this week. It’s the first such email I have ever received. At first I was intrigued, but it didn’t take me long to smell a rat…

B.A. Said:

That the B.A. here is hyperlinked suggests there might be something there so I can identify who this person is.  Well, no, clicking on it produces the following message on Goodreads:  Oops – we couldn’t find that profile.

Nice to meet you and I saw that you enjoyed reading thriller novels.

Well, no, you aren’t actually meeting me.  This is a random email that generally qualifies as spam, so it would be inaccurate for you to start the communication with “Nice to meet you.”  Under no circumstances, is sending an email to somebody actually meeting them.

I thought you might also enjoy a complimentary copy of my new Amazon Best-Selling techno-thriller series

Well, I might.  Tell me more.

HAIL STORM.

The second book in the series, Hail Warning, just went on sale and my agent informed me that I can only offer complimentary downloads of Hail Storm to techno-thriller fans for the next week.

Well, this is intriguing. You have an agent. This is a stamp of approval for your work. Let me delve into this. I go over to Amazon and check your books out. An agent who is limiting what you can do must mean you have a publisher, right?  Oh wait, what’s this?  For the first book in the series you are identified as the publisher and it appears you used Lulu. And for the second book in the series the publisher is Amazon Digital Services – meaning you’ve self-published it via Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform.  So, no publisher.  Do you really have an agent?  Oh, there’s even more.  Besides the two books in the series, you’ve published a number of other books, dating back to 2002.  The publisher for most of these books is identified as B.A.D. Enterprises and Amazon Digital Services for the e-book version. Could B.A.D. Enterprises not actually be a legitimate publisher and the initials just be a play on your name and your author mother’s pen name???  So, you’ve done all this publishing, apparently entirely through self-publishing modes and you have an agent?  What’s your agent been doing for you?  Doesn’t appear to be much.  Or, maybe you don’t actually have an agent but think by saying that, it will impress potential readers. I’ll admit that it had me going for a bit.

Best Selling author Lois Duncan described Hail Storm as “It’s the Rainbow Six for a new generation” 

This is beautiful. Such a nice thought to express for a book.  Particularly coming from a published, best-selling author … who just so happens to be your mother.  You see it’s not that difficult to put these facts together when you identify Lois Duncan as your mother in your author profile on Amazon.  Not really a good idea to use your mother as your first selling point for the novel.  I’m guessing she’s a little biased.

A thousand Goodreads’ reviews are hovering in the 4.1 star range. Reviewers have compared it to Clive Cussler imagination, mixed with a healthy dose of Tom Clancy tech.

Well, he is generally right about at least part of this.  As of today, he has over 1,100 ratings averaging a 3.96, but only 708 actual reviews.  Still 708 reviews isn’t something to sneeze at, particularly since the book was only published in April 2017.  How did he manage that?  Well judging from the reviews, I am not the first to get his email pitch.  Here’s an example:

“A friend and I received a message from a quickly-deleted spam account offering a free copy and saying that this book is perfect for us, Douglas Adams fans. It seems that others received similar messages stating that it is perfect for fans of Michael Crichton/Stephen King/Karin Slaughter/James Ellroy/etc. etc.  Sounds as if the author is in dire need of developing his own style.  Guess I’ll pass on this, thanks.”

A quickly deleted spam account?  Is that what that B.A. link is for at the outset of the email?  Fascinating.  Here is another of my favorite reviews for his book on Goodreads:

Don’t bother reading this book, even if Mr. Arquette sends you a free copy. It’s badly written, badly edited and contains blatant plagiarism.

Like many of the other reviewers of this book, I received a spam message from Mr. Arquette. In the message he suggested that if I liked Michael Crichton, I might like his book. He offered a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

The book is self-published, but was allegedly edited by two people. Based on their performance with this book, neither of those people should ever work again as editors. Typos, grammatical errors, and misspellings litter the pages of this book. Arquette isn’t a strong writer either. He clearly needs someone to help edit his work. Some parts of the book were exceptionally repetitive. In one area we get the exact same dialogue twice. Once from the CIA spy, and once from the terrorist. This happens in back to back chapters.

The dialogue is not strong. The characters are not complex. The female characters, despite holding powerful traditionally male roles, end up being stereotypical women obsessed with clothes. As an example the female CIA spy, upon first being introduced to a group of people in a professional setting, responds with “I love your outfit.” The “Mission Communication Analyst” responds “Well thank you. I designed and made it myself.” To which our spy says, “You’re kidding me. I wish I could do stuff like that. A dress seems like it would be so hard to make.” The CIA spy is later distracted by being set loose in the shopping mall. Later this CIA spy, an expert in foreign languages, gives the wrong name for a North Korean leader. After being corrected by the director of the CIA she responds “Whatever, Ding, Dong, Wang, Chung, Cheech and Chong, all their names are so confusing.” Her poor lady brain just can’t handle these non western sounding names.

The main character, Marshall Hail, is a rich neckbeard. He’s sad because his wife and kids were killed in a terrorist attack two years ago. But he’s conflicted because the CIA spy is pretty and “there was also vulnerability in the woman that attracted him. And for some strange reason, Hail had always been drawn to people who were damaged or in need.” Vomit.

After all of these problems, Arquette gets exceptionally lazy and instead of describing the White House Situation Room, he quotes “The Wiki”. But as you’ll see below, we should be happy Arquette at least quoted his source here.

The blatant plagiarism in this book should be enough to convince you not to read it. It’s not as if it’s a good book that happens to have some plagiarism. It’s a bad book, with really sloppy plagiarism. After reading 75% of the book, I began to sense some passages were not actually written by Arquette. In one area shaped charges are described. This dialogue occurs:

“The most common of the linear-shaped charge is conical, with an internal apex angle of 40 to 90 degrees. Different apex angles yield different distributions of jet mass and velocity. Small apex angles can result in jet bifurcation, or even in the failure of the jet to form at all, if you can believe that,” she laughed knowingly, “and this is attributed to the collapse velocity being above a certain threshold, normally slightly higher than…”
Compare the italicized words to the wikipedia entry for shaped charges:

The most common shape of the liner is conical, with an internal apex angle of 40 to 90 degrees. Different apex angles yield different distributions of jet mass and velocity. Small apex angles can result in jet bifurcation, or even in the failure of the jet to form at all; this is attributed to the collapse velocity being above a certain threshold, normally slightly higher[.]
Later, in a particularly bad piece of writing, a character describes to himself the types of Russian food he’d prefer to eat over the food available in North Korea.

Or even pelmeni, a traditional Russian dish usually made with minced meat filling, wrapped in thin dough.
Compare that to the Cuisine of Post-Soviet Countries Blog.

Pelmeni are a traditional Russian dish usually made with minced meat filling, wrapped in thin dough.

I read this book because it was the first book offered to me for free. I felt I shouldn’t give up on it, despite not enjoying it. Learn from my mistakes and skip this book.

Hmmm … typos and grammar problems and plagiarism, oh my!  Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore. But, surely, this cannot be.  He’s been publishing for 15 years and he has a traditionally published author for a mother who endorses his books – really, she has published several dozen children’s books through Little Brown.  Ms. Duncan is also identified as the editor for his first book  Ah, wait a minute, here’s a review of his first book, published way back in 2002:

I can’t believe this even made it into print. The Big Surprising Plot Twist is telegraphed on page twelve, the book is riddled with typos (he misspells his own characters’ names, for goodness sake!), the characters are so shallow I didn’t really care whether they died, and the only good idea in here is ripped off from Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. And what’s the deal with loudly proclaiming that Lois Duncan edited it? She certainly didn’t do a very good job. Arquette should probably stick to writing poorly-worded letters to Penthouse; that’s basically what this reads like. Except that even the sex isn’t any good.

Apparently, for fifteen long years, the author has been self-publishing badly written, poorly edited trash.

But, back to the email:

For a complimentary download of the Kindle/Nook or Audiobook, as well as Goodreads’ Reviews click HERE. Your download key is

Oddly enough, that link works, takes you straight to the author’s webpage where you can read all his glowing reviews and order your free download.  What’s clear though is that he really wants you to download your “free copy” via the Kindle Unlimited option.  Why? Well, those downloads, although the reader pays nothing for them, counts towards a books Amazon ranking and also produces income for the reader.  So, these free downloads of the book are free in one sense, but actually make the author money. It’s a smart sales tactic on his part, but to me, highly unethical.

Here’s the rest of his email:

Thanks for giving my new series a try!

Best,

Brett Arquette

Marshall was a husband, a father, a Physics Nobel prizewinner and industrial billionaire. But when Marshall’s family was killed in a terrorist attack, he became a

predator and redirected his vast industrial assets toward one goal, removing every person on the FBI’s Top 10 Terrorist list. With the help of his MIT colleagues, Hail designed and built a devastating arsenal of attack drones of all shapes and sizes that are flown by the nation’s best young gamers. The world will come to realize that Marshall possesses the capability of getting to anyone, anywhere, at any time, unleashing an operation so disturbing that the CIA has named it Operation Hail Storm 

Goodreads Review Highlights: 

“This book was AWESOME! If you like Jack Reacher (Lee Childs), or Cormorman Strike (Robert Galbraith), Elvis Cole (RobertCrais) this is right up your alley.”

“HOLY SMOKES! I guess we know who will be writing the Clancy books in the near future. Brett Arquette has nailed the new technology. Tom would be proud!”

“I absolutely loved this book. It’s a very clever Action Thriller, with a very unique and interesting plot, that really captured my attention.”

“If you like Brad Thor, Vince Flynn, Lee Child, and W.E.B. Griffin, then give it a go!”

“This is an exciting story!! I am so glad I read it,it is futuristic with technology used today mixed in.”

“WOW ! You’ve all heard about drones for the last couple of years. This book is going to make you think another way completely.”

“Brilliant read! I will be recommending this to my dad who is a great lover of W.E.B. Griffin.”

“A terrific ride and very hard to put down all the way until the very end! If you enjoy international spy thrillers and technology, you’ll love this new novel.”

“This book blew me away. It has action, suspense, a great story unique unto itself with well developed, three dimensional characters.”

“I cannot wait to read the next one(s). Fantastic all around!”

I hate to say it, but these are not the reviews written by normal readers reviewing books.  They simply are not.  These are the reviews written by friends, family, or fake people.

Reply to this message

Well, I would if this link had worked.  But like the very first link, it goes to a Goodreads Oops message.  If I could have replied, I would have sent this response directly to you and pointed out that you are one of the reasons independent authors struggle to gain respect in the reading and publishing word.  Poorly written, edited crap flung out there and then you hide behind spam accounts, fake reviews, and more to try to find readers.  Disgusting.  Thanks for making it harder for the rest of us.

Enjoy!

No. Probably not.  I hear from, and see in reviews and articles and blog posts, so many readers who say they won’t spend a penny for a self-published book because of the bad reputation self-published books have.  Mr. Arquette, you are contributing to that dynamic and hurting the rest of us.  Just the fact that you send these emails out from spam accounts that are then immediately deleted destroys any credibility you might have.  If you are unwilling to at least edit your work and get rid of typos, misspellings, and other fatal laws — like clear plagiarism — do all of the rest of us a favor and find some other outlet for your creativity.

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A Conversation With Kevin Brennan, Part Three

Part One.

Part Two.

MP. In your last comment, you mention that you like to think of your books as deceptively simple.  You also clearly like “journey” stories.  Somewhere I have read that there are only a handful of story plots that drive just about every story ever written.  One of those story types is “journey.”  It can be a physical journey, a mental journey, a journey to find the truth.  There are all sorts of journeys that can form the structure of a story.

Thinking about Fascination, I realized that all of your novels stem from the journey concept.  And in Fascination, it seems you have doubled down, or tripled down, on the format.  All of the main characters are on journeys of different types, and even many of the minor characters are on journeys of their own.  The question is whether this was intentional or whether it just happened.  The second question is whether you ever found yourself tempted to go away from the “deceptively simple” structure of the story.  There are so many places in Fascination where you could have started to wallow in a scene or a concept.  Do you ever want to stay there for a bit and wallow?

KB. I guess when you think about it, most stories are at least partly built on a journey of one kind or another. Sometimes metaphorical, but often literal. That’s because life is that way. When we meet someone, we’re on our journey and they’re on theirs, and we travel along together for a while until our paths head off in different directions.

There’s also the practical fact that, in fiction, the journey is a terrific plot engine. Things have to happen as a matter of course.

I’m not sure all my books are journey tales. Occasional Soulmates not so much. Town Father only partly. Yesterday Road is for sure, but it’s both a physical journey and one through time. My next book is definitely not a journey, though one of the characters fantasizes about one — to get the hell away from her family. (More on that in the coming months …)

On the question of “staying and wallowing,” I’m usually concerned with keeping up a lively pace, so when I do linger a little bit I want to make sure it serves the story well.

Do you have an example of “staying and wallowing” in other books? I don’t think you just mean a digression from the plot. More like longer internal monologues or poignant flashbacks?

MP. A lot of what you say here makes sense.  Every story is, in the end, a journey.  But what intrigues me about Fascination is just how many journeys there are in this one novel.  One could argue that Mason Speck’s piece in this really isn’t a journey, but to me it is.  It’s a journey to the life he believes he wants for himself.

Fascination is essentially a physical journey that wraps itself around a whole lot of internal journeys.

When I referred to “staying and wallowing,” what I meant was that there are so many places in which you could have stopped and spend so much energy and detail to explore more in depth one of Sally’s stops along the way.  In New Mexico, for instance.  There’s detail there for sure, but so many writers would have, could have written an entire novel based on just one of Sally’s stops along the way.  That’s what I refer to as “staying and wallowing.”  What you seem to have mastered is the ability to bring the reader to a place, raise the questions that place or plot turn brings out, and then moving on to the next, without wasting time or words.  It’s one of the things I really appreciate about Fascination.  You let the reader decide where they want to wallow rather than forcing it on them.

I don’t necessarily have examples of “staying and wallowing” from other published works.  But I will say that it is one of the reasons I’m struggling with my own writing.  As I write more, my stories become more complex and I find myself getting far too much into the details.  I’d like to avoid the wallowing.  😉

Let’s move to guerrilla publishing.  As far as I know, your first novel was published the traditional way.  By William Morrow, which is no small thing.  But then it seems you left the world of traditional publishing behind and have self-published since then.  Is this remotely accurate?  Before I get to your guerrilla publishing stage, is there any story there about why you went from the traditional approach to self-publishing?

KB. I see Fascination that way too — a baker’s dozen journeys. Even Matt Damon is on a journey of sorts.

And you’re right about how any of Sally and Clive’s stops along the way could have become its own novel, but I saw this as kind of like “The Game of Life,” that old board game, where you don’t stay in one place very long. Pretty soon you have to spin again.

As for your question about traditional publishing, I’m the first to admit that any writer — or better yet, every writer — would prefer to land a contract with one of the Big Five. The truth is, I was unable to persuade them to take a chance on a second novel. I think I had three different agents after Parts Unknown, and none of them was able to make the sale. So, because I wanted to get my work out into the world, I decided to go indie, and the rest — say it with me — is history. Or my story, anyway.

Bottom line? Them’s the breaks, I guess. At least I can publish my books on my own terms now, on my schedule. And I’ve enjoyed it too.

MP. Well, if it’s like the game of Life, where are all of the kids?  Oh wait, scratch that.

I wonder if we writers are making a mistake in our belief in the holy grail of a publishing contract.  It’s kind of what motivated me to self-publish initially and why I still aim towards that with my future efforts.  There is something about traditional publishing that seems to be just a one-in-a-zillion crap shoot.  Unfortunately, self-publshing has become the same thing.  There are so many of us writers now publishing their own works, it seems impossible to make the noise that will create the attention to really attract an audience.  It’s particularly difficult when you try to occupy some space on the literary fiction shelf as you and I do.  It seems to be a forgotten genre in the world of indie publishing.

So, you indie published in the traditional way for a few books and now you’ve launched this book via what you have termed guerrilla publishing.  I know you’ve blogged about this on your own site, but for anybody visiting my site who doesn’t know about you, can you explain what guerrilla publishing is and why you decided to try it?

KB. I do think the nature of traditional publishing has changed over the last ten to fifteen years. As a bastion of literary fiction, it was geared toward building writers’ careers, so there was no expectation that a debut novelist had to sell a lot of copies. As my own agent told me, publishers didn’t expect writers to have much of a following till their fourth or fifth novel. It’s different now. If you don’t hit that home run on your first at bat, it’s back to the minors for you.

So that’s why indie was attractive, but you’re totally right on two counts: that the field is unbelievably crowded now and that there’s not very much literary fiction in the indie world. What there is seems really hard to find, except by word of mouth.

And that’s why I landed on #guerrillapublishing (I use the hashtag in case it catches on over at Twitter …) as an alternative. To my mind, #guerrillapublishing is simply a way of getting books out into the world without relying on anyone but ourselves as writers. No corporate platforms, no cover designers (unless you want to use one), no ebook formatters. And, like the old Soviet samizdat, where people passed around typed copies of banned books, this work is completely dependent on the efforts of readers to spread the word. If they like it, they tell someone else about it.

But another interesting slant here is that readers buy the book directly from me, via PayPal. I sign and inscribe each copy to the buyer (electronically, anyway), and deliver the book myself. It’s hands on. Plus, if you have any trouble getting the book onto your e-reader, I’ll walk you through it because I want you to read this book.

Who knows, this might be my only #guerrillapublishing attempt, but Fascination felt like the right kind of project to experiment with.

MP. Your description of the why of #guerrillapublishing is exactly why I came up with the idea for myself a couple of years ago.  After my second indie-published novel, which was much more literary than the first, completely and totally failed to attract any readers beyond people who knew me or followed my blog, I despaired.  And then there is the fact that the reading public basically expects that indie authors will charge a minimal amount for their book — or nothing at all.  And I despaired again.  A potential solution to all of that despair is what you have done with #guerrillapublishing.  Sell directly.  Cut out the middlemen, Amazon, the publishers, the agents.  Charge what you can, or invite the reader to pay what they believe your work is worth, and keep it for yourself, instead of the fraction you get through all of the other avenues.

There has got to be a better way for this to work for both the reader and the writer.  I hope your experiment opens some doors.

So, let me end our conversation here.  Not that the conversation you and I have about writing and publishing will end, but this small chapter of it needs to close.  One final question for you … is there anything else you want readers to know about Fascination and #guerrillapublishing?  Here’s your chance.

KB. I would add to everything we’ve already talked about that I hope readers out there — and maybe writers too — can become more open-minded about what books can be and where they can be found. With all of the tools available to us now, writers don’t have to limit themselves to traditional publishing or to the Amazon model — not if those don’t suit their needs or their material. We can publish on our blogs, via Tweets, on thumb drives — the possibilities are many, and many of them might just be better for the author than the current models.

As I say about Fascination, you don’t know till you try.

 

 

A Conversation With Kevin Brennan, Part Two

Part One is here.

MP. As the author of Fascination, is there something about the story that you particularly like?  Is there a part of the story, or an element of it, that you think you got particularly right?

KB. It’s not always easy to be super-objective about your own work, but in this book I like the overall tone most of all. I set out to write something in the mode of, say, Tom Robbins (without trying to imitate him, of course), but I wasn’t sure I could carry it all the way through a 300-page book. I hope readers think I succeeded!

I think the main thing I got right was telling a sprawling, convoluted, funny story that also gives the reader some interesting things to think about by the end. Ultimately, as the characters come to understand, the journey to heaven is heaven.

MP. It’s interesting that you describe Fascination as a “sprawling, convoluted, funny story that also gives the reader some interesting things to think about by the end.”  I want to use that comment to finally get into what I thought about the story.

When I think about what to write about Fascination, I struggle with how to describe it and why I think it was so good.  What I come up with is that it is an engaging story.  And that’s how I have felt about most of your previously published novels.  It’s engaging and entertaining.  And the other thing is that Fascination is actually a pretty simple story.  I hope you don’t find that offensive, but it’s one of the things that attracts me to your writing.

There are times when I read something that just strikes me at my core.  Stories that speak so incredibly to where I’m at with the issues in my life.  Everything Matters by Ron Currie and The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein are two examples of this.  There is this quality to both of those stories that made me want to wallow in them and left me in tears by the end.  And then there are the stories that are just a joy to read.  They are the stories that I think of as “race to the end” stories.  And Fascination, as well as Town Father and Occasional Soulmates fit that description.  There is something in these stories you write that just catches the reader’s imagination and, for me at least, makes me want to soar with the words and the tale that follows and get to the end and see how it all comes out.

Sally Pavlou and Clive Bridle and, yes, even Sally’s not so dead husband and his baby mama are characters that are, on one level somewhat odd and not really relatable to me, but on another level, they are.  They are just people, human beings like the rest of us, on this journey called life.  And each of them was on a different journey, but each of their journeys was related nonetheless to the other.  You drew me into these characters and their journey with lighthearted fun, without going into too much unnecessary depth with each stage of their journey (which would have been yawn-inducing for me at some point).

In some respects, Fascination is a story that a reader who is looking for light entertainment could enjoy at the same time a reader who is looking for something deeper also could enjoy.

I don’t really have a specific question here, other than to ask whether any of that has any meaning to you?!

KB. I’m glad you put Fascination in the category of a “race to the end” story. Thanks. I was trying to pace this book in a way that would make readers wonder what the heck could possibly happen next, and even though there’s kind of an inevitability about the plot, I wanted enough surprises along the way to interest all kinds of readers. And it’s not offensive to call it a “simple story” — not at all. I like to think of most of my books as “deceptively simple,” so that they can be read in a more casual way or with an eye toward themes that aren’t necessarily megaphoned through the books.

In Fascination, buried in a fun tale of “self-realization and vengeance,” are themes about the pursuit of happiness, personal identity, religion, social groups, self-delusion, and family, but readers are free to nod at them as they go through the book or to think about them in detail — and relate to them in their own lives. It’s always, at least casually, a fun road story.

As a writer, do you find that you gravitate to characters who have some kind of relation to your own life and issues? In some ways, writing fiction can become a way of working through things and trying different strategies to see how they might turn out.

MP. When I first started writing, I began with situations or characters that I could put myself into. I thought that would make the writing easier to accomplish since I had no idea if I would be able to write a story.  Once I established I could do that, I wanted to see if I could write characters who weren’t me and the stories that are as far removed from me as possible are the stories I am most proud of .

It’s interesting that you refer to fiction as being “a way of working through things.”  One of the struggles I have had over the last couple of years is that every new idea I have had for a story has quickly become about the same theme.  About characters who yearn for the thing that is missing from their lives.  And that is really about solving my own personal issues and I’m done writing that story.  So I haven’t written much in the last couple of years.  I have some WIPs that are about other themes, but they’re a struggle too, unfortunately.

One final comment before we take a break…  You say there is an inevitability to the plot.  I can’t disagree with that, but one of the story’s strong points is that there is always a surprise around the next corner.  Sally obtaining her vengeance may have been inevitable, but the manner and style with which she did it was a complete surprise.

Next up:  More on Fascination, journeys, and guerrilla publishing.  And if you haven’t already, here where you buy it.

A Conversation with Kevin Brennan

Kevin Brennan has published another delightful story.  Fascination.  Only he’s taking the bull by the horns and is selling directly to his readers.  No publishing contract, no Amazon, nothing more complicated than buying the e-book directly from him.  Here’s how you do it.

Fascination tells the story of Sally Pavlou, Clive Bridle, and Mason Speck.  Three people who are on different journeys that wrap around each other forming the tale of one grand journey.  Mason and Sally have been married for years when suddenly Mason commits suicide.  Only he didn’t.  He faked his suicide and disappeared into a new life.  Once Sally realizes that he isn’t dead, she embarks on a journey of self-realization and vengeance, with Clive as her private investigator and erstwhile friend and companion.

This is the fourth book written by Kevin that I’ve read.  Each one is a lighthearted read that pulls the reader in.  I wanted to post a review of his book but thought there was a better way to draw attention to his work and his publishing direct effort.  Kevin and I have started a discussion about Fascination, writing, and what he refers to as guerrilla publishing.  I’ll be posting the discussion in parts over the next few days and weeks.  I hope you enjoy it.  More importantly, I hope this will prompt my readers who don’t already know about Kevin to hop over to his website and buy Fascination.  His idea is exactly what I have pondered over the last couple of years as I consider my own writing and publishing efforts.  Guerrilla publishing is an idea that needs to catch on but it only will if readers take a chance on writers.  Kevin Brennan is definitely a writer worth the chance.

MP. Is (or was) there an old arcade game like Fascination?

KB. There really is an arcade came called Fascination. I think it originated in the 1920s or ‘30s, and it was the kind of thing you’d find on beach boardwalks and places like that. In fact, I know there are still a few Fascination parlors (as they seem to be called) in operation, so if you’re in the mood for a little retro recreation, you can plan a road trip and try it for yourself.

MP. I may have to find myself a Fascination parlor.  It’s kind of amazing that such things still exist these days.

Whenever I read fiction I find myself wondering how the author came up with the idea for the story.  What was the spark?  Stephen King has always provided a little glimpse into his storytelling.  When I’ve published things, I try to do the same thing.  With Fascination, there are so many ways in which I could see where this story originated.  So, what was it?  What was the spark that started this story for you?

KB. Since this is a book that I started a long time ago, its origins are a little hazy. I went back to my early notes about it and was surprised to learn that I began with Sally’s husband, Mason, and not Sally at all. He was the one left alone after a faked suicide. And he was the one heading out on a journey to find his wife. It wasn’t going to be comic, and I think it was headed in more of a semi-thriller with philosophical overtones. After a couple of stabs at it, I just couldn’t make it work, so I switched characters and everything started falling into place. As for the Fascination part, I happened to see an article in the Chronicle at the time about the old Fascination parlor on Market St. in SF (which is pictured on the cover, by the way), and I thought it would be interesting to make Sally an aficionado. Or aficionada. It also seemed to have odd metaphorical potential — a game that’s almost impossible to win is a lot like life …

I’ll add that this isn’t the only book I’ve ever written that I put away for a long time then came back to with new enthusiasm. A lot of writers find that changing things up after a long hiatus offers a new slant on a project. You might just land on the perfect approach.

MP. If I remember correctly, Occasional Soulmates was told from the perspective of the female character.  In Fascination, you also tell a significant chunk of the story from the perspective of the primary female character.  One of the ways in which I want to challenge myself as a writer is to write from the perspective of narrators that aren’t me.  Old guys (I’m not that old yet), women, members of ethnic groups to which I do not belong, etc.  You clearly want to take that challenge on as well.  Do you ever doubt your ability to do that?  I mean, how can you as a man possibly narrate a female’s tale of self-realization and vengeance?  Or do you just roll with it and see what happens?

KB. One of the benefits of writing fiction is that you get to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. When you think about it, unless you write nothing but autobiographical fiction, successfully assuming the identity of any character is going to be the challenge because it has to be believable. I think, in a general way, that men and women aren’t that different psychologically. Socially, culturally, sure. But in terms of human instincts and tendencies, male/female isn’t a problem. That said, you can’t phone it in. Female readers are rightfully critical of male writers who don’t try very hard to draw believable women in their fiction.

I do doubt myself sometimes, but not just writing female characters. There are times I’m on shaky ground with, say, a character’s profession I don’t know enough about (like my doctor in Soulmates) or, in historical fiction, getting the period right in a way that doesn’t bother the sticklers out there.

 

I know your WIP has at least one first-person female character. How did you approach writing her, and did you have to go through a lot of drafts to feel comfortable in her head?

MP. I don’t generally go through a lot of “drafts” when I write because I edit a lot as I go along.  I consider my best stories to be the ones where I am able to narrate from the perspective of a character that is as far removed from me or my own experience as possible.  How do I do it?  I don’t really know.  I think it helps that I generally write stories about common life experiences.  As you suggest, there may not be much difference in how different types of characters react to common life experiences.  I also base the character’s actions and words on my own experiences.  For instance, in the second novella for the WIP you refer to, one of the female narrators is going to get pregnant.  How do I write in first person about her experiences with pregnancy and childbirth?  I look to the experiences and words and thoughts my wife shared with me during her pregnancies, to my sister’s when she was pregnant and I was her delivery coach, and to the many other women I have known through the years who went through pregnancy and who shared those experiences with me.

It’s these kinds of characters and efforts that really require writers to be educated and observant and to have good mental filing cabinets.  So, when it comes time to write a character that isn’t you, you’ve got something in there to base it on.

KB. Good point about having at least some awareness or familiarity with a character’s experiences. Talking to people is a great way to get the nitty gritty. Even better when you’re married to them…

Part 2 Coming Soon.  Don’t hesitate to go here and be a part of Guerrilla Publishing and treat yourself to a good read at the same time.

This and That

Back when I was running regularly, which is now three years ago, the barefoot running craze was starting to explode.  Both running truly barefoot and running in very lightweight shoes that had very little padding were the trendy thing to do.  Being somebody who would love to be able to live barefoot, the craze fascinated me and I was dedicated to giving it a try.  My groin injury ended running and I have yet to recover from the muscle tear enough to run.  (I know, I know.  As soon as we get back from Cabo next month, I’m going back to the sports doc.)

A couple of months ago. Running to Her Dreams  posted a piece about Be Real Shoes — a new entry into the minimal shoe category.  I signed up on their website and got a discount offer.  A couple of weeks I ordered a pair of their shoes.  Here they are on my little toesies…

 

 

Back when I ran my last half marathon — the one in which I spent the last six miles dragging my right leg along because of the aforementioned groin injury — I participated in a training program for the first time.  The leaders spoke regularly about the importance of eliminating heel strike in your stride.  Of trying to land as much as possible on the pads of your feet.  Heel strikes slow a runner down and send more of the pounding and shock of the foot strike into your legs and joints than a pad strike.  Or so the theory goes.  As long as I’ve run in traditional running shoes, I’ve struggled with putting the theory into practice.  It’s just too easy to fall into the stride that has been ingrained into my muscles for years.

So, I got these shoes.  This morning I went for my first walk in them.  They are incredible — the closest thing to walking barefoot without actually walking barefoot.  So lightweight and comfortable it doesn’t feel like there’s anything on my feet.  And with almost no padding on the bottom it’s just like walking barefoot.  Because I can’t help it, even though my groin tear is still a problem, I tried small amounts of jogging during the walk.  And almost immediately was able to switch to pad strikes instead of heel strikes.  Back when I was running, people who had made the switch wrote and talked about how it’s pretty much inevitable that these shoes will pretty much force you to change your stride.  I’m a believer now.

Thing is … it’s a different stride that puts much more of the effort into the calves.  I probably only jogged about a mile in my walk of almost four miles.  But my calves were burning at the end.  If I keep this up, I will have calves that will be able to kill a person.  I also think they may just make it possible for me to run reasonable distances without aggravating my groin tear because the stride puts so much into the calves and takes off some of the pressure and effort from other parts of my legs.  Or maybe I’m just dreaming.

Anyway, love the shoes.

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I de-activated my FB account this morning.  Spur of the moment decision built upon months if not years of recognizing that it’s a complete waste of time.  At least for me it is.

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I’m in the midst of reading a self-published book.  It’s a well-packaged book with a great attention- grabbing blurb.  Problem is the story is bordering on complete crap.  I’ll never claim that my self-published works are great literature and I certainly have made mistakes in the self-publishing process, but there are so many fundamental flaws in this story I’ve had enough of it.  My bigger problem with the book is that I’ve seen fellow bloggers/self-published writers assist in the PR campaign for this book by reblogging posts about it, etc.  When I see those reblogged posts I always wonder if the bloggers doing the reblogging have even read the book and if they haven’t, why are they doing that?  See, my belief is that pushing all self-published writers, regardless of the quality, hurts all of us.  I don’t understand how you can support a book or author you haven’t read.  And I don’t know how you could support this book, even if you’ve read it.  I’d love to see us self-published writers rally around quality rather than supporting anybody who self-publishes.

That’s my two cents.