Come to our Reading Next Week!!!

For the first time in two and seven-twelveths years, I will be participating in a reading.

Yep. It's at Taborspace in SE Portland, and I'll be reading with other members of my writing group Writers Anonymous. The Co-Guests of Honor are Mark Russell, whose God is Disappointed in You will have just come out on Top Shelf; and Heather Arndt Anderson, whose Breakfast: A History just came out on Altamira Press. (Heather promises to make pancakes while reading.)

Other readers will include me, Sarah Gilbert and Rebecca Kelley, and the night will also feature live music by Dave Lindenbaum. (Other WA members may sign on too.) I'll be reading a short piece you've never heard before and manning the book table with Kel. Here's the skinny:

What: Out in Public: Readings from the Writers Anonymous Writing Group
Where: TaborSpace 5441 SE Belmont St  Portland, OR 97215 (503) 238-3904
When: Thursday, August 8th, 7-9 PM

Come help us celebrate two books being released by our group members within a month of each other, which is frickin' ridiculous.
Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which will premiere in Tempe in early 2013.

Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $5.

Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

More Badge Revision

I'm about three quarters through my last read-through of Badge, and it feels very close. I managed to talk myself out of one of the two biggish edits from last week, so I've got just one left. It will take about 2k out of the novel, which feels good. That 2k focuses almost entirely on characters who don't really factor into the main story. In other words, they're not that interesting. So off with their heads.

I feel like my novel can so easily slide from good to bad. There are 80,000 words in Badge, but one phrase--even one word--can make me feel like the whole etude gets knocked out of key. Every book and movie I love tilts on the characters' or actors' every word, every gesture. I don't know how anyone does anything of quality in less than five years. It happens, but not with me.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which will premiere in Tempe in early 2013.

Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $5.

Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

Badge Revision

I'm about a third of the way through my final read of Badge, and I'm already set on making a couple of biggish changes. I had no idea what my reaction to the book would be this time. I half expected to blow through the thing with just small edits, but that's what a little distance gives you. If I know how to make Badge better, I have to do it, right? We're still looking at Aug. 29 as the drop dead final edit date, after which it goes to the proofreader. I'd better get at it.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which will premiere in Tempe in early 2013.

Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $5.

Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.

Kickstarter Surveys, and The Final Pass at Badge

The first of the Kickstarter surveys went out yesterday, this batch to the folks who donated $125 and up. Everyone else will hear from me at the beginning of 2014.

Also, I start my final edit of Badge today. There's nothing better than going over something you've been working on for years. How nice to sit down and start a novel I know I'll like (and what I don't like, I'll change). Drop dead date for revisions is August 29th. After that it's off to the proofreader.

Did you know Sean Beaudoin's rock novel Wise Young Fool comes out in August?

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Check out the Trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, which will premiere in Tempe in early 2013.

Or try Stuck Outside of Phoenix in print form for just $5.

Or try Stuck for your Kindle for just $2.99.