Morrissey and Getting What One Wants

I've lately been working on a few pieces about my favorite bands and music artists, and the first popped up this week at Word Riot. It involves Morrissey, chewing tobacco, and my bad post-Refreshments employment record. Give it one paragraph.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Watch the Book Trailer for Badge.



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TAG: A Writing Process Tour

Dan Berne tagged me in a writing process blog tour. I love Dan's debut novel, The Gods of Second Chances, which had me in knots for a week. I'm trying to imagine a more perfect summer read and am coming up empty. Go get it.

What am I working on?

My main project is my fourth novel, One Star, and it's in something like its second draft. I've been working on it for a year or two, and it will be at least another two before it will be ready for your eyes. I'm also finishing the screenplay version of my second novel Ghost Notes, and many other shorter things.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Rock novels seem to be attempted by two types. The first are rock fans. The second are rock musicians. The former group tends to write better ones, as the latter group I think tends to think novel writing is easier than it is and gives up at some point. My goal is to be both types of rock novelist at once, which is ideally what sets my work apart.
 
Why Do I Write What I Do?


The first time I read something that truly affected me was a short story by Katherine Anne Porter in a college English class. I can't remember the title, and I haven't been able to find it since. It was an extremely simple line--something about a female character jumping over a stream. I couldn't believe how deeply it struck me. My first thought was, "I didn't even know jumping over a stream made me feel that way, but now that I've read this description of it, I realize it totally does." It seemed a profound way of communicating from Katherine to me. I've pretty much spent the last three decades looking for more novels and stories I relate to as deeply, and trying to relay my own experiences in the same way as Ms. Porter.

How does my writing process work?


I usually start a novel with one surface idea. For my latest, Badge, it was a comment by my guitarist friend Bret Hartley that went something like: "I have to play this cover gig tonight when I'd rather be in my basement learning Jeff Beck licks." It sounded like the entire plight of the rock and roll sideman in one sentence. I started writing the novel that would become Badge the next morning. I write all my novels the same way: 500 words a day--no more no less--and I do that every morning until I have a completed first draft. Then I start at the beginning again. I'm kind of monkish about it. I don't remember the last morning I skipped my 500 words.
 
Next up on TAG! YOU'RE IT: 

Everyone needs to check out Lost in Space by Ben Tanzer, which will break your heart whether you're a parent or not. I saw Ben read one of these stories in Seattle this past year and almost teared up. I said almost. Consider yourself Tanzered.

Also, James Greer's Everything Flows is unlike anything else you'll read. Surreal, with many sublime moments, and REM references to boot. Try it and tell me I'm wrong.

Amazon is Still the Devil

Every writer I know has stated their opinion of Amazon this past week. I've offered mine before, but here's a simpler take.

1) Amazon is by far the most innovative publisher/retailer in the world today.

If you're an author, you sell more books because of Amazon. If you're a reader, you spend less for books because of Amazon.

2) Amazon wants to kill your community bookstore. 

If you're an author, you should be appalled. If you're a reader, independent bookstores are places where some are willing pay a few dollars more for books so they can have a center for literary culture in their neighborhood/city/region. Some areas are lucky enough still to have them.

That's the crux of it. Book Sales for Authors/Cheap Books for Readers/Innovation v. Death to Community Bookstores.

Solution: 

If you don't love your community bookstore and don't care about literary culture, I suspect there's nothing I can say to affect where you buy your books. There is a great anti-corporate argument against buying from Amazon, but that's a much larger argument and won't be explored here today.

If you love your community bookstore, every penny you give Amazon is a penny spent to destroy your community bookstore, so plan on spending a few more bucks at your local indie so you can have a center for literary culture in your neighborhood/city/region.

Or dance with the devil.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Watch the Book Trailer for Badge.



Buy Badge.

Badge Discount/Interviews

I've finally compiled all Badge-related interviews. These include a few audio interviews, plus the coveted The Nervous Breakdown Self-Interview I was lucky enough to get to do.

Also, the price of Badge has dropped at my website! Ten bucks now gets you an autographed copy. I want your eyeballs this summer!

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Watch the Book Trailer for Badge.



Buy Badge.

New Piece on Writing up at HTMLGIANT!!!

Helloo,

One of my favorite pieces on writing ever just popped up on HTMLGIANT. It's about the futility of a writer trying to get away with hiding behind a narrator. Anyone who enjoyed my pieces on fiction v. memoir a couple of years ago at The Writer will get something out of this.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Watch the Book Trailer for Badge.



Buy Badge.

New Piece on Learning Novel Writing v. Learning Bass Guitar up at The Weeklings!!!

Best thing about the Internet? You can take a swipe at a Pulitzer Prize winner and who's gonna tell you no?

That's pretty much how it goes down with my recent piece at The Weeklings where I tell my tale of how I learned bass guitar and compare it to the process of learning to write novels. Enjoy!

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Watch the Book Trailer for Badge.



Buy Badge.

The Last Thing I’ll Ask You to Do for Badge

About a year ago, I started letting you know about the Kickstarter campaign for Badge. Since then, the campaign has fulfilled, I’ve published Badge, promoted it online, and have had events in five different cities to support it. All this has gone about as well as I could’ve hoped, and it’s because of you I was able to do it, so thanks again. By the comments I’ve gotten from many of you about Badge, you’re digging the book too.

(Wait, you mean you haven't bought Badge yet? Go here.)

The next phase of promoting Badge focuses on ebook sales. This is the one sect of the publishing industry that’s growing, and also where readers are most likely to give a new fiction writer the time of day. There are a few good entities out there that will help you advertise your ebook, and one of them requires your book to have a certain number of Amazon reviews to qualify.

That’s where you come in. If you’ve read Badge, please take a moment to review it at Amazon. It doesn’t have to be a long review, and you don’t have to be Shakespeare. Just rate Badge, tell what you like about it, what you don’t, and hit return. That’s it. From there, it’s simple to cut and paste your review from Amazon to Badge’s Goodreads page, so you might as well do that too.

If I have any hope of not having to Kickstart Novel Four, it falls largely on my ability to find new readers for Badge now, and that might not happen without your help.

So thanks again. Badge could end today and be a huge success, but with a little help from my friends, it could keep going too.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Watch the Book Trailer for Badge.



Buy Badge.