The Author Guy Blog

  31st May 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. Gonna diverge quiet a bit from focusing on my author journey to share another journey I’m on. A few years ago, I was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma brain tumor. Benign (meaning it’s non-cancerous), but it can grow. Thankfully, it hasn’t changed size or shape since diagnosis, and I’m monitored at Vanderbilt University Hospital once/year. But, one of the symptoms of an A/N is the complete loss, over time, of all hearing in just one ear. I’m almost there. Since it’s my left ear, my son suggests I refer to it as “Vince” in a nod to Vincent Van Gogh. Good to see I’m getting a great return on funding six years and two degrees at prestigious universities  I mention this not to elicit sympathy, rather to speak to a whole new world that has opened up to me via what’s known as “Closed Captioning” – the spoken words on television and movies broadcast on streaming services that are converted to printed words at the bottom of the screen. T...

  24th May 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. We’ve all heard the expression “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” Well, with all due respect, that ain’t so. Or at least that’s my opinion. I’ve done a tremendous amount of research during my ten-year author journey about all aspects of the world of writing, publishing and marketing. That research has constantly supported the importance of the book’s cover when readers are making their selections,  especially  when purchasing online, and that’s where the preponderance of books sales occur given the demise of most bricks and mortar bookstores. I’ve read, and I believe, a captivating title is critical. Mine are  Dancing Alone Without Music  (think about the metaphorical mental picture that creates),  Follow Your Dreams (who among us hasn’t wanted to, or still wants to?),  The Girl on the Bench  (who is she? Where is the bench? Why is she there?), and  Blue by You  (a hopefully understood w...

17th May 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. Today I want to endorse a periodical magazine for your consideration, especially if you are, or aspire to be, an author of works of fiction. That magazine is  Garden & Gun . It’s title gives you a strong indication of what you will find between the covers, and it has a definite ‘southern” focus on hunting, fishing, cooking, dining and travel. It also has articles about music, fiction and non-fiction, the arts … and so much more. It’s extremely high-quality in terms of the actual physical product, and subscriptions are modestly priced. Why do I recommend G&G? Because the writing, the prose, in each of its varied categories is among the best you will read anywhere. The word choices of the various writers are both splendid and splendidly woven together in descriptive and captivating sentences. For me, each monthly edition adds tons of words to my own self-created Word document entitled  Words & Phrases  that I refer to...

10th May 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. Just returned from a six days in Florida and a four-day cruise around the Caribbean with my bride/best friend of thirty-five years. This was only our second cruise, and there will definitely be more in the future. After ten years that yielded four novels, I find myself much more relaxed regarding my author journey since my escape five months ago from the self-publishing world. Don’t get me wrong. It was a wonderful experience and I learned more than I can possibly describe but, at least for me, a lot of the self-induced pressure has abated. My first book with the new publisher and their partner Simon & Schuster will be a re-release of what is now a scrupulously and meticulously edited manuscript of my fourth (and award-winning) novel  Blue by You.  The “new”  Blue  will be published sometime later this year. The rough draft of my second of a two-book initial commitment,  For the Love of Charlie Chaplin , will be f...

3rd May 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. I’m delighted to report the relationship with my new publisher, who is affiliated with powerhouse Simon & Schuster, is meeting or exceeding all expectations I had when I signed the exclusive contract with them back in December of last year. As I’ve mentioned previously, a re-publication and re-release of my novel  Blue by You  will be my first book with them. Even though Blue received three international award recognitions in 2022/23, the book is being treated as a brand new manuscript. For the past two months, I’ve been working a ton of hours with a marvelous Toronto-based editor going line-by-line and word-by-word, metaphorically running a comb through tangles of POV (point of view) mis-steps, information stacking, setup and payoff, paragraphing, on and on. I’m pleased to say that the first two of a three-step process ( documental review  and line edit ) are now complete, and what was a very good book is now, I believe, a ...