The Author Guy Blog

 24 th July 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. So many in our industry are promoted as one or all of this trinity: acclaimed author, award-winning author, bestselling author. But here’s what’s often frustrating, at least for me. Most are not entitled to lay claim to the distinction, and most offer little if any validation to their claim. If one or more readers or professional reviewers praise my writing to others, as they have, does that constitute “acclimation?” I ask because I have no idea if there is a publishing industry standard for such recognition. There’s no penalty that I’m aware of for self-anointing, and who’s to say, or would say, it isn’t true? I was in a Zoom audience for an “award-winning” author instructing us on how to enhance our web sites to increase book sales. Her advice didn’t ring true, so I went to her web site and learned two thing. She’d never published a book herself, thus she’d never experienced book sales arising from the advice she was giving others. ...

 19th July 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. I want to share an idea with you. Something with which you may already be familiar; perhaps not. It falls neatly into the “it’s the little things that count” category and could make a huge impact in the life of someone near and dear to you. My father outlived my mother by over twenty years, his last two years in his own home in the company of two live-in caregivers – a wonderful mother and daughter team. And during those last two years, my wife and I arranged for something to help since we lived rather far away. We contracted with a national company (there are many to choose from) who delivered a different arrangement of fresh-cut flowers to my father at the beginning of every month. What was the “huge impact?” Well, from memory, at least three things. First, the flowers often remained fresh for more than two weeks, lessening the wait time until the next delivery. Second, the caregivers told us it gave my father something meaningful to...

 12th July 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. Ever been annoyed by people talking among themselves or on their cell phones during any formal gathering? I have. Many times. The most recent was a few weeks ago at the iconic Nashville Honky Tonk known as 3 rd & Lindsley. If you figured that was an intersection of two streets, you’d  be correct. A month ago, I wrote that a dear friend of ours is among the country’s finest Linda Ronstadt tribute singers, and if you’ve read my award-winning novel Blue by You , you may recall I’m a huge Ronstadt fan. A decades-old quote attributed to no less than the wonderful Willie Nelson goes like this: “There are two kinds of men in the world – those who have a crush on Linda Ronstadt and those who don’t know who she is.” I know who she is. Our friend opened with a one-hour set ahead of an Eagles tribute band comprised of several of Nashville’s finest studio musicians. Sound like a great evening of entertainment in Music City, right? Wro...

 5th July 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. Hard to believe it’s already July. The first half of the year has, for me, flown by. I heard or read that as we age in the last one-third (after 60) of our lives, the days get longer and the days get shorter. As do the years … or so it seems. Today I received a reckoning email from my son (age 45) in which he shared realities about my grandchildren (girl 14, boy 12) and their peers regarding the generational digital divide. Their school in one of the most prosperous cities in our fair land conducts seminars on how to address a snail mail letter, and most children their age see no point in opening anything USPS brings to them regardless of the sender. That doesn’t bode well for the struggling USPS, or so it seems. To quote my son (don’t think he’ll mind): “Put it up there with cursive, cash, textbooks, and a whole slew of things that are dead to them in the digital age.” Well, that explains why teenagers working at some fast food restaur...