The Author Guy Blog

29th January 2025 Hello out there Welcome back. I often refer to the eleven years since I began writing and publishing as “my author journey.” Here’s why. It’s been exactly that – a journey. One that took almost fifty years to materialize. I first realized I had a flair for writing when fulfilling assignments in English classes my junior and senior years in high school. Those teachers, and my librarian mother, encouraged my to pursue writing as either an avocation or as a vocation. I didn’t, and now all these many decades later, I can’t recall why I didn’t. Having said that, my writing skills served me well during my C-suite corporate career. Beginning in college, I thought I wanted to be an author, inspired by the success of Eric Segal with his mega-bestseller  Love Story  that made Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neil household names when the movie was released. I began journaling story ideas, as well as words and phrases that resonated with me, and I continued the practice until I be...

  22nd January 2025 Hello out there, Welcome back. While I regularly purchase releases of new books online from either Amazon or Barnes & Noble websites (my books can be found on both), I also occasionally “haunt” used book stores (where my books can also be found). These stores can be a treasure trove of previously published books going back several decades and can usually be purchased for between one and five dollars. When shopping at these stores, I first seek out the sections of prolific authors I study, especially those who are no longer with us, authors such as Stuart Woods and Robert B. Parker. I’m especially drawn to these two because their books are dialogue-driven, and that is my writing style, as well. Last week, my search was rewarded with a rare find – an authentic autographed first edition of Parker’s  Widow’s Walk  published in 2002. If you’re ever tempted to order an autographed copy of an author’s current book, a note of caution. Years ago, I spent a ...

 15th January 2025 Hello out there, Welcome back. I mentioned last week that I’ve begun increasing my reading of non-fiction works, and I have another recommendation that will likely resonate more with readers of “a certain age” like me. By that I mean those for whom The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson was must-see late-night viewing weeknights on the NBC television network. The book is Carson The Magnificent by Bill Zeheme with Mike Thomas. My undergraduate degree was in broadcast journalism and I worked in both radio and television for the four years I was at Western Kentucky University. At the time, WKU alum Julian Goodman was president of NBC at the time Carson’s Tonight Show moved from New York City to Burbank, CA in the late 1960s. Instead of shipping the studio cameras west, Mr. Goodman saw that they were donated to the university to begin our broadcasting curriculum. We all thought it was “cool” to be working with oversized studio cameras with the NBC name and logo e...

8th January 2025.  Hello out there, Welcome back. My wife and I just returned to our Kentucky home after welcoming the new year at our South Carolina beach timeshare condominium. It’s been a magical place for me to vacation every yearsince 1985, and I look forward to our return in September. For most of those forty years, I’ve decamped with a full briefcase and laptop, either for work prior to my retirement or to nurture my literary pursuits that began in 2014. I’m happy to report that the computer has not accompanied my for the past few years and the freedom has been a wonderful change. My time is now absorbed with walks on the beach, dining out at restaurants during the off-season and, mostimportantly, reading upwards of a dozen books during the seven days we’re in residence. As a novelist, my interest leans heavily toward fiction, especially by the works of authors I admire and from whom I can learn so much. But at the encouragement of my son and other great friends, I’ve begun ...

1st January 2025.  Hello out there, Welcome back, and greetings on this very first day of the new year 2025. I hope it is a glorious one for you and those near and dear to you. This portends to be an exciting time for me in what is now my 11 th year in my author journey. We have a confirmed date of Tuesday, May 5 th , to launch the 2 nd Edition of my award-winning novel Blue by You through the vast marketing and sales infrastructure of Simon & Schuster. And as I am well along in the process with my publisher for my fifth novel, For the Love of Charley Chaplain , I’m hoping for its release by the Thanksgiving / Christmas holiday season at the end of this year. Another thing I’m hopeful of realizing is inspiration that will result in a Christmas-themed book I mentioned a few weeks ago. I’m confident it will happen – just need to be patient. In the meantime, I’m working away at crafting short stories for online publication and potentially inclusion in an anthology I’ll published ...