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...

28th June 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. In my tenth blog, back in January of this year, I wrote about works of fiction that had made an impact on me, and, in fact, inspired me to become a novelist. My focus then was on brief books – what today would be known as a novella – and how some of them gained worldwide reader acclaim and awards such as the Pulitzer and the Nobel. I’ve self-published four novels (word count greater than 40,000 – mine were around 65,000) and my fifth, to be released early next year, will come in at around 75,000 words. But when I began my author journey ten years ago, it was the novella (21,000 to 39,000 words) I envisioned myself writing, and it’s a place I believe I will find myself returning to with my sixth manuscript. An even lesser word count, traditionally topping off at no more than 8,000 words, is the realm of short stories. I recently read of the passing of Alice Munro, a Canadian author who published fourteen collections of short stories over fiv...

 21 June 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. As I’ve written about previously, in December of last year I signed two-book contract, exclusive in nature with grant of right-of-first refusal on all future manuscripts, with a noted publisher aligned with the powerhouse Simon & Schuster. A brief update on where we are. I agreed without hesitation to the publisher’s request to re-publish and re-release my award-winning  Blue by You  novel that was first released as a self-published book in 2022. I worked for several months with a wonderful Toronto-based editor going word-by-word, line-by-line, to elevate what I (and others) believed was a very good book into a great manuscript. We’ve moved through the first two stages – developmental review and line edit, and we’re close to finishing the copy/detail edit process. From there, we move to cover design before the book actually goes into production and is placed in the hands of Simon & Schuster worldclass marketing and sale...

14th June 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. Anyone who has read my award-winning novel  Blue by You  novel understands the title is a play on words of the “Blue Bayou” song written and recorded by Roy Orbison, and also memorably recorded by the legendary Linda Ronstadt. I write about this connection, and about Ronstadt in the book. What can I say – I’ve been a fan ever since the release of her first hit record “Different Drum ” in 1967 – the year I graduated from high school. Yes, the math is easy. I’m approaching my 75th revolution around the sun. It pained me greatly, and her millions of fans worldwide, when Parkinson’s Disease stilled her Grammy-winning singing voice eleven years ago. But as fate would have it, a replacement has come into my life. A couple of years ago, my wife and I attended a concert by one of the country’s leading Linda Ronstadt tribute singers, and over time, we’ve become great friends since she lives nearby in Tennessee. You can get a taste of her ta...

  7th June 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. The events of the past week put me to thinking about “force of nature” and how `we are almost always helpless if we find ourself in the path of one. Metaphorically speaking, a one-of-a-kind force of nature in the person of a former president (and his party’s presumptive 2024 presidential candidate) was just found guilty of thirty-four felony counts by a jury in Manhattan. That decision, and the reaction in the coming months by both the individual and his followers, and those aligned against them, most likely will be a force of nature thrust upon our country and the world, and we’re powerless to do anything about it except make our feelings known, one way or the other, at the ballot box on November 5th . A literal force of nature descended upon my hometown three years ago, and the resulting damage and loss of life was haphazard and indiscriminate. A house destroyed here or there; those surrounding it left untouched. The randomness of it...

  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 ...

  26th April 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. We were talking about “cutting the cord” to television and streaming service access, and whether or not I was entirely satisfied with my decision to do so a couple of years ago. The answer is “no.” I miss my once/weekly routine of viewing what I believe to be the best show ever – CBS Sunday Morning. If you’re not a viewer, I highly recommend you become one. I miss some sporting events, especially those that are “one off” like the Kentucky Derby or the rest of the Triple Crown. I experience pangs of regret when I read recommendations in The Week magazine for viewing for the upcoming week because at least one will look especially enticing. But I’ve stayed the course and I don’t see a departure any time soon. What I don’t miss are news programs telling me what I know has already happened (I know from online updates I receive throughout the day), especially since the preponderance of what they feature is negative or violent. And I rejoic...

19th April 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. I hope everyone made the applicable income tax filing deadlines for last year’s endeavors, and that in return, the IRS was exceeding kind and understanding toward you. It was about this time, two years ago in April 2022, that I stopped watching television. I metaphorically “cut the cord” if you will when our cable/internet service reached $265/month and I couldn’t satisfy in my own mind a favorable cost/benefit assessment. So, when we moved into a fully renovated, mid-century Leave it to Beaver home, we only signed up for internet connectivity. We watched old television shows, and both old and new movies, on DVD, as well as read – books, newspapers, magazines. Cable proved to be a more difficult addiction for my bride of thirty-two years to escape, and slowly, over time, subscription streaming services were added. Now we have more viewing options than ever before, at about half the cost, but still I can be found elsewhere in the house com...

12th April 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. We’ve all likely heard the adage it takes at least 10,000 hours of applied effort to master something new. I recall reading Tiger Woods had practiced and played more than 10,000 of golf before he became a teenager. Well, for me, I long ago passed the 10,000 hours invested in all aspects of fiction writing and I feel as if I’m still in kindergarten. This despite receiving highly-regarded award-winning recognition in three international competitions. For decades I considered myself a very accomplished business writer (I have a degree in journalism), but I simply had no idea the number of moving parts inherent in the craft of fiction writing. Many authors begin their journey by achieving or attempting a MFA (Master of Fine Arts) degree or attend numerous author-focused seminars, either in-person or online. I’ve done some of that, no doubt far less than I should have, and together with independent study and research I’ve crafted my own MFA cou...

5th April 2024 Hello out there. Welcome back. Spring cleaning is normally associated with material things in one’s house, but for me, it’s been a different yet incredibly welcome derivation. I’ve been de-cluttering my computer – specifically, uncoupling from newsletters I once deemed either valuable or potentially so – and no longer do. What prompted this initiative is my previously-discussed escape from ten years of self-publishing. As a result, a vast number of email newsletters to which I, as a self-published indie author, had subscribed that were somewhat interesting but no longer relevant. Instead of simply deleting them as they arrived in my in-box, and took the next right step and clicked the “unsubscribe” link. Inspired by a sense of weight being lifted, and then embarked on shutting off a significant amount of invasive communications on Facebook that arrive throughout the day. I’ll share that Facebook is the only social media platform to which I pay any attention, and I can go...

29th March 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. Mother Nature is slowly pulling back the curtain on springtime here in the Bluegrass State, and all is well in my world. I hope it is in yours, as well. A well-planned and highly-anticipated cruise from Ft. Lauderdale around the Caribbean is on our (my wife and me) late-April calendar. With things progressing so wonderfully at Indigo River Publishing, and with my Oregon marketing guru, RJ McHatton, working his magic, I decided against including Wi-Fi in our pre-paid menu of amenities to be selected when the cruise was booked. Gonna leave the computer behind. I have found at every stage of my life, but especially now that I’m midway into my 70s, that friendships are everything. So I’m delighted we’ll be accompanied on the cruise by a wonderful couple and dear friends from our hometown who will be flying to meet us in Florida. For our part, we’ll be driving down to have the opportunity to spend a few days going and coming with another couple...

22th March 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. My previously self-published and award-winning novel Blue by You is moving quickly through the editorial process with my new hybrid publisher Indigo River . I have final say regarding any changes their folks suggest, and mine will be a quick turnaround so that we can move ahead to the publishing phase (new cover design, formatting, etc.). My incredible marketing resource, RJ McHatton of Bend, OR, is in direct contact with Indigo’s marketing team to craft a launch ahead of the book’s availability for pre-ordering. Over the past couple of years, RJ and I have fine-tuned a marketing plan, one focused on the elimination of marginal opportunities, driven by the belief success will come more from what we choose not to do rather than what we actually pursue. Trying not to fall down rabbit holes, if you will. I’m doubly excited that my Indigo relationship (and I can’t say enough great things about them) brings with it the distribution prowess of ...

15th March 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. It’s been said (by whom the first time I don’t know) that the only thing permanent is change. That certainly happens to me seemingly all the time, and one example occurred a few weeks ago and reversed something I said in my very first blog posting back in December. Backing up a bit. For years, one of my writing goals has been to become a syndicated columnist, both for the writing pleasure it would bring, and as a means to promote my author brand and my books. I thought I was on my way when our local paper began publishing what turned out to be seventeen feature columns I wrote for their 6X/year, four-color lifestyle magazine. Then in 2023, cost-cutting measures changed (in my opinion) the quality of the magazine’s physical product, and they wanted my position (the inside back cover) for ad placements. I respectfully said “no,” so they asked if I would write a monthly column for the newspaper itself. I jumped at the chance.  I committed...

8th March 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. The middle of February, I learned of the death of a high school classmate. Only a few days earlier, she’d been at church on Sunday morning, so her passing was unexpected. With very rare exceptions, no one will know when the last grains of sand in their hourglass of life will find their way to the bottom. But when I was asked to read a scripture passage (the Beatitudes) her family had selected, and to say a few words of remembrance at her service, I was drawn to a two-sentence verse in the fourth chapter of the book of John:  “How do you know what will happen tomorrow? For your life is like the morning fog; it’s here for a little while, then it’s gone.” We’ve all likely heard the expression “Live each day as if it were our last.” Nice homily, but in my view, impossible. No one would live their life that way – completely devoid of optimism for tomorrow. I prefer my own version: Live each day such that if it turns out to be my last, it wou...

March 1 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. This week’s contribution speaks to something I learned early-on in my author journey and was reinforced by something I read last week in a magazine.  In preparing my first book for publication about ten years ago, my research revealed the two most important things reader’s consider when selecting a book from an author previously unknown to them are the title and the cover. Modesty aside, I think all four of my titles are interesting, perhaps even compelling:  Dancing Alone Without Music, Follow Your Dreams,   The Girl on the Bench  and  Blue by You. When I changed indie publishers a few years ago, I didn’t have the rights to, or couldn’t find the original artwork for, the first three books. Admittedly, I was in a hurry to make the change, so I worked with a graphics person to designed similar covers for all three. Because of the parchment background, I’ve labeled them The Parchment Series. But I am especially proud of ...

23rd February 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. Last week, my son noted in an email reply to one of mine that he’d just noticed the hat in my signature line: I replied that it was a component of my author “branding” but I had hoped it wouldn’t be so subtle as to go unnoticed by a family member for the better part of three years. I am a proud member of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, an organization here in my home state dedicated to doing important charitable work for those less fortunate. To become a Colonel, one must be approved by the Secretary of State before the certificate is signed-off by the sitting governor. I’ve been a member since the mid-1980s, so my certificate was signed by the only woman governor in Kentucky’s history – Martha Lane Collins. All by way of explaining the hat is a Kentucky Colonel hat. The Old English “G” (that also appears in my name on my book covers) holds special meaning to me because it’s how my late father signed his name. I recalled this...

16 th February 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. Last week I commented that opinions are like noses – everyone has one. I wrote it because I disagreed with what I felt was an untrue and unfounded statement of absolute posted to an author-centric Facebook group. It caused me to ponder so many other “absolute” statements and admonishments I’ve read over the past ten years regarding the craft of writing. It’s been my (albeit limited) experience that most of these proffers of advice come from people who are either not published authors, or if they are, unsuccessful ones. I’m remined of the old saw: “Those who can – do. Those who can’t or won’t – teach.” Here are just two that came two mind that I felt were worth sharing. A now-deceased supposed writing “expert” by the name of Bickham had an entire chapter in his book entitled “Don’t describe the weather.” He goes on with the added admonishment to never begin a book with weather. Well, perhaps he had in mind the infamous and much-maligned...

  9th February 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. I have so much to learn about my chosen craft of fiction writing that I seek advice and information whenever and wherever I can find it. As a result, I’ve joined several author-centric Facebook groups and up until now I just read the postings, make notes when appropriate, and keep on scrolling. But not this week. An author inquired of the group if her already-published indie novel had any chance of being picked up by a mainstream publishing house. Another group member responded “Absolutely not” and went on to opine that it would only happen if the book had achieved stunning sales success, as was the one-off and well-known instance of  Fifty Shades of Grey.  Two, possibly three, problems with that response. First, I don’t believe in “absolutes” in the co-joined worlds of writing and publishing. Second, from personal experience, I know the “absolutely not” to be absolutely not true. My award-winning fourth novel,  Blue...