Wrapping Up 2023

The year 2023 is drawing to a close and I'm doing what I can to wrap things up with literary flair. First up, I was contacted by BookDNA.com (formerly Shepherd.com) for the second time (here is my response on the first occasion) and asked to share my 3 favorite reads of the year. I gave it some thought (as did many other authors and readers who also contributed) and shared my Top 3 to date. Since there are nearly two full months left to go in the year, I can't guarantee that another book won't bump a title from the 3 seated throne. The one I'm currently reading is certainly off to a promising start. But as of this blog post...

Each November over the past several years, I have heard buzz in book'ish social media circles about National Novel Writing Month - aka NaNoWriMo. One of the first novels that I reviewed for my booktube channel Roy's Book Reviews was Water for Elephants, a book that began its first draft as a NaNoMoWri project. Sara Gruen ended up getting a publishing deal out of it, and later came a movie adaptation. THE DREAM - right? Usually I don't partake in online (or offline) group writing projects. Writing by its nature is a solitary pursuit, and while I am a sociable enough fellow, when it comes to crafting tales I typically operate as a lone wolf. But since I happen to be currently working on the first draft of my third novel, I figured I would join the fellowship of writers participating in NaNoWriMo 2023 as a way to keep myself motivated and my pen (yes, I still write first drafts longhand) continuously moving.

Another literary happening that I decided to participate in is the upcoming ALL BLACK BOOK AFFAIR sponsored by the Black AF Bookclub. A variety of writers from the full range of book genres/categories have chosen to make the Kindle editions of their books free or available at a discount on Amazon. The authors will all be Black and so will the primary characters of the works of fiction. It's an #AllBlackBookAffair spotlighting Black Indie Authors and I am thrilled to have one of my books be part of the event. 

Have you read many books by Black authors? If so, how many of them were indie authors? How many were male authors? Have you spread the love around across multiple genres? Here's a great opportunity to check off some of those boxes at little to no cost. Simply have your Kindle at the ready. Challenge yourselves to broaden horizons.

The Kindle ed. of Matters of Convenience will be FREE December 18th to December 22nd. Grab yourself a literary Christmas gift. Grab a whole bunch of them while you're at it. Say it loud - I read Black and I'm proud.

Any writer who has queried magazines or publishers or literary agents knows that the canned, informal responses that often come (I know, I know - they're VERY busy people who are inundated with submissions and simply don't have time for the personalized touch) can seem as if they were auto-generated by AI programs rather than human beings who actually took a few minutes to pay you any attention. But writers by necessity are resilient, and our thick skins sometimes yield hilarious results. For example...

I certainly was not going to be left out of the festivities. When life gives you lemons...it's lemonade time!

                                                                     *****

Last but not least, I managed to land a fantastic interview with an extremely dashing author that you can find featured at Roy's Book Reviews as well as below. Hope you enjoy it. Cheers, old sport (did you figure out that my Halloween costume this year was Jay Gatsby?).

A teaser - Passages from MATTERS OF CONVENIENCE

I can't tell you quite yet when my second novel will be published...or how.  First things by their nature must come first, and now that Matters of Convenience has been written to completion, what I have elected to do initially is seek representation by a literary agent.  Hopefully a successful search will lead to its finding home sweet home at a publishing house en route to the ultimate destination - laid out before you in printed format or on a screen.  If the traditional path does not work out, my back up plan (which at this point is fairly traditional in its own right) will be to publish it myself.  Either way, the goal is to get it before your eyes and hope you enjoy the tale.  Since the time for you to partake of my story in full has not yet arrived, I have decided to present snippets here to whet your appetites.  Gentle readers, without further adieu I present a few bite sized morsels from Matters of Convenience.

No reasonable excuse or explanation occurred to her for declining his invitation. Her body craved to be explored by his touch. She longed to discover the places that would make him arch with pleasure, moan with delirium, hum her name in delight. Yet something made her suppress these urges, told her she must wait, that it was too soon. And although the source of these warnings was vague, she opted to obey them over desires that were far better understood.

James could sympathize with problematic sexual entanglements.  This was not to say that he lugged around a suitcase full of regrets about past behavior.  His fierce appreciation of female beauty, the unrelenting desire he felt for their company, the pleasure he both derived and sought to give, had led him in and out of quite a few bedroom doors.  Pleasure was still what he craved, but he was now ready to find nirvana in the embrace of a single pair of arms and legs.

Happily ever after did not make its way to everyone’s doorstep. Most people made due with whatever came along for however long it lasted. They surrendered fairy tale hopes for cookie cutter lives that they could make peace with. If it looked like happiness to those looking from the outside, success was claimed. But a certain percentage of people routinely opted for chaos at the expense of the appearance of tranquility. Perhaps for them the appeal of the race was stronger than that of the finish line, the thrill of the chase far more important than actually catching up.

And on some night in the probably not too distant future, nature would lead them to whichever of their bedrooms was closest at that moment. In this man’s arms, stretched out on either his bed sheets or her own, she would eliminate the final traces of Todd from her everyday consciousness. James would serve as diversion for a week, a month, however long she decided. It was almost as if she had willed him into existence, into standing before her at the precise moment she was willing to accommodate him, arriving not a minute too early or too late. 

He mentally prepared for the worst.  The last time he’d run into one girlfriend while out with another had not gone well.  Perhaps his memory exaggerated it, but his recollection was of a scene that reached the hysteria played out on daytime talk shows when some clueless guy was informed that he was “not the father”.  Sonya had no rational reason to get upset.  They barely knew each other really.  Other than sex, they had shared little and held even less in common.  For God’s sake, it had been a struggle to remember her name.  Still, he was well aware that the way he viewed his involvement with a woman sometimes did not match how she was seeing it.

On occasion he would think back to the fiercest passion it had been his pleasure to experience and reflect on what might have been. He would look upon the woman who occupied the opposite half of his bed and feel his life had not quite lived up to the promise of another day. These moments would be mercifully brief, or so he hoped.

A few minutes of stalling would not break her. She had the strength to stand there and love him right up to the moment he would possibly reveal that this was no longer in her best interest. He did not expect histrionics if his revelation was disappointing. She would not give him the satisfaction, would remain stoic until showing him the door. Whatever happened once he was on the other side would be privileged information.

For more passages from MATTERS OF CONVENIENCE (with accompanying imagery), check out the board I created at Pinterest. 

Sale of the Century

Jay Z raps that he has 99 problems but a female dog ain’t one. Well STOP THE PRESSES, because if you have 99 cents and a Kindle then you too have no problem. No problem obtaining my novel Patches of Grey, that is. March 23rd is my birthday and I’ve decided to mark the occasion in a most celebratory fashion by giving a gift to you. By you, I mean the book buying public. I mean those of you always on the look out not only for a great read, but also a great deal. I mean those of you for which cost may have once been an object, but no more, because it has been reduced from $8.99 to $0.99. My math is terrible but I believe that's a savings of something like 89%! And there's no waiting in a long line to bring it up on your screen. You are now less than a buck and a few mouse clicks away from having an electronic copy of my debut novel in your possession. If you’d prefer to hold a bound copy in hand, if you’re still an old school ink and paper type soul, you can spend a little more to obtain the printed edition from Amazon or one of the independent booksellers that carries it. If you’d like an autographed copy then you’ll need to purchase one directly from me via PayPal. But if all you care to have is the story itself, and if you are currently a Kindle owner or else destined to become one in the not too distant future, your wallet is an extremely light hit away from reading my book. How long will this mega sale last? Well, that’s up to you. I’m not under the impression that Patches of Grey will be making me a rich man. My goal is simply for as many people to read it as possible. I put a tremendous amount of work into it, happen to feel that it’s a fantastic impactful story, and would love for a significant amount of people to check it out and judge for themselves. So long as a respectful number of readers are deciding to give it a shot, the Kindle edition of Patches of Grey will remain at the budget friendly price of 99 cents. To reach the maximum count of people I suppose I could just give it away, but I’m feeling generous, not crazy. Once you’ve read my novel I really hope to hear your thoughts on it. Please leave a line or two on Amazon or GoodReads.com or your book review blog or wherever it is you state opinions on the books that come into your lives. I look forward to finding out what you think, just as I'm anxious to finish the edit of my second novel Matters of Convenience, get it out there, and learn how you feel about that one also. Then once again there will be cause to celebrate. My uncopyrighted motto is "Another Day, Another Milestone". So what are you waiting for? If you’re thinking of getting me something for my birthday, I’ve just given you a mighty big clue what I'd value and cherish most of all. You may come to find that you've given yourself a wonderful gift as well.

Happy Reading!

~

p.s. - Please check out my interview at Kindle Author where I talk about, well, being an author, being published on Kindle, my novel Patches of Grey, and a whole lot more