The whole writing thing
Of course, the Smashwords End of the Year Sale is on full throttle and I, P.E. Murphy have four digital books on half sale, paperbacks soon to be available at Barnes and Noble.com, being such a difficult year has once more scattered the puzzle of marketing all over the room before I could lay down a single piece. A piece of advice though, keep writing and editing what you like. Alas, that is just one piece, and wisdom might only revealed by the whole.
All the questions and puzzles about the inspiration and craft. Chasing the avalanche of the popular slushpile down the infinite slope of AI slop or madmen's social media empires. Finding readers. Reviewers. Agents! Publishers. Book Clubs. Ads. Bloggers.Well, I keep the nickels close, the dollars banked, and nod grimly at the experiences and sorrows of others.
So I will only speak now of the four books in question, hopefully edited beyond reproach. Last year's "A Christmas Castle" a 20,000 word humor classic combining the weirdly incompatible "A Christmas Castle" with Dracula and cable Christmas channels. Well, researched and hilarious. Maybe the samples online do it some justice. It is packed with yearning for that Xmas miracle...and comedy.
"Dorothy and the Flower Sea" is an OZ book of a Dorothy a bit older than Baum's and a bit younger than Garland's. Humor and an adventure quest using material from Baum's era, Gilbert and Sullivan, the Owl and the Pussycat and then...the Odyssey. many unique characters and a quick rich plot. Not mawkish and not the "adultified" modern fairy tales so in fashion. I had my own book in progress when the MacGuire's "Wicked" came out. Mine violated too many copyrights and it was all humor, much like the Flower Sea. I even did a parody movie script based on the original MGM version. A labor of laughs and love and futility. For all ages and rich movie producers?
The next two (older)books were when I shifted from my love of oil painting and using all that BA knowledge for poetic fantasies. "Raven/Albatross" is a semi-mystery where a Poe "pretender" tries to peddle new works to a fading Charles Baudelaire in Belgium. The crown jewels are a conclusion to an unfinished tale(I LATER found to my satisfaction to be most similar to Robert Bloch's attempt) and a the completion of Poe's novel about A. Gordon Pym. Lots of twists and turns and puzzles, even in the interior title page. This is the first of three fantasies in the Poetic Comedy representing the Inferno of the "poetes maudits". A stand alone.
"The Swan Coat" is a fantasy dream of William Butler Yeats last days, a fantasia of my own lightweight efforts in fairy tale fashion. This would be the stand alone Purgatorio of the series.
I enjoyed them all, the funny ones the most. Maybe too much. I keep a fun book orphanage of light classics. My doctors are my best fans. Maybe it is some mutual benefit that I be kept happy and alive for more novels or more medical business. I assume that proves some intelligent appreciation. Several other novels old and new to spruce up for next year. All unique somehow, like my posting of the Emperor Ubu playlet in an earlier posting. Sadly prophetic. (But there is still time for him to save himself!)
There they are, just for fun of course. Readers browse and graze where they will. I will keep piping, marching with a different drummer in the marketplace, no whining. Oh, and positively no AI.
Good look and better writing days to all on DU. God bless us every one!