See How She Runs

I’m sure I won’t be able to say anything that hasn’t already been said better by others. I can say as a member of the Boston diaspora, it’s strange to watch these events unfold from so far away, to see streets I’ve walked down a thousand times quite literally covered in blood.

My last years spent working in the city were spent on Huntington Avenue. It was on Huntington Avenue, a stone’s throw from the end of the Marathon route, where word reached me of airplanes crashing into the World Trade Center.

Patriots Day for me was always a special holiday. I was a history buff as a kid, and remember in the Bicentennial year of 1976, my father taking me and my family to Lexington to watch the re-enactment of the “Shot heard round the world.”

As I grew older, attending the 11:00 Sox game and watching the end of the Marathon was an annual ritual, back when the race was truly amateur and it seemed local hero Bill Rodgers won it every year.

I watched Joan Benoit win the Boston Marathon, and was privileged as well to be on hand to watch her win the inaugural women’s marathon at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. I still have a button that her sponsor (Dole, of pineapple fame) handed out to spectators to cheer her on.

However, one of my fondest memories of the Boston Marathon is of the fictional variety, a 1978 made-for-TV movie called "See How She Runs" starring Joanne Woodward. The Academy Award winning actress and her husband, Paul Newman, lived in Connecticut, and they too used to make the annual trek to Boston for the Patriots Day festivities every year.

One year, Newman brought along his movie camera and took shot after shot of the crowds, the scene, and the race. Afterward, looking at the film, he had an idea there might be a movie in there somewhere. There was.

Now, I haven’t seen the movie in more than thirty years, but what I do remember is Joanne Woodward plays a recently divorced woman, struggling to find her way in a life she hadn’t planned. She has a selfish kid or two not helping things. She’s concerned she might have put on a few pounds.

A geography teacher, she has given up on seeing any of the amazing and interesting places she teaches her students about. As she feels her life circling out of control, she has an idea, a goal she sets for herself: she’s going to run the Boston Marathon.

That first day, waking up early to drag herself outside and into the cold, she doesn’t get more than half a block before bending over with cramps. But she's determined.

(Spoilers ahead)

The scene I’ll most remember is the final scene. Throughout her quest, she’s received no support from anyone. Not her co-workers. Not her kids. Not her ex. She runs the race anyway.

At some point, she’s knocked down and injures her leg badly. She gets up. She keeps running.

Hours go by. She’s the only one still out there. The streets have reopened to traffic. Cars are beeping at her. She keeps running.

Darkness falls. She keeps running.

Hours later, she approaches the long deserted finish line, where trash and tattered streamers litter the ground. She’s not running anymore. She can barely walk at this point. Still, she keeps putting one leg in front of the other, and as she limps toward the finish line, she looks up.

Waiting for her there are a handful of friends and colleagues. Her kids are there too. Someone looks down and sees a length of yellow police tape. They pick it up, and two of them stretch it out as Woodward approaches. She crosses the finish line.

That’s the Boston Marathon.

That’s Boston.

Want a free book?

I think most who attempt it would agree that writing and publishing independently is quite often nothing less than moving from one humiliating kick in the crotch to another.

Today's kick in the crotch is (just for fun!) downloading the "sample" for my latest book (21C and Other Sordid Tales) from iTunes just to kind of, you know, see what it looked like. Know what it looks like? It looks like the entire book.

Seriously. The current "sample" being offered is indeed the entire book. No strings attached!

At any rate, I've contacted Smashwords, whom I use to distribute there, to see what can be done about it. I suspect it will be resolved in the next day or two. I've also downloaded a few of my others to see if they too are simply being given away. Fortunately, not.

But then . . . I had an idea. I'm going to turn LEMONS into LEMONADE!

Therefore, I sincerely invite you to download the sample of 21C and Other Sordid Tales from iTunes and enjoy it in its entirety. I'd ask only that whether you like it or not, you leave a rating or (more importantly) a few words about what you did or didn't like about it.

A word of caution though: It is probably the raunchiest thing I've yet written and isn't really representative of my other stuff. On the other hand, my other stuff isn't setting the world on fire either. So maybe raunchy is the way to go!

And so, with my most sincere blessing (and yes, again, request that you leave some feedback) please enjoy 21C and Other Sordid Tales.

While you can.

Ten Reasons You Should Buy My Books

1. They don’t suck.

Let’s get that out of the way first.

Oh, like all writers, I go through angsty periods where I think everything I’ve ever written sucks. On the other hand, I remind myself (and have been sometimes blessed to have kind friends and relatives remind me) that I’ve had short stories selected for competitive anthologies and magazines. I even won Honorable Mention in a prestigious writing contest (the Writer’s of the Future Award, for Adamson's Rock.)

Now, I’m sure some stuff is better than others, and I’m fairly certain my attempt at a thriller (Hope Town) is probably my least best work (though it continues to have a warm place in my own heart, for lots of reasons.) And you know what? People whose opinions I respect have liked that one too.

So, I’ve given up entirely on trying to judge my own work. I just try to remind myself often that I probably don’t suck as bad as I sometimes think I do.

2. There’s something for everyone.

Really. From heartwarming coming-of-age (Sumner Gardens) to youthful adventure (Swash!) to historical vampire horror (Applewood, Fledge) to Twilight Zone-esque shorts (Ohwrurm, The Intersection) to zombie humor and horror (Nearly Dead, Fortunato's Ghost) to the aforementioned thriller (Hope Town) to the just plain creepy and more than a little filthy (21C).

And that's all without even mentioning the flat out humor of my bumbling private detective series, featuring Dick Londergan.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

I truly do think there is something most everyone would enjoy.

3. You’d be supporting an independent author

Not that you should care much, but the publishing industry (much like the music industry) has been upended over the past few years, with the coming of new technologies and the Internet. While it is indeed easier for the independent author to publish something, it’s getting harder and harder to get noticed.

One of the best ways to be noticed is to have people buy your work (which moves you up the ranking charts) and also, for those folks who do buy and enjoy your works, to tell their friends about it, and of course, the kindest folks of all, the ones who leave reviews.

Even after all this time, I know next to nothing about the publishing industry. But I do know from hard experience that books without reviews may as well (for the most part) not have been written at all.

4. They’re available on multiple platforms

Probably to my own detriment, I’ve resisted Amazon’s desire to monopolize the publishing industry by keeping my books available on devices other than the Kindle. Whether you have a nook, a Sony, an iPad, or pretty much any other e-reader, my books are available to be read.

You can find them at the Sony store, on iTunes, at Barnes and Noble and Smashwords, etc. Oh, and lots of them are available on . . . wait for it . . . PAPER!

So in a way, by buying one of my books, you’re striking a blow against corporate monopoly.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

5. They don’t suck.

Needs to be re-iterated, and like I said, I need to remind myself of this constantly.

6. If you don’t buy my books

I’m going to die homeless and penniless and no one will ever love me.

I don’t really think that will happen . . . but it might.

DO YOU WANT THAT ON YOUR CONSCIENCE?

I think not.

7. I’m getting better

If you’ve read some of my earlier works (“Sumner Gardens” or “Hope Town”) then those are the works of a brand new writer, making all kinds of brand new writer mistakes. As dear as they are to me, I do recognize their flaws, and can only say that I’ve gotten better. Much better.

Getting so much better all the time.

8. It will guard my sanity

Though I try to keep such thoughts at bay, I’ve been remembering more often lately that old saying, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

I’ve been thinking about that a lot, because I’ve been doing the same things over and over again—writing books—and expecting different results, that is: I’ve been expecting people to buy them and (maybe) like them, and (maybe) like them enough to tell their friends, and maybe even leave a review. And yet . . . that hasn’t been happening.

I can’t keep doing it. For what it’s worth.

9. They’re cheap

Seriously cheap. From 99 cent shorts (less than the price of a cup of coffee, for something I assure you I spent lots of time on) to $2.99 and $3.99, they cost less than a McDonald’s breakfast.

And, they’re better for you!

10. Like me on twitter or Facebook?

Seriously, the only reason I'm on any social networking platform at all is to BE NOTICED and to hopefully, SELL BOOKS. Despite however I appear on those things, I'm really a very private person who would prefer just to write and sell books.

Alas, in this day and age, you've got to NETWORK . . . or so they tell me. Hasn't worked at all yet for me, though, at least in terms of selling books.

Yes, they can be lots of fun, and it truly has been fun to meet new friends on twitter, and it's been especially wonderful these past few weeks to see lots of old friends on Facebook. But the cold hard truth is I'm there and on twitter to sell books.

11. BONUS REASON: They don’t suck.

Honest.

Odds and Ends

Spent some time this morning over at Goodreads, reading the reactions of their users to Amazon’s acquisition. The ten or so pages of comments I read broke down mostly 50/50, with many users of non-Kindle devices fearing they’ll be left out in the cold (they will, of course.) Many Kindle users are excited about more Goodreads - Amazon integration, however many reviewers don’t want their reviews cross-posted to Amazon, as apparently Amazon claims copyright to reviews posted to their site, and Goodreads does not.

I'll admit that in an effort to "raise my profile!" (read, sell more books) I joined Goodreads a while back and did my best to navigate my way around. I also began writing reviews and posting them both to this blog and over there. But, because I'm The Worst Social Networker in the World™ I got very little traction over there, and when Publisher's Weekly trashed me and "Applewood," my appetite for writing reviews on other people's work waned completely, because really, who the hell am I to judge?

I do remember joking here that I hadn't made any friends over there, and not long after seeing two of my sisters and a niece had joined Goodreads just to be my friend. Now, that was cool and I appreciated it, but it just showed me how silly the effort was. Finally, Goodreads became a spam machine, flooding my e-mail in-box with junk that I didn't know how to turn off, and I deleted my profile entirely. So much for THAT avenue of "getting my name out there!"

But back to Amazon's acquisition; I made oblique reference in my last post to what Amazon has been doing to folks like me, who choose not to participate in their “KDP Select” program. For the uninitiated, what KDP Select requires the independent author to do is to enroll their books exclusively at Amazon for 90 days. Within those 90 days, you are granted 5 days to offer your book for free. Your books are also available for “borrows” from Amazon Prime members for free. In return, Amazon will pay you a few bucks per borrow, which varies depending how much money Amazon puts into "the pool" for that quarter.

Of course, the end result is an army of independent authors who can’t wait to give their books away in the hope that they’ll get “exposure!” and be “noticed!” (I can’t help but recall Harlan Ellison’s eloquent diatribe against any author who gives away his work for free.)

So, since about last March, when KDP Select got off the ground, there have been somewhere between 30,000 or 40,000 (or more) books available for free at Amazon every day. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that it is around that time frame when my sales at Amazon came to an almost literal halt, as users populate their Kindle with free book after free book, perhaps having a year or more's worth of reading available.

There are also some who believe that Amazon has changed their algorithms, making it more difficult to find non-KDP Select authors. Given my own fall off a cliff, you can put me in that camp too.

(I also love the fact they call it “Select,” as if these books are distinguished somehow or Amazon has “selected” them based on their quality or their writing, when in fact, it has nothing to do with that. P.T. Barnum would be proud.)

Of course, it is all in an effort for Amazon to increase their monopoly power, putting the nook and Sony and other e-readers out of business. Indeed, it was reported last Christmas that Amazon actually loses money on every Kindle sold. In an alternate universe, when a company does such a thing in an effort to put rivals out of business, something would be done about it. Alas, not in this one.

At any rate, I can’t imagine the Goodreads acquisition will be good for anyone but Amazon. Odd too Amazon would acquire a site primarily known for reviews, because lately, Amazon has been deleting reviews left and right for no apparent reason. In fact, they deleted the very first review I ever received on any of my books, on “Sumner Gardens.” The review was by someone I did not know, but she only gave it three stars, so good riddance I say!

/rant off. Let’s end with Harlan, shall we?