The Lines of our Times

30 Seconds

2008-04-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

As stated earlier, I've been wanting to write some short stories on random topics to help practice and fine tune my writing. I've studied stories from Poe to Richard Matheson (Terror at 20,000 Feet, and I Am Legend) to various others, looking for varied approaches and such.

Given the break-neck pace at which the story "E. B. Samuelson" came to me - virtually dictating itself to me - I think I got a little spoiled by the experience. I guess I was hoping that that would continue to happen with other stories. After all, that one just came to me out of the blue and literally came word for word as I was waking up one morning.

But, such was not to prove to be the ongoing case.

It had been several weeks, and no inspiration had come. I had some ideas, sure, but nothing was clicking and I couldn't get interested enough to actually sit down and type up any of them.

Then, last Saturday, I was sitting with my son listening to President Monson's talk during Priesthood Session. I've heard it said that during church you should make note of the thoughts you get, even if they aren't related to what is being said, because it might be inspiration for something important in your life.

Well, I'm not sure how "important" a short story is, but I certain had some interesting thoughts pop into my mind that had NOTHING to do with the talk (that I at least thought I was paying attention to, up until then).

The first one that hit me with the vapid permanence of a dream. All I remember is it had something to do with a guy managing to get out of a plane that has crashed in the ocean, and that he's the only one in a life raft and he's able to see the lights of the plane sink away into the murky depths.

The second one really stuck with me though. It was of a guy on a mountain path who is lying on his stomach reaching over the edge of a cliff. In his one hand is his wife. In his other is his teenage daughter. He's desperately trying to pull them up to safety, but doesn't have the strength. He gets to the point where he has to choose which one he will save. He's going to have to let go of one so he can use both hands to rescue the other, and making the choice is KILLING him.

What a terrible predicament!

I jotted down a key paragraph that night. I was hoping for another flooding of inspiration moment, but it didn't happen. Cool plot. No story. Monday I added a sentence or two for another portion of the story.

I was still questioning pieces of the plot. Why were they there? How did they fall? How did he get himself into a state where he's holding both? Will I need some "filler" information to make the story long enough to be worth reading? Will that filler info be background info on why they all care so much for each other, etc.?

Nothing on Tuesday.

Wednesday, I decided to just start writing. I was shooting for a 3-pager.

Rather than leading up to the fall, I started with him hanging over the edge with his girls clinging to him. I pictured it all in my mind, slowly, trying to envision what was going on in everyone's mind. Trying to decide on and describe what all would be tried or happening.

It was a pretty tense situation. The palms of my hands were starting to sweat as I wrote - and empathized with them.

Just before midnight, I finished the first draft. Seven pages. My heart was pounding having "experienced" the whole scenario over the past couple of hours. I was pacing with energy. It was a great feeling to get the story out in completeness and see it through.

I had Teresa read it right then. She normally would have zonked out after about half a page at that time of night, but she zipped right through it. It's probably the best page-turner I've written to date.

I titled it, "30 Seconds" because that's about how long the story lasts in real time.

A Narrative for the Trip

2008-02-29T12:47:00.000-08:00

Given as our car-trip in July (see previous posts) will take us through ~27 States and 6000+ miles, I decided to ping some groups that might find it interesting to use our experience as a plug for their services. E.g. "27 States, 6000 miles, 4 kids, and we enjoyed every night of it because we slept soundly at such-and-such hotel...."

I've received a few "What a brave dad!" replies. I didn't realize that "brave" was a synonym for "foolhardy"! ;^) As well as several "Thanks, but no thanks" replies.

I just received one from an audio book company who said it sounds very interesting. They've asked me to make a narrative of the trip for them to review and consider marketing. Cool! I had thought of blogging the trip, but an audio narrative could make for a fun artifact at the end. I could capture some sounds along the way of the different places. Put them with photos and we could have an interesting slide show.

Of course, I'd have to edit out the "Don't make me come back there!" comments that are bound to occur at some point along the way!

I'll have to give this some thought on how to generate an effective intro and conclusion, as well as the central commentary. I'll also have to stop by the library to see if I can find similar audio narratives that I could use as a guide.

This makes for a fun slant on the trip that I hadn't anticipated.

Have any of you done something like this before?

BTW, Happy Leap Year Day!
My wife and I have a tradition for Leap Year Day - We go out to a restaurant that neither of us have been to before. Tonight marks our 5th such outing together. It would have been 6, but Leap Year Day was on a Sunday last time and we don't eat out on the Sabbath...

E. B. Samuelson

2008-02-22T08:54:00.000-08:00

I've had a peculiar experience this past week. I decided I wanted to write some short stories, for writing practice. I also decided to get some tutoring on the concept by reading some short stories by a master. I've done this in the past, where I've read several works by a specific author and then written a tale using their tone. This time I chose the writings of Richard Matheson. Stephen King recommended him as a significant inspiration for him.

Granted, I'm not really a Stephen King fan, as I'm not that into horror, but I know him to be extremely successful which means he has an opinion that is at least worth listening to. I've now read a couple compilation books of Matheson's short stories.

Some of them were a really fun read, particularly because I enjoyed watched "The Twilight Zone" many years ago, and several episodes were based on his short stories, such as the classic, "Terror at 20,000 Feet" starring William Shatner (which, BTW, I read while flying back from Oklahoma). Then there's "Mad House" in which everything in a guy's house becomes animated and hostile, including his electric razor which comes at him like a cobra.

Fun stuff, although there began to be a noticeable trend: the hero/heroine always ended up either dead or insane. At first it was a fun twist to find out that the hero didn't survive to fight another day, but when every story seemed to leave the protagonist in the grave, it became increasingly difficult to root for him or her. It had about the same satisfaction of watching "Episode III" of Star Wars in which you knew Anakin would give into the Dark Side, you just didn't know all of the details. Did ANYONE find themselves rooting for Anakin? It's just awkward.

But, the stories themselves are great tools for showing how to pace and orchestrate a short story. They illustrate key nuances, such as how much detail to provide vs. how much innuendo. For example, if the characters experience a recurring event, it's simply not necessary to restate each detail of that event repeatedly. A simple, brief reference to the repeating - so long as it's essentially the same event again without a key step forward in the plot - can suffice.

Sunday morning, I woke up and continued to lay there debating whether or not to actually get up, or take an early Sunday nap. While I lay there, the opening lines to a short story began to dictate themselves to me. The character's name (E. B. Samuelson), the tone and pace of the writing, the words themselves were coming to mind very clearly.

I had the first two paragraphs running through my mind, as well as the final sentence. As these wouldn't leave me, I decided to get up and write them down. I had the beginnings of a short story in the tone of Richard Matheson - sort of.

The odd thing for me was that my typing was more a matter of uncovering text that seemed to already exist. It was like using a coin to scratch off the silver bar on a coupon to see if it included a winning number. The more I typed, the more of the story I was able to see. Perhaps oddest of all was that I had know idea what was going to happen next.

The final sentence had very little to do with the opening paragraphs. They seemed to indicate a tremendous change in the mindset of the character, and I had no idea what would occur to cause that change to take place.

The more I wrote, the more I would guess at what was coming up. I began to have a feeling that I knew what Mr. E. B. Samuelson was up to, or going to experience next, or what the point of his story was, and then the topic would take an unexpected shift and another aspect of the story would present itself in a way I hadn't predicted. Small things became significant, and obvious plot lines faded to the background.

My goal was to write only a ten-page short story, not a novel. I was growing fearful when I was on the 10th page last night, and it appeared from the direction of the story that it would go on for at least 24. Then some more scratching away at the words revealed that it was actually only a couple of paragraphs away from being completed. Things that I thought had to be said, or were going to be said, needed no saying at all. The story climaxed and ended with the very appropriate final line that had been written long before the story itself had formed.

I read through the thing from start to finish and am surprised that it works. I'm not saying it's the greatest short story ever written, far from it, but it works.

There is much about it (the tone, the verbiage, the characters, the topic, even the plot) that is something I would not generally care to read, much less write, but somehow, working together, they form an experience that is worth reading. I found that the tone became an essential defining aspect of the main character's character, as clearly, or perhaps moreso, than a written description of his physical persona.

I also enjoyed the twist that the story is timeless in that the reader is left to wonder if the story takes place today, or in the 1950's. Either would work. Likewise, the location is left to the imagination. It could take place as easily in London as it could in New York City, or any of a dozen other cities. Those aspects are not critical. What is critical are the degrees of change the character undergoes as he tries to maintain his rigid life. The tagline for the story also dictated itself to me: "A punctual salesman discovers that there is more to life than selling shoes."

I enjoyed the writing being an act of discovery as much as creation. For example, while I often have trouble coming up with names for characters, these names seemed to come pre-written. As each character introduced itself to the page, it arrived fully named and depicted.

I'm sharing this little experience for the benefit of those who have had other similar experiences, or as an encouragement to those who are becoming interested in writing and might want to get a feel for what it can be like.

Mapping it out

2008-02-01T14:03:00.000-08:00

I'm posting a graphic of the mapquest map that shows the trip we're planning for this summer. See the previous blog...

6,000 Miles, 3 Girls, and a 5-yr-old

2008-02-01T13:34:00.000-08:00

I have to confess that I don't remember when it was. How long ago. What I was doing at the time. What we were even talking about. But, I do remember my oldest daughter, Holly, declaring that before she graduated from high school, she wanted to have visited each of the contiguous United States - and then go to Hawaii for a graduation present. (Obviously, being somewhere in her pre-teens, she didn't actually use the word "contiguous" but that was what we knew her to mean. Although she was probably throwing Alaska in there, too. Sigh.)

I also remember agreeing to the "contiguous" part of her request/goal. At the time, we had relatives living in Oregon, Washington, California, Utah, Arizona, Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and even South Carolina. Maybe I've even left a couple off... At any rate, with all of the traveling we did, it seemed like a pretty easy thing. Hit the South and New England, and be done with it.

Well, now she's finishing up her freshman year in high school, and there's a family reunion in Palmyra, New York, so it seems like this summer is the year to hit the missing States.

I just mapped it out. To get the ones we're still lacking, we need to drive from Utah to South Carolina, to Maine, to Upper Michigan (just to visit my old stomping grounds), to Butte Montana, and back home again. We'll cover 27 States in all - several we've already hit before. And, thank goodness we've already hit the Deep South, or this would be an even longer trip.

All in all, mapquest says it will be a trip of 6066.76 miles and take 95 hours and 34 minutes. Ouch!

I'm estimating $2000-3000 in gas, depending on prices. We'll get an oil change and tune-up before the trip and then need another one - and probably new tires - about the time we pull into Maine.

It will take at least 10 days of 9-hour drives. This from a group of kids that can rarely make it through dinner without a squabble...

It should be quite a bonding experience. And, I'm sure that at several points along the drive we'll ALL feel like we're in bondage.

It's bound to be one for the books, so I'll have to make some notes.

BTW, when did the concept of "graduation trips" enter the picture? Is that suddenly some sort of right? When I graduated high school I got a pat on the back and an overly large suitcase. I hope she's got some frequent flyer miles saved up if she's expecting to go to Hawaii.... ;^)

Info On LDS Cruises

2008-01-16T09:10:00.001-08:00

I've had a few people ping me asking about how to arrange an LDS cruise, or how to get an LDS tour guide. I'm happy to help, although I'm really not an expert on it. I've had enough people ask that I thought I'd post the info that I can so that others can get it more easily.

Please realize that I can only speak for my own experience. I'm sure there are many other resources out there that will have better info.

That said, here's what I can share, which I'm afraid will sound like an advertisement. (Honestly, I am not currently employed by or subsidized by this company. I'm just sharing what I know...) We booked our cruise with FunForLessTours (http://www.funforlesstours.com/ 800-591-2432). They have been in the tour business for many years, have a lot of connections and experience, and have several LDS experts at their disposal to both host you and educate you on the areas you visit. I believe there are few places in the world which they do NOT travel to. They offer some specialized tours to LDS historic sites, etc. I've only done the one tour with them, so far, so I can only speak to that.

For the Book of Mormon cruise, they bought a block of tickets on a cruise ship (in this case it was with the Carnival Cruise Line). They made reservations on the ship for rooms in which we could meet for firesides. They had a host couple that made all of the arrangements for the shore excursions (everything from getting taxis and buses to buying tickets to admit us to the sites). The host couple was a lot of fun and kept us focused on getting to where we needed to be when we needed to be there.

FunForLess also hired an LDS scholar to accompany us on the site tours. He would let the local tour guide explain the site and then he'd give us an LDS perspective on what may have happened at or near the site, and what Book of Mormon peoples may have lived near there. He also spoke at daily fireside chats on the ship.

If you want to go on an LDS cruise, this is definitely a great way to go.

If you already have a cruise planned through a non-LDS cruise line or company, and want to try to get a local tourguide who is LDS, who might be able to give you a similar experience, I haven't tried either of these, but there are two things you could try.

1) Call FunForLess and let them know where you're going and ask if they can give you contact info for a local tour guide that you can hire. I don't know if that would be like stealing their corporate secrets, or if they'd be happy to help. I do know that they are a business and that that IS their business, so I wouldn't be surprised if that would be something they'd rather not do. You'd have to be sensitive to that. They are a fun-loving helpful bunch, but they need to preserve and continue their business, and that comes via making money as well as friends.

2) Go to http://www.LDS.org and use the "meetinghouse finder" tool to locate the contact information for the ward or branch that is nearest to the places you will be visiting. With that, you may be able to contact the local bishop or branch president and ask him if there is anyone in the ward or branch that you could hire to give you a tour at the local sites. (Our local tourguide in Tulum (near Cozumel) was named Moroni and I understand that he was the local branch president. So, we got LDS perspectives of the site from both the local tourguide and our FunForLess LDS scholar.) I would highly advise that you plan to pay the local guide and not take advantage of him or her on behalf of being a fellow LDS member. Kindess is great, but you shouldn't take advantage of wonderfully helpful people.

I will also add one more bit of opinion. I absolutely loved the cruise. Great food. Great people. And, I love not having to figure out where I'm going to eat or sleep or how to get to the next travel spot. Plus, I love snorkeling...

But, in talking with the LDS scholar, he said that if you REALLY want to see the BofM type ruins, you need to take the land tour, not the ship tours. The reason is that you spend a lot more time at each site when you do the land tours. Sometimes you can camp out or stay in cabins near the sites. You can spend an entire day or more at some of the sites, as well.

The ship tours are very fast-paced. For the Tulum tour, which looked like a very interesting place at which I wanted to linger, we spent 45 minutes cued up to get off the ship, 40 minutes on a ferry, 2 hours on a bus to the site, and then all that time in reverse on the return trip. Given all of that - that it took the full day - we spent only 35-45 minutes on the actual site. That was my biggest disappointment. It wasn't anyone's fault, it was just a reality of getting from the ship to the site and back. I would have rather spent 4 hours at the site, or more...

At any rate, I still had no regrets about going. I'm very glad we went. Very enlightening. I highly recommend it!

A Way to Help

2007-11-19T07:32:00.000-08:00

Well, getting the book onto Amazon.com was a good thing. Revenue-wise it isn't a major immediate score, though. Because they take 55% up front, and because it was self-published, I have to cover the printing fees, shipping, and packaging. When all is said and done, I make about $.08 per book. (Depending on the cost of the packaging supplies. I could actually lose money.)

Where this is potentially a good thing, is that Amazon has a program in which they allow publishers to view self-published products, and the stats regarding their sales. If a product shows promise, then a publisher may contact the owner and propose a contract. I've signed up for that program (it's free) and am interested in getting people to generate activity around my book in hopes of attracting a publisher's attention. Long shot, yes, but the printed books are a sunk cost at the moment and I may as well try. I've got no potential of success if I don't try.

I previously sent an e-mail out to family and friends asking them to search for "The Shopping Cart Man" from Amazon.com, write reviews, or buy the book, in an effort to move the book up in Amazon's rankings. It worked surprisingly well.

It started out somewhere around being the 1,000,000th best seller. I was hoping to get it somewhere into the 10,000th place. It peaked at about the 4,200th best seller, surpassing that goal.

It's a bit of a shot-lived victory, however, as once the initial flurry ended, the ranking tanked again. It's currently ranked 335,239th. (Which is better than the last time I checked.)

The trick is sustained activity, of course.

I appreciate people helping with this effort, so I've generated a tangible "thank you" for anyone who helps out. "Hidden" on my book's website (http://peepsockpress.com/Cartman/) is a book-on-tape recording of the book that I made. I have it for sale on that site, but I've also temporarily posted it for free download to those who help me at this URL: http://peepsockpress.com/Cartman/new_page_1.htm

I plan on leaving it there for a few weeks, only. And, I still intend to keep the copyright to it and so forth going forward. But, I felt that this was the best and easiest way to get my "thank you" out to those who have helped.

I've also been told by friends that on Amazon.com, you can post "search tags" and create "lists" that include the book, which also helps with its ranking.

I don't want to pester people, so I'm going to send out one more e-mail to an expanded list of people and let them know that I'll post updates on whether or not this is successful here. Those that are interested can come here to find out the latest news, or ping me.

For anyone else foolhardy enough to ponder self-publishing, you can see what's posted here and see if that will convince you one way or the other...

Moving Forward

2007-10-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

It's a new season. "The Shopping Cart Man" is still self-published. I'm not in any major bookstores. How will I move inventory?

I've pinged a dozen or so small bookstores. Two have placed orders for books. Others haven't responded. Two others (the BYU Bookstore, and Hallmark in the mall) have agreed to review the book, and I'm waiting hear back. (I'll have to stop by again...) And, my friends who run a seasonal shop in the mall called and said they're going to do it again and invited me back.

Meanwhile, the biggest sales point in the US - outside of bookstores - seems to be Amazon.com. I studied up on it and applied for, and was approved as, a vendor for them. They also approved the book. So, now I'm trying to get it noticed on their site.

I've learned that simply posting a page there isn't enough. You have to get it into their search engine. Your book has to show up as one of the "customers who bought this, also bought this" results for people browsing the site. The way to do that (short of paying the $10k to get into their top-line marketing program) is to get family and friends to get their family and friends to search for the book, review the book, and even buy the book. The more activity around the book, the more likely it will get noticed by the search engine.

It's an ongoing struggle, but one I'm currently pursuing. I'll add more later...

Why Repeat

2007-10-22T08:31:00.001-07:00

I clearly vowed to never self-publish again, and yet, I did. Why?

I continued to write, simply for me, not for money. I enjoy it. I certainly wouldn't MIND some money, but I'm not expecting it. I hope to be able to continue enjoying writing.

The story of "The Shopping Cart Man" came to me strong and hard one day, as I pondered how I could have done a better job in helping a homeless man that I was sure just wanted to "buy beer." Seeing him split a kid's meal with a homeless lady left a searing, indelible imprint on my memory. As I thought of how I could have done better, and the "what if" scenario of how the man could have been helped, the story for "The Shopping Cart Man" came flooding to me.

It took a year to put it into the resulting novel. But, it was an enjoyable year. I embellished the story, enhanced the characters, made the experience more intriguing. "What would it be like if one of the characters was mute?" I pondered. "Why would he be mute? What happened to him?..."

It was enjoyable writing. It was totally original. It was fun expression.

I let family and friends read it. They weren't just kind, they seemed to sincerely enjoy it. Several said it reminded them of the kind of show that would be "on the Hallmark Channel."

Around Christmas season, my new friends who ran a seasonal store in the Mall asked if I wanted to sell my other book there again. They also asked if I had anything more to sell.

Knowing I did NOT want to self-publish, I also knew that I was in no position to get my Christmas book published in time. I was still putting final touches on it...

I weighed the opportunities and risks.

It was a Christmas-themed book (although not solely a Christmas book). Theirs was a Christmas store.

They were willing to let me do a window display, signings at-will, and even a poster.

It was a smallish store, with few other books, so mine wouldn't get lost in the shuffle.

I decided to risk it. I printed 500 copies, which was 10 times what I estimated I'd sell, but was at the best cost per book ratio. Being a Christmas story, I figured that it could be sold again on succeeding Christmases, so that I wouldn't have to recoup all of my printing costs in the first year.

I also decided that I could try selling off the first printing, and then hope that it would get noticed and picked up by an actual publisher. And, if it sold well, perhaps the track record would make it more appealing to a publisher.

I went forward with it. I did several signings. This time, it continued to sell even when I wasn't there doing signings. It sold well enough that I recouped about 80% of my costs. That far exceeded what I had hoped. That means that it's still not a money-maker, but it's also not a money-pit, either. In fact, it indicates that it has potential.

So, in the succeeding months, I did pursue formal publication, but as of now, it is still solely a self-published item. I hope that no one holds that against me...

It is far from easy to break into this business. Clearly, I need an agent....

Self Publishing Means...

2007-10-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

As acknowledged previously, I've had some people indicate that they'd be interested in hearing of the triumphs and travails of self-publishing. I'll give a bit of a re-cap here, so I can then move forward with current conditions.

My first point and summary statement is simply this, avoid self-publishing.

If you self-publish, you also self-distribute.

Don't underestimate the time and effort it takes to try to get your book into a bookstore - especially if you don't have connections. Many of the larger bookstores will either NOT consider self-published works, period. Or, they will only accept works from vendors who have a minimum of 10 items to offer.

This isn't to be harsh, it's so they can effectively and efficiently run their business. Large bookstores have multiple vendors who provide them with inventory. Each vendor takes some of their time. They have to set up accounts, communicate with, track inventory, place orders, coordinate the return of product, and so forth. The bookstore needs to account for each vendor, whether they offer 1 or 100 items. It is simply more cost-effective for the bookstore to deal with vendors with whom they have an established relationship, a known track record, and multiple products.

Working with an author with one book to offer, who comes in off the street, with whom they have NO track record, whose products are unknown to both them and their customers, and who may not be responsive if product is returned from customers, is a risky situation at best. I can see why bookstores are leery of dealing with authors who serve as their own distributor.

If you self-publish, you must also self-market.

If you thought distribution was difficult, try marketing. Not only are their a myriad of opportunities and avenues to consider and pursue, but they are almost ALL very costly. IF you manage to get your book included in one of the monthly magazines that advertise books, you can expect to pay anywhere from $400 to $2000 for that one-month spot. And, you virtually cannot get into the magazine before you have managed to get into the bookstore or bookstores who sponsor the magazine. Hence, distribution is your first hurdle.

You also have nearly no way of tracking how much of an impact your advertising will make. When "The Title of Liberty" came out, I paid $1000 for putting together and airing a 30-second radio spot that aired around 20 times. (It was actually a good one with a cute closer. It was professionally done, but I had my daughter say, "It's the best book my dad's ever written about Captain Moroni!") I had people tell me they heard the ad and got a chuckle out of it - which meant that I had succeeded at making it memorable, which is crucial, but I had NO IDEA if it actually generated any sales.

I also learned that even if you get your book into large bookstores - which I did - it doesn't mean that any further marketing will take place within the bookstores. The euphoria of seeing my first book on a true, honest-to-goodness bookstore bookshelf was very short-lived. I saw it there, and almost immediately thought, "Hey, there's no flashing light highlighting this book! There are no arrows on the carpet leading people to it! There are no signs on the wall advertising it! How the heck will people know it's here?"

I quickly learned that, especially in the bigger bookstores, if you weren't published by them, you can't market at them. You can't put up posters. You can't set up window displays. You can't do signings. About all you can do is pay hundreds to be in their catalog for a month.

(I even convinced local managers that they would like me to do a signing for them, but they had to follow corporate policy, which meant that the signings had to be arranged through corporate. In contacting corporate, they would say they only work with the "publisher". When I would point out that I WAS the publisher, they would then say that they would have to work with the "distributor". I would get them in touch with my distributor, but nothing ever came of it. I've never managed to hold a signing in a large bookstore.

Note that my first book was an "assisted publication" for which I had a distributor, but I was the publisher, which meant that the distributor got me into large bookstores, but I paid for the printing, marketing, and other headaches... An "assisted publication" is only slightly up a step from "self-published".)

There is one other thing to try. You can find the books on the stores' bookshelves and offer to sign them, and have the staff sticker them. Even better, you can get to know the staff and encourage them to recommend your book when customers ask. I made it a twice-weekly practice to drive to all of the bookstores that carried my book and go in and sign the ones on the shelf and meet the staff. I even wrote to each bookstore manager and thanked them for carrying my book and offered to be at their disposal if there was anything I could do to help it succeed.

I never heard back from a single manager.

I quickly found that the books that were stickered with "autographed copy" were still on the shelf on succeeding visits.

I learned that large bookstores have a lot of staff. I don't think I EVER talked to the same staff members a second time. There was virtually no way for me to gain a repoire with them. Sure, maybe one would recommend the book to someone after I left, but then that person's shift would end and another would come along who hadn't heard of my book.

Self-marketing can be murder. And, it KILLS your motivation to write.

I really did put in quite the effort. I have had some success with my first book. I've sold 2,000 of the 3,000 copies that I printed. I'm told that's respectible. When I've placed ads, I've received payment that covered the ads and then some. However, I don't believe I'll ever recoup the cost of printing the books in the first place. It's great to have a good looking book out there, but it's certainly not a money-maker.

It didn't take long for me to vow I'd never self-publish again.

One highlight is I've let me kids see and hear what it takes to try to follow a dream and make it successful - and to keep trying even when it's a struggle. I want them to learn to be persistent at the things that are important to them. One Christmas season, I managed to get into a small bookstore that let me do signings. (I also noted that the only books that sold were when I was there doing signings.)

I earned a few hundred dollars. When the check came, I took my five kids to the store and let them pick out new bikes. I gave them a budget and they looked over the bikes with wide eyes. Each one picked one they really liked. I told them that the bikes were being paid for with money earned from the book signings. I wanted them to see that if you work hard, sometimes even the little successes can be worthwhile.

Here's the Scoop

2007-09-21T15:32:00.000-07:00

Hey, I've had a few people ping me interested in finding out how to get an LDS tour guide for cruises they plan on taking. I'm sure there are many ways to do this. I can only speak to what we did, though.

I really don't mean to turn my blog into an advertisement for a tour company, so maybe what I can do is at least give you some general info on how to find an LDS tour guide.

The way our tour worked was we did a search on "LDS related tours," "LDS cruises" or "Book of Mormon tours" you should find several companies that offer good tours.

How ours worked was we booked our tour with the tour guide company who bought out dozens of cabins on a cruise ship. The ship was just a normal cruise ship, heading to our ports of call. However, they registered with the ship so that we could gather in conference rooms and such.

The tour company had an orientation meeting before we left in which they introduced us to the host couple that would escort us throughout the cruise. They also gave us useful info and tips.

Later, they met us at the airport in Florida and we all boarded a bus that took us to the hotel. They gave us more immediate info the next day as they bused us to the cruise ship. Then, throughout the cruise, they'd tell us where to meet to get more info and how to get to the tour sites.

They would arrange for and buy tickets to the venues and such. It was really nice to have someone else figure out how to get to everything...

Also along for the cruise was a professor from BYU. While we were at sea, he'd give fireside chats. Once on land, he'd follow along with us. The local tour guide would explain the sites. Then, our LDS guide would say, "That was one opinion, now let me give you an LDS perspective of this site..."

(He wasn't disparaging in any way. I don't mean to imply that by what I just wrote. He was just trying to be clear.)

It was actually quite interesting to get two points of view on the sites.

Part of the fun was getting to know other LDS couples during the trip. Some groups of couples got together every night to play games and such. Sadly, there's something about cruise ships that is very calming for me - I would be sleepy by 9-10 pm every night (considering I'm normally up to 11-12, that was very early for me), so we missed out on a lot of the evening fun and games.

But, we had a great time. If you've never been on a cruise, you REALLY ought to go. I never thought I'd be a "cruiser", but I've been on 3 now and it's been great every time!

Back On Board

2007-09-05T11:47:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been quite some time. It's been a very busy year. And, I probably set my sights too high for the blog. Great plans can be intimidating... It's better to just stick to the feasible and keep it moving.

I've been told that there are other struggling writers out there that might find it interesting to read of the attempts, trials and travails of a fellow struggler. The kicker is that it seems to me that to make the current status make sense, it has to be put into the context of what has been attempted. Writing up a grand summary of that would take more than a blog, probably be too lengthy to hold people's attention, and is a daunting task to undertake.

Add to that the constrictions that 1) I don't like naming people or companies by name in blogs, and 2) I don't like saying negative things about others, especially in blogs, and I'm really stuck on what I feel I can say. The reason for this is that when it comes to getting published, it's very difficult to do item #1 above, without following that up with item #2. Anyone who has gone through the experience knows what I mean. (And, I've spoken with several...)

My first bit of advice, then, to any new writer is, "Write for the enjoyment of writing." Any expectation fulfilled beyond that is unlikely and should be considered "gravy."

I, for instance, really enjoyed writing - up until I tried to get published.

Once the rejection letters started coming back, as much as I had expected it and prepared myself for it, it slammed my enthusiasm. It took quite a while to get up the interest again. Eventually, I had to set the "publishing" conundrum aside and focus on simply enjoying storytelling again.

And so, here I sit, attempting to move this blog along. I believe the next entry will be a highly scaled-down summary of the past efforts moving up to the present, so that future blogs can be more current. If anyone has specific questions or items they want addressed, drop me a line or post a comment. I'd be happy to let you know what I've tried, what has worked, and what has not.

An Enhancement

2007-02-16T12:38:00.002-08:00

OK, I may have broken protocol on blogs, but I just went back and "enhanced" the previous entry. I picked a few pictures from the trip I described and added them to the blog, to show a small glimpse of what I was describing.

I'll also note that while I'm very glad we did what we did, I think next time I'd take a "land tour". We just didn't have time at the sites to see everything, especially in Tulum. It was about 1 1/2 hour drive there and then 1 1/2 hour back. We spent probably less than 30 minutes at the actual site.

I ran around snapping photos and checking out the buildings while the guide walked the group around. I'd check back in to hear bits and pieces of the guide's tour, and then would dash off to see something that I could tell we weren't going to be able to see if I stayed with the tour.

I guess that made it exciting to be on the run, but it was also troubling to be so rushed.

I've been told that on the land tours you not only spend more time, but you also see more sites.

BTW, while there, our guide explained how a NASA photo interpreter figured out that plants that grow on limestone show up differently on infra-red photography than other plants. He began an orbital search over Central America and has found dozens of new ruins. There is now the beginnings of an explosion in searching for new sites. I saw a commercial for a documentary on this topic, coming up on the History Channel that I'm interested in seeing...

Our LDS guide also pointed out that Brigham Young once said that science would one day prove the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, and that we are coming close to the day that that becomes true. I did a quick search on http://farms.byu.edu/, but haven't found a source to authenticate that Brigham Young actually said that. If someone posts it to the "comments" section, I'd be interested.

Thanks

Three Sets of Ruins

2007-02-09T11:39:00.000-08:00

Doug in Tulum

I wanted to share a little bit more about the ruins we saw on our trip. We went to three areas with ruins: Tulum (near Cozumel, Mexico), Altun Ha (near Belize City, Belize), and Chacchoben (near Costa Maya, Mexico). They all offered different experiences.

Chacchoben had several large buildings and walking areas that were still covered with vines and trees. There were several areas where very large trees had taken root on stairways and were taking over the area. It reminded me of scenes out of Disney's animated "The Jungle Book."

[The "Jungle Book" look.]

Altun Ha had 8-10 structures of various sizes that were cleared of trees, but the backs and sides of several were covered with lush, short-cropped grass. The arena area in between the structures had the same grass. It was trimmed nicely enough to have been mowed, though I suspected that it was simply a short-growing grass (that I'd love to have in my lawn).

The guide said that in the 1-square mile radius of where we were, there were an estimated 5,000 structures - 99% were yet to be uncovered. Our LDS guide climbed to the top of the highest one and spoke to us for about 20 minutes about the area and the potential Book of Mormon people that may have lived there. We could hear him quite clearly.

[Here's a shot of our guide sitting up top speaking to us.]

The current thought among LDS scholars is that the land of Zarahemla was directly west of where we were standing, about a 1 1/2 days hike away. That would make Altun Ha directly in the "Land of Jershon," which was the home of the People of Ammon, or the people of King Lamoni and his father, who were converted by the Sons of Mosiah and eventually forced to leave the Land of Nephi.

It was unlikely that the structures themselves were there at that time, but it was possible that the area was the same. It is also possible that these structures were built on top of the ruins of the structures they would have had then.

Tulum had the most interesting story. It was a walled city. We walked through an opening in the wall to get inside. It had many free-standing structures, some looked like buildings in the more traditional or familiar sense. It is also the home of the "Descending God" or "Diving God".

There is a "temple" there that they believe is dedicated to him, and has a carving of an upside-down man over the entryway. There is a larger "temple" with three carvings over three entryways that they believe are dedicated to the three members of the Mayan godhead.

The central figure of a man is the main god. Next to him is an inverted man who is the "Descending God". Their belief is that one member of their godhead "dove" down from Heaven to live among men for awhile, before returning to be among the gods again.

Their third god is on the far side from the main god. The space for his carving is empty because they believed that there was a member of their godhead that had no body.

I found that quite interesting.

[This is a closeup on the temple with the purported members of their godhead above each entryway. It's hard to tell in this photo, but the one in the middle is upside down. Note that there is no figure in the space on the right.]

Hello Again...

2007-02-08T13:51:00.000-08:00

Wow! Time flies! First it was the Christmas break, then a big trip in January, now it's suddenly February, and I haven't entered a single blog in the meantime. I could tell it's been a while since I had so much difficulty remembering the right combination of username and password. (I'm sure no one else ever has the trouble...)

I had a really cool experience in January. In honor of our 20th anniversary, my wife and I took a cruise down to the Yucatan Peninsula. We were on board a major cruise line, but arranged for the trip in conjunction with an LDS tour service. So, they had hosts that took us on specialized tours.

We visited three areas with Mayan ruins. In each place, local tour guides would show us around and tell us what they believed took place in the areas. Then our LDS friends hired by the tour service, would give us a different slant on what LDS scholars believe happened in the areas and which approximate areas of the Book of Mormon the cities may have been near.

It was my first time to visit ruins and authentic Central American jungle. Particularly in light of having written novels about people living in the areas, it was very interesting to do some actual field research on what it would be like to have been there. I poked around and wandered through the trees as much as the ruins themselves.

I found that overall it was much like what I've seen in nature films and photos, but there were still some interesting things to note when seeing it first hand. I can see how an army (such as the Lamanites who pursued King Limhi and his people) could lose track not only of the people they were pursuing, but of their general direction as a whole. When the trees are so tall and thick, that even the sun is hard to see, it can be difficult at best to sense direction.

I was also impressed with how thoroughly the jungle retakes the ruins. They said that there was one expedition that had been excavating a site for several years back in the '50s when they ran out of funding. About 5 or 6 years later, they found a new backer and went back down to do more excavation. They spent two months searching, but COULDN'T EVEN FIND the ruins they had been working on. They had been totally swallowed up by jungle growth again.

I took photos of tree roots fingering their way in between stones in walls, trying to consume ruins that were part of the tours. It's easy to imagine how completely untouched ruins can be hidden. Thank goodness for GPS systems today.

I'll add more about this later. Meanwhile, I'm letting the world know I'm still alive and kicking...

Real Shopping Cart Men...

2006-12-23T10:09:00.000-08:00

Well, this has been interesting. When people find out what my "The Shopping Cart Man" book is about, they share their own little stories with me. It seems everyone has a brief "Yeah, I didn't give him money because he was going to buy beer" story, but I've heard a couple really interesting ones.

One took place in Russia where my co-worker's dad was a mission president a few years back. The president had told the missionaries that "everyone" deserved to hear the message of the Gospel. After hearing this, a young missionary saw a man literally sleeping in the gutter and told his companion that they needed to teach that man. The senior companion was extremely hesitant, but finally relented to let the junior try to teach him.

The missionary had to shake the man awake. It took him several moments to get coherent. The elder then told him he wanted to teach him about the gospel. The man agreed to listen as he sat on the curb with the elder crouched in front of him.

By the end of the discussion, the man had a couple of tears in his eyes. The elder asked if they could visit him again the next day to teach him more. He agreed. When asked where they should meet him, the man looked around, patted the curb and said, "I'll be right here!"

They met with the man several more times. He started going to church, got a job, a place to stay, clean clothes, and even started dating one of the girls in the little branch of the church there. Eventually, he was baptized. And, he married the gal.

My co-worker said that one of the last things his dad did before leaving Russia was to set apart the man as the branch president. You just never know...

Another story had a lot of twists and turns and is quite long. The short of it is that another of my co-workers had a son getting married. The bride's family was from South Carolina. A good-hearted brother (with questionable judgment) decided to drive from SC to Utah. On the way, one by one, he picked up five homeless men for various distances. One made it all the way from SC to UT. Another was arrested en route when the sleepy driver let him drive - and was awakened when the car was pulled over for doing 100+ mph, and headed for Montana. Turned out the guy had 4 warrants out for his arrest - he's now doing time.

I would NOT advocate picking up people at random to be your car buddies on long trips...

What's it all about?

2006-12-13T10:46:00.000-08:00

I was asked to post a little bit about what my new book is about. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, "The Shopping Cart Man" is about a family that ends up helping a homeless man during the Christmas holiday. How that ends up happening is they are on a cross-country drive to spend Christmas with their grandmother when they pass an RV with a sticker about the "Good Sam Club" on it.

When the 10-year-old daughter, Emma, asks what that club is, her parents remind the kids about the parable of the Good Samaritan. Emma is intrigued and asks if there are still Good Samaritans around. In response to her older brother scoffing at her that "that was just in Bible times," their father points out that "anyone" can be a Good Samaritan.

Dad quickly learns you have to be careful what you say to your kids, because Emma takes that to heart. When they stop for lunch and are approached by a homeless man asking for money, Emma wants to "treat him like the Good Samaritan would," but Dad feels he'll only "buy beer" with the money as he gives him a little.

While the family is eating, the man comes in with a homeless lady. They buy a kid's meal. The man gingerly tears the tiny burger in two and shares it with the lady. At the sight of this, Emma is ecstatic for having helped, while the dad feels like a heel for having given so little.

After lunch, the dad refuels the car and sees the man again. He decides to make amends. One thing leads to another and the family ends up giving the man a ride with them all the way to Oklahoma as the story kicks into full gear.

Along the drive, the family gets to know the man and confront some of their prejudices. Meanwhile, the man starts to have troubling flashbacks hinting at his past - which he has totally forgotten. When they arrive in Oklahoma and drop off the man, he goes on a quest to discover his past and what it was that happened to him to put him in his current state, in the hopes of salvaging his future. ("When the trip ends, his journey is just beginning...")

I've been asked where the idea came from. Basically, a couple of years back, I had an experience similar to the one in the restaurant with the kid's meal. I find no pride in admitting that I was the dad who felt like a heel.

In looking back on the situation, I wondered what it would be like if someone really needed and wanted help, and if someone actually gave that help. That gave birth to this story. It's kind of the "best case" scenario.

I'd always wanted to write some sort of Christmas story, and this one worked into that very nicely. I also liked adding a touch of mystery to it with the man's amnesiac situation and a couple of other touches.

At any rate, that's what it's all about...

What have I done?

2006-11-26T21:24:00.000-08:00

Had I had this blog up and running sooner, I would have given the blow-by-blow on finding someone to print the book, etc. Now that that's history, I'll hold off unless someone specifically asks about it.

Instead, I'll do a quick recap of what I've done to promote the book up until now. I've put together a website for it at http://www.shopping-cart-man.com/. (Can you believe that shoppingcartman.com and theshoppingcartman.com were already taken?) BTW, you can read the first first few chapters on that site.

I arranged for and participated in a radio interview with Donna Max on the "Talk of the Town" radio program on KSTAR 1400 am. That went ok. It wasn't stunning, just ok. She read the book beforehand and REALLY liked it. I think the problem was I didn't come up with a good set of questions or key points to be made. Donna did a good job, considering the limited info I'd given her.

I had the company that printed my book print off some posters and a few hundred bookmarks. The bookmarks are great for handing out at booksignings or leaving next to the register for customers to take. That way, if they don't buy the book on the spot, they can have something to remind them of it.

I did booksignings on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. Signings can be fun, if people stop and chat for a while, but they can be killers otherwise. As I sat there watching people walk by and hoping some would stop, I think I gained a SMALL inkling of what a girl at a dance must feel like. It's certainly not an ego-booster.

If someone looked like they might be interested, I’d offer to tell them about it, otherwise, I didn’t pester them. These efforts met with minimal success. I think I sold about 1 book per hour. Hardly worth the time invested, BUT if it helps word get out and they start spreading the news that there’s a good book out there that their friends would like, then it’s a good investment. It’s much too late to be in any Christmas catalogs and I can’t afford much publicity, so I really need some sort of grass roots, word-of-mouth movement to make this succeed. Unfortunately, that probably means doing several more signings…

Well, what would you do?

2006-11-26T21:03:00.000-08:00

So, what's this blog for anyway? I'm planning to dedicate this blog to my writing efforts. I've had a lot of people ask what it's like to write a book and get it out to market and so forth. (I can comfortably say that the easiest part is writing. Getting it published - and noticed - is much more taxing and difficult.)

I've got several writing projects. Most of them were just for fun, but several were instructional (such as a Norwegian grammar quick reference book I put together years ago). Up until recently, I had one novel in print (The Title of Liberty, which is a novelization of the Captain Moroni and Stripling Warriors saga). That book has been available in many bookstores, including Deseret Book, Seagull Books, Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, etc.

Last year, I met the Hill Brothers who were selling a timeline of the Book of Mormon in the University Mall, in Orem, Utah. It was one of those temporary stores that is rented just for the Christmas season. They agreed to sell "Title" there as well. They also agreed to let me do some book signings. This was a major step for me because Deseret and Seagull - although they were selling my book - would not let me do booksignings in their stores. It seemed to me that ultimately the reason was because I was not published by their publishing companies.

When everything was said and done, the Hill Brothers found that their sales doubled or tripled when I (or others) were there doing signings. It increased traffic for them, which increased sales. This year, they gave me a call and asked if I wanted to sell "Title" with them again. They also asked if I "had anything else" that I could sell there.

It turns out that I had a Christmas novel that I've been working on called, "The Shopping Cart Man". I hadn't planned on doing anything with it until next year, though, because I knew I'd missed all of the publishers' deadlines for this year. I wasn't even trying to meet their deadlines. I was just writing it and enjoying that. I figured I'd simply hold off on getting it "published" until next year.

Well, with the opportunity to have it sold in a store in the mall, that is in a prime location (across from Deseret Book), and have salespeople willing to push it, I figured "Why not?" I decided to do a small run of the book and see how sales went. I could still approach publishers with it next year. With any luck, word of mouth would spread about the book and maybe it would get noticed.

So, although I had vowed I wouldn't self-publish, I went ahead and did so anyway. Now, I'm in the throes of self-promoting the work. THAT'S the part that's a killer.

In case there are any other writers out there bold enough to try the same route, I'll share some of my experiences so you can get ideas of what to try and what to avoid. One thing I've learned is that there aren't many strangers out there rooting for you to succeed - friends and relatives will give much-needed encouragement - but those who don't know you will seldom see a need to open doors for you. There's an awful lot of self-promotion and persistence that need to take place. It's not an activity for the shy or timid...

Sheese! Am I behind...

2006-11-26T08:46:00.000-08:00

One thing after another has combined to put me way behind in getting any more posts made...

First, for whatever reason, I couldn't get logged back in. Being the Thanksgiving break, I've been at home since Wednesday. My hard drive died. It wasn't a virus. It was mechanical. Taking it to a friend who is hardware savvy, he took it apart and showed me that the motor has fused. The cylinder won't spin. No data recovery.

I told my other friend about it and he said, "sounds like a classic case-study for FileShuttle.com". That's an online data synchronization service we use. All of my data files are in that system. All I have to do is buy a new harddrive, log in, and my data will come back. Fortunately, it's all on my laptop too.

But, that wasn't the end of it. It turns out that my hard drive is not the standard type. I bought a replacement that was on sale, but can't install it because my machine is set up for this kind that has a smaller plug (about the width of my fingernail).

Meanwhile, my router seems to have also died. I can now get connectivity, but I can't connect wirelessly.

So, between those woes and Thanksgiving, I've been somewhat delayed. I'll play some catchup, but right now, I'm just glad to have been able to log in...

The Lines of Our Times...

2006-11-17T10:14:00.000-08:00

Not that any blog-reader is particularly interested in me, so much as they might be in what I write, I'll simply point out that I was an Air Force brat. By the time I was 7, I'd lived in two countries and 4 States. Now, some 30+ years later, nothing has been added. I've still lived in those same 2 countries and 4 States - including going back to live in the overseas country where I was born, for a time.

However, I have done some traveling in my day. I believe I have crossed the Atlantic Ocean 15 times. Though I've been to Hawaii, I've never crossed the entire Pacific Ocean. I once tallied the number of countries I've visited. It's somewhere around two dozen.

Of all the things I could blog about, perhaps the one most interesting is my hobby. I like to write. Occasionally, people even like to read what I write. Of the many things I've written, two have now found themselves "in print". (OK, three if you want to count a poem I wrote when I was 10, and my mom sent into the "Children's Friend"...)

The first was a novel called, "The Title of Liberty" which was published in 2003. The second is a new Christmas novel coming out RIGHT NOW called, "The Shopping Cart Man". It's about a family that helps a homeless man during the holidays. If there's interest in hearing of the struggles and triumphs (hopefully) of a self-publishing effort (this new novel), I can blog on that...

See you in the ethernet!

Doug