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I love looking at stuff like this, especially when it's bygones of the Soviet Union. All of these abandoned monments were commissioned by Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito. But now that Yugoslavia is no more, the monument are just remnants of the great Soviet era.
See more here.
Kiana Davenport is back. A Hawaiian author who just about gave up found strength because, well she's one tough Hawaiian. Plus she discovered Joe Konrath. Joe blogged about what happened when she reached out to him and told him how he saved her life.
I thought I would just go ahead and put this out there before it gets awkward between James and I. So knowing that I'll be spending more time writing and my schedule is quickly filling up, I want to go ahead and make Mr. Patterson an offer to collaborate on a book sometime in the next two years.
Pre-mature? Possibly. But my greatest fear is that in a year or so, James will come knocking on my door and I won't have time due to prior commitments.
If you're reading this Mr. Patterson, I urge you to seriously think about it. It'll be fun and our fans will love it.
Fact: Patterson and Hutchinson both end their last names with the word "Son"
Fact: Patterson and Hutchinson both had long careers in advertising
Fact: Patterson and Hutchinson were both copywriters before becoming authors
Fact: Patterson and Hutchinson both write thrillers
Fact: Patterson has had his books turned into movies. Hutchinson has had his scripts turned into commercials
Yes as you can see, James Patterson and Ty Hutchinson do have a lot in common. Let's continue shall we?
Fact: Patterson has had his novels published in other countries. Hutchinson has had his ad's published in other countries
Fact: Patterson is a married man. Hutchinson is a married man
Fact: Patterson rose to the top at his ad agency. Hutchinson works at a top ad agency
Fact: Patterson and Hutchinson both live on the coast
Fact: Patterson was raised by a single mother. Hutchinson was raised by a single mother
The similarities are endless. Remember this the next time you see a Patterson book and a Hutchinson book. Either one will take you to the same happy place.
#9
ON AGING.
Last year someone gave me a charming book by Roger Rosenblatt called ‘Ageing
Gracefully’ I got it on my birthday. I did not appreciate the title at the time but it
contains a series of rules for ageing gracefully. The first rule is the best. Rule number
one is that ‘it doesn’t matter.’ ‘It doesn’t matter that what you think. Follow this rule
and it will add decades to your life. It does not matter if you are late or early, if you are
here or there, if you said it or didn’t say it, if you are clever or if you were stupid. If you
were having a bad hair day or a no hair day or if your boss looks at you cockeyed or
your boyfriend or girlfriend looks at you cockeyed, if you are cockeyed. If you don’t get
that promotion or prize or house or if you do – it doesn’t matter.’ Wisdom at last. Then
I heard a marvellous joke that seemed related to rule number 10 (see below). A butcher was
opening his market one morning and as he did a rabbit popped his head through the
door. The butcher was surprised when the rabbit inquired ‘Got any cabbage?’ The
butcher said ‘This is a meat market – we sell meat, not vegetables.’ The rabbit
hopped off. The next day the butcher is opening the shop and sure enough the rabbit
pops his head round and says ‘You got any cabbage?’ The butcher now irritated says
‘Listen you little rodent I told you yesterday we sell meat, we do not sell vegetables
and the next time you come here I am going to grab you by the throat and nail those
floppy ears to the floor.’ The rabbit disappeared hastily and nothing happened for a
week. Then one morning the rabbit popped his head around the corner and said ‘Got
any nails?’ The butcher said ‘No.’ The rabbit said ‘Ok. Got any cabbage?’
#10
TELL THE TRUTH.
What more needs to be said. That concludes the series. Hope you enjoyed it.
If all you want to do is read the part about helping me decide the title then skip the following combination of letters, forming words, conveying thoughts, until you reach the last paragraph.
I finally have something new to say about my novel Chopped Suey. So many of you were Skyping, IMing, emailing, texting and Facebooking me for details. All right then. It's not even out yet and you guys are stalking already...and I kind of like it.
First off, realize it's a long process. I can't even begin to tell you how surprised I am at how long it takes. Just when I've crossed one thing off my to-do list, more crap materializes. Even though I know progress is being made, it often doesn't seem like it, especially when you have to keep giving the same answer, "Soon." to the same question, "Is your book done?" Plus...
...Okay I'm watching the Grammy's while I'm typing this and I just saw the Stella Artois commercial with Adrien Brody. I like him. I like his movies. I hate his commercials. So boring. Really? Is that singing or mumbling?
Anyway, back to the reason we're all here. I'll start off with some good news. I finally saw rough concepts for Chopped Suey's cover art. Yeah! So exciting! I like where it's going. It's going to be awesome and I think you guys will really like it. I'm not giving anything away because I'm mean.
Now for the bummer news. For the past month and half I've been stuck in beta hell. What's that? Beta hell or beta reading is when another person, in my case three other people, read the manuscript and offer feedback. At this point, the manuscript as been noodled to death by me and it's time for others get their hands on it. Beta readers point out things that are working well and things that could be improved. Bascially it's fresh eyes looking at the story as a whole to see if it works. Being the newbie I am, I thought this would take two weeks max. I'm now going on a month and a half and praying I can wrap this up by the end of February.
Once the beta reading is done, it's time for my copy editor to get her hands on the manuscript. More feedback, more ways to improve, more time. It's all good though. Really if you think about it, I'm doing this all for you. Putting out the best product I possibly can is in your best interest.
Also, in my last blog post I said the title of my book was Chop Suey and now I'm refering to it as Chopped Suey. What gives? Yeah I changed it. Actually I'm still flip flopping between the two. What do you guys think?
Hey four people who follow my blog, my first novel, Chop Suey*, is in the final editing/polishing stages. What does that mean? If you can overlook typos and grammer mishaps, it's done. If not, then it's not. Baring any f'd up feedback, it should be ready for public consumption in a few months.
Chop Suey is an action thriller with a humorous bent. I'm hoping it moves you to the edge of your seat so you can laugh your ass right off of it.
* I might change the name, I might not. Depends on my mood and a mathematical equation that was developed by the Japanese.
Another gem from the AIGA talk in London. There are ten of them and I'm posting them one at a time. Check back often.
#8
DOUBT IS BETTER THAN CERTAINTY. Everyone always talks about confidence in believing what you do. I remember once going to a class in yoga where the teacher said that, spirituality speaking, if you believed that you had achieved enlightenment you have merely arrived at your limitation. I think that is also true in a practical sense. Deeply held beliefs of any kind prevent you from being open to experience, which is why I find all firmly held ideological positions questionable. It makes me nervous when someone believes too deeply or too much. I think that being sceptical and questioning all deeply held beliefs is essential. Of course we must know the difference between scepticism and cynicism because cynicism is as much a restriction of one’s openness to the world as passionate belief is. They are sort of twins. And then in a very real way, solving any problem is more important than being right.
When people find out I'm writing a book, they ask what's it about, followed by how long is it? Answering the first question is easy. It's when I answer the second that I get the dumbfounded look. My answer is alway some big number like, 94,000 words.
This person then stands there, quietly, trying to visualize what that looks like. Well this is what it looks like. My finished novel, Chopped Suey, complete at 89,000 words or 443 pages.
