Author: davidbiddle

This is a Place I Don’t Feel Alone: Work-in-Progress

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Casual Friday
Casual Friday: double glasses and someone’s underwear

I spent far too much time in 2012 sitting in a little room by myself trying to get people to pay attention to my books and far too little time writing and editing. I had a lot to learn about being an independent writer and publisher. That time was necessary, but it still makes me feel so far behind the eight-ball. It’s a lonely thing, sitting in a little room trying to get people to pay attention to your work.

As last year began, I knew I wanted to publish two sets of stories and my first novel, Beyond the Will of God. I accomplished those goals. The story sets, Trying to Care and Implosions of America, lay out the beginnings of what my true Continue reading →

Super Powers and Magic? The League of New Indie Writers

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Photo: Jim Newberry http://www.picturedujour.com/
This post was originally published at my site, The Formality of Occurrence yesterday. 

 

I’m amazed at how many unbelievably talented writers there are in this world toiling away in every nook and cranny imaginable. Peeps in my raggedy-ass tribe of indie authors and bloggers live and work in India, Africa, Canada, South America, Great Britain, Australia, etc. as well as the U.S.

There are thousands of astounding writers so easily discoverable all over the Internet now. It’s like there used to be this small group of successful Super Men and Super Women or maybe it was a special guild of wizards, witches, warlocks, and magicians, I don’t know. They were special and easy to spot. Continue reading →

Unreasonableness and So Much More: Recommended Reading This Week

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Painting by Tim Williams http://www.flickr.com/people/shitao

My latest commentary is posted at Kotori Magazine as part of my column “These Altered States.” There’s a lot of talk about “moving forward” and the American Dream these days (and those days back in 2012). “These Altered States” has the secondary title “America Trying to Become Itself.” This month’s post is a shout out to provocative progressive thinkers and doers everywhere. Read it right here, “Do Not Be Reasonable – Boundaries and the New America.”

I want to point you to another online read that I think is phenomenal writing and Continue reading →

Beyond the Will of God Named EBook of the Month

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My novel, Beyond the Will of God, won the E-Book of the month award at the innovative book site, “IWriteReadRate.com.” I am grateful and indebted to all who voted for this funky little psychedelic mystery. Here’s a clip from the IWRR announcement:

It was a close run race last month, with the most total votes yet – great stuff! Without further ado, the winner is…

Beyond the Will of God: A Psychedelic Mystery by David Biddle

Congratulations to David and we hope that he will find the critique helpful to support his writing journey, and continue to inspire his creativity and dedication for literature.

His winning ebook will be the featured one on the iWRR homepage during the current month. David joins our previous winners – to discover who they were, click here.

You can pick the book up through the IWRR site for $0.99. That’s a pretty good deal. I’m raising it back to $4.99 at Amazon later this week. It will go to $6.99 by the end of Continue reading →

Pointing Fingers: Talking Guns with the NRA

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Action to stem violence

Action to stem violence (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I grew up in Central Missouri in the 1960s and 1970s. People drove around our town with guns mounted in the back of their pickups — mostly twenty-gauge shotguns and .22s. I had friends who hunted regularly. Duck season was big in our neck of the woods. So was driving around with a couple weapons for show. The idea of guns was part of life for us back then. Those were the days of the Vietnam War, too. Weapons, the potential for violent threat at any moment, and self-protection were an odd cultural focus that ran under the grain of everything else.

We were Quakers, though — my family. We were pacifists. I was also the son of social scientists. My parents knew the literature and the research. Guns make people a bit Continue reading →

Origins of a Psychedelic Novel: The Backstory on Beyond the Will of God

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[Added note, 6/15/14: you can download “Beyond the Will of God” at NoiseTrade.com as a digital book for free right now…hurry because the offer will close soon…this was originally posted at the website Behind Blue Eyes, as noted at the end here, but the deals for digital downloads no longer apply. Still, go to NoiseTrade and it’s all free]
 
Jimi Hendrix (figure@Strobist #2)
Jimi Hendrix (figure@Strobist #2) (Photo credit: Jen Son)

It has to be admitted upfront that I was in an altered state of mind when I first came up with the idea for Beyond the Will of God. It was 1975. I was 17 and had just discovered the raw power of crazed electric guitar (Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Hot Tuna, and Jefferson Airplane to be precise—all night long). Until that weird autumn evening I had no idea how far the mind could go into the soul…and all just through letting loud guitar music take you over.

The next morning I was listening to Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland. The song “1983…(a Merman I Should Turn to Be)” came on. The best way to describe what Continue reading →

5-Star Review for Implosions of America at El Dink UK

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Trying to get people to pay attention to serious fiction (what the hell else do we call it?) in this new Indie World is not easy. Finding folks who appreciate the raw and the real can feel quite futile.

So when someone does get what you’ve done, it’s pretty special. The folks at El Dink a UK independent book review of all things Kindlesque just posted a review of my new story collection, Implosions of America. The Tweet I got letting me know this truly stunned me:

“We’ve just reviewed Implosions Of America by @dcbiddle and it’s…. awesome…fb.me/2pNtot0jU”

See the full 5-Star review from Barry at El Dink here:

5-Star Review for Implosions of America “Nine short stories about love might help us understand what the hell is wrong with America”

Click the cover to check out the book.

 

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New Publishing Frontier Lesson #37: DIY or DIE

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Doctor Oliver Sacks.
Doctor Oliver Sacks. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Oliver Sacks has a fabulous essay at the back of yesterday’s New York Times Book Review called “Reading the Fine Print.” Everyone who reads needs to check it out. Dr. Sacks, one of this world’s most important thinkers about human consciousness (his most recent book, Hallucinations, is just the tip of the iceberg), bemoans in his essay the demise of large-print books. He acknowledges the end of large-print has come about because e-Books can provide any size type a reader desires, but that’s not good enough for him. Sacks doesn’t want a sterile electronic reading experience, he wants “books with heft, with a bookish smell, as books have had for the last 550 years, a book that I can slip into my pocket or keep with its fellows on my bookshelves where my eye might alight on it at unexpected times.”

Continue reading →

Who Are We?

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Today’s mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut may well rip this country apart. Gun control is another of the issues that simmered during this year’s election while both sides did their best not to lift the lid. You can already see the posturing on both sides if you read the news accounts.

“Not the time to be talking about gun control.”

“Oh, yeah, guess what? Now’s the time. We’re marching.”

Continue reading →