New Publishing Frontier Lesson #37: DIY or DIE

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.”

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Who Are We?

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.”

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The Teachings of James Bond and Other Work Coming Out This Month

Fighting Monkey Press

Fighting Monkey Press just posted an essay I modified for them called “9 Things I Learned from 40 Years of Following James Bond.” I posted a very long version of this piece here a month or so ago. Pavarti Tyler who honchoes Fighting Monkey says its her favorite guest post yet. Check it out. Also, check out Pavarti’s blog and book offerings HERE. If you like my piece, make sure to share it through your networks. As I’ve noted here recently, this is the season of sales and reach for writers. We can’t make things work without the help of readers, bloggers, and other authors.

I’ve also been informed that a review I wrote for Reality Sandwich on Dr. Ben Continue reading

Reviewers and Bloggers Desperately Needed for Implosions of America

My latest collection of nine stories needs reviewers and thoughtful readers to blog about it. I can’t get the book posted to any major indie distribution site without at least five reviews. I’ve got two right now. Check them out here.

These are not happily-ever-after stories. They are not simple, nor are they normal. I’ve been told they are very much like Continue reading

The Smell of Water: a short passage from Ex:Urbia, a work-in-progress…

All of life is composed of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon. Mostly it is water that fills living cells and acts as the medium for organization and awareness. Water, then, could be God. And carbon, the devil. Or perhaps water is the fundament of heaven and God the electricity that flows through it, and the other trace elements the pantheon of gods. And carbon the devil.

If there is a heaven, and a God, why do we need to consider it as all in another world, another plane? It seems that it would be much more efficient for heaven and hell and the general mayhem of the cosmos Continue reading

Behind Blue Eyes: #rockfiction center stage

I discovered the hashtag #rockfiction about a month ago when I stumbled onto the Behind Blue Eyes website: http://behindblueeyes.ca/

Anne-Marie Klein is the author of a series of rock ‘n’ roll Behind Blue Eyes novels that trace the development of the fictitious young musician, Ian Harrington’s climb toward success during the 1970s heyday of popular music. Remember those days when Rock was King? Remember Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert? Blue Oyster Cult? Peter Frampton? Deep Purple?  Three Dog Night?  Continue reading

Really Dumb: Migrating to a New Web Host

I have been planning on upgrading this website’s offerings for the past three months and learned in the process that what I wanted to do isn’t feasible using the standard WordPress.com system. So I decided yesterday to move to WordPress.org, which is actually just using their software on a WebHost of my choice. I chose BlueHost.

This is my first post on this new system. It’s still not set up properly. I’m hoping that my domain name translates within the next 48-hours. If you Continue reading

The Question World: Thoughts On Writing in the 21st Century

First thing on the path — I was running through the woods — worms writhing this mid-summer morning in a death dance after drowning all night long in a torrential, black rain. Bouncing and leaping into the air, up from their dark tunnels collapsing and spewing water everywhere, they were no doubt more afraid of drowning in that world of their own making than dying on the sunlit surface of this tiny green and blue planet with the rest of us.

I try to go down the trail silently. My dog senses this and prances methodically by my side, not even panting.

Thoughts come to me regarding the purpose of literature. It is said often that there are two schools of Continue reading

Holiday Price Slashes: Fiction By David Biddle

Up to 80% Off!

It’s Black Friday. Holiday pricing for ebook versions of Trying to Care: A Story Collection and Beyond the Will of God: A Jill Simpson Mystery are now at the rather low levels of $0.99 each. Take advantage of these offers. You can read electronic books on E-Readers, of course, but you can also download reading apps from Amazon that let you read books on your smartphone or your computer as well. Books that list at $4.99 cut by 80% to a penny under a dollar are good deals. Buy one for yourself and use Continue reading