A Case of Plagiarism

Rick Moore, a friend of mine, and of some of you, is a highly talented writer. He's also just become the victim of a plagiarist. His short story, "Electrocuting the Clowns,” which appeared in the excellent 2003 collection Beyond the Porch Light, has been stolen by a man claiming the name David Byron. That’s not the name this guy goes under on Facebook. He is apparently selling a work on Lulu that contains Rick’s story. He has several books there, under his two names, so I’m not sure which one contains the story.

Please check out Rick’s post about this plagiarist. This hurts all writers and readers, and diminishes us all.
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Maybe I'll Quit

OK, I've heard the name, although I had to check Wikipedia to get the details about her before I posted this. There is a woman known as Snooki, who is apparently a reality TV star on the show Jersey Shore. I've never seen the show and only once do I believe I've seen "Snooki," when I caught something about her on The Soup. She is apparently known primarily for drinking and fighting.

But now, Snooki is going to become a novelist! According to reports, Snooki read her first book in February of this year, at the age of 22, and has now been signed by Simon & Schuster to write a novel called "Shore Thing." It's supposed to have lots of love and fighting in it. And reports indicate that Snooki does have a collaborator.

I try to be happy for new writers when they garner a book deal. I really do. I try. I try. But I have to admit I'm having a hard time with this one. Especially after my most recent figuring up of how much money I've earned this year from my writing. Right now I'm in the black. Just barely.

But then, I guess I haven't spent enough time drinking and fighting in public. And I suppose I could dress a little sluttier too!

Or I could just quit writing and these things wouldn't bother me at all.
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Heavy Metal Quiz

Another quiz for today.

Heavy metal and hard rock music has a long association with horror tropes, from band mascots and pentagrams to lyrics about Satanism, evil, and death. See if you can match the horror related imagery, lyrics, and song titles on the left with the bands on the right. This one may be pretty hard for a lot of you folks from the softer side of the music spectrum. 1 to 3 correct earns you the title of roadie. 4 to 7 and you can play rhythm guitar. 8 to 11 moves you up to lead guitarist. And if you get 12 to 15 right you’re a one man band (sort of like Aldo Nova). If you don’t get any correct, then I’m going to assume you like disco.


1. Living Dead Girl ---------------------- Black Sabbath
2. Eddie -------------------------------- W.A.S.P
3. The Headless Children --------------- AC/ DC
4. Louder than Hell -------------------- Iron Maiden
5. Long Hard Road Out of Hell ------- Metallica
6. Screaming in the Night ------------- Alice Cooper
7. Reign in Blood --------------------- Judas Priest
8. The Black Widow -------------------- Marilyn Manson
9. Devil’s Plaything -------------------- Rob Zombie
10. Screaming for Vengeance ----------- Danzig
11. Satan Laughing Spreads His Wings -- Butlik
12. Playboy Bassist ----------------------- Slayer
13. Wake up Dead ------------------------- Megadeth
14. Enter Sandman ------------------------- Motley Crue
15. Hell’s Bells -------------------------- Krokus







Answers: 1. Rob Zombie, 2. Iron Maiden, 3. W.A.S.P, 4. Motley Crue, 5. Marilyn Manson, 6. Krokus, 7. Slayer, 8. Alice Cooper, 9. Danzig, 10, Judas Priest, 11. Black Sabbath, 12. Butlik, 13. Megadeth, 14, Metallica, 15. AC/DC.

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Guest Posting

I'm posting today over at Novel Spaces. I hope you can drop by for a visit.

Thanks,
Charles

Listening to Talera

I've already mentioned here that I've been letting my Kindle read books to me on my long daily commute. I've been enjoying that process, and feeling less like I'm wasting my time with the driving.

I decided last week to load my Talera trilogy onto the Kindle and let it read those to me. I've finished listening to Swords of Talera so far and am about a third of the way through Wings Over Talera. Witch of Talera is up next. After that I may keep it going by listening to Robert E. Howard's Almuric, which is also a sword and planet work.

I make a habit out of reading my material out loud before I ever submit it, but listening to the 'whole' thing is actually pretty helpful. I noticed in "Swords" that I repeated the word "well" a lot, and I had not picked up on that merely by reading it. I may start doing this for manuscripts before I submit them. The Kindle voice doesn't offer inflections well so you can also get a feeling for how important it is to convey the emotion in the dialogue rather than by attaching tags such as "he shouted," etc. All in all, I think it could make a useful writing tool.

I'm also finding, happily, that I'm really enjoying listening to my own works. It's kind of weird in a way, but you know I really like these stories. I'm proud of them. I'm so glad they are out there.

By the way, if anyone reading this has read Witch of Talera and feels the urge to review it on Amazon, I'd appreciate it. "Swords" and "Wings" both have reviews but "Witch" doesn't. I'm not sure it makes any difference but it couldn't hurt.

Thanks to everyone for listening.





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Movie Monsters Quiz

I had time this weekend to work on a blog post, but I didn't have the will. So, here's another quiz for you. This one is on movie monsters instead of villains. I hope you enjoy.


Do you like movie monsters? Hey, everyone does, don’t they? But do you remember your movies and your monsters? Can you look at the phrases or quotes on the left and match them with the famous monster on the right? Now this quiz is easy. Anything less than eleven correct and you surely can’t be trying. Less than six correct and you need to go out and buy yourself a DVD and spend some time catching up on the classics.

1. Not so jolly Green Giant __________ King Kong
2. “I’ll be back” ___________________ The Mummy
3. Fava beans _____________________ Dracula
4. Who goes there? _________________ The Wolfman
5. “The Children of the Night.” _____ Godzilla
6. Skull collector __________________ The Terminator
7. The Moon is a harsh mistress _____ The Predator
8. Swim fan ________________________ Cthulhu
9. When electricity came to the castle __ Creature from Black Lagoon
10. Chest burster _____________________ Pinhead
11. No sarcophagus can hold him _______ The Blob
12. The eighth wonder of the world ______ Hannibal Lecter
13. I told you not to open that box ____ Frankenstein’s Monster
14. Amorphous Entity ________________ Alien
15. Elder God _______________________ The Thing







Answers: 1. Godzilla, 2. Terminator, 3. Hannibal Lecter, 4. The Thing, 5. Dracula, 6. Predator, 7. The Wolfman, 8. Creature from the Black Lagoon, 9. Frankenstein’s Monster, 10, Alien, 11. The Mummy, 12. King Kong, 13. Pinhead, 14, The Blob, 15. Cthulhu.

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A couple of books I'll soon be getting.

A Quiz about Villains

I don't seem to have anything to say new today so here is a quiz I wrote for The Illuminata back some years ago now. The answers are at bottom. Hope you enjoy.


They're big. They're bad. Mostly they're ugly. Who are they? They're the movie villains of our nightmares and they're here to...GET YOU!. Can you match the descriptive phrase or quote on the left with the evildoer on the right? Zero to five correct means you may be too innocent for your own good. Six to ten correct and you are exhibiting just the right amount of nastiness. More than ten correct? Be afraid. Be very afraid.

1. Spider hater ---------------------- Jason Voorhies
2. Danger, Will Robinson! ------------- The Joker
3. Dream blade ----------------------- Thulsa Doom
4. Deep Breather --------------------- Leatherface
5. Camp Nightmare -------------------- The Penguin
6. What a big eye you have ------------ Darth Vader
7. Holidays can be killers ------------ Roy Batty
8. Permanent smile ------------------- Randall Flagg
9. Snake magic ----------------------- Lex Luthor
10. Buzz Cut ------------------------- Freddy Krueger
11. Umbrella fella ------------------- Green Goblin
12. The Dark Man --------------------- Khan
13. Kryptonite lover ----------------- Michael Myers
14. I spit my last breath at thee! ---- Dr. Smith
15. Made man ------------------------- Sauron








Answers: 1. Green Goblin, 2. Dr. Smith, 3. Freddy Krueger, 4. Darth Vader, 5. Jason Voorhies, 6. Sauron, 7. Michael Myers, 8. The Joker, 9. Thulsa Doom, 10. Leatherface, 11. The Penguin, 12. Randall Flagg, 13. Lex Luthor, 14. Khan, 15. Roy Batty

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My Trouble With Dialogue

I've been listening to some of the old "Shadow" pulps on my Kindle while I commute lately. They're interesting, although there's a lot of sameness about them. One thing did occur to me today on my trip in.

The Shadow stories are 'heavily' dialogue driven, probably because of their close relationship with the old radio serial format. As a result, they work pretty well as audio works. But one thing I've noticed is that there is hardly any "music" to the stories at all. Except for the rare descriptions of "The Shadow," the sentences and paragraphs fall leaden on the ears.

I believe it's largely the dialogue that is to blame, and that this is probably why I typically don't read books that begin with dialogue or are heavy with dialogue. Descriptive prose, or action-driven prose, can develop a rhythm, a kind of poetry in prose form.

"All morning the moon hangs frozen on the sky, and the wind-bell rings unheard on the hard east wind." (Matthiessen)

Dialogue seldom obtains even a fraction of this kind of poetry, and then only in the hands of true masters. And I'm realizing, from listening to the "Shadow" stories, that I need the rhythm. I need beautiful, poetic prose and imagery to fully lose myself in a story.

I understand that dialogue is a necessary evil. I try to write it as well as I can. But it'll always be a weak sister to me. Maybe I really am a poet at heart. Some form of a poet anyway.
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Winning the Day at Novel Spaces

I'm posting at Novel Spaces today on the subject of "Winning the Day." It's a term I picked up from Drew Brees's book Coming Back Stronger. Brees, of course, is the quarterback of the New Orleans Saints, who on Thursday night beat the Minnesota Vikings in the first game of the 2010 NFL season. I'm enjoying the book quite a bit, and will have a review of it here after I finish it. In the meantime, I'm talking about the book and about writing over on Novel Spaces, so please stop by.


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Where it Wanders

I haven't had much time to work on a blog post so I thought I'd put up a scene from a work in progress called "Where it Wanders," which will be a horror/thriller. This scene introduces a major character. Hope you enjoy.

WHERE IT WANDERS

In a service road motel, near the I-10/I-35 merge in San Antonio, Layne Gabriel snapped awake. Listening intently, he heard only the groaning whisper of the cheap window heating unit and a faint snick of breathing from his most recent bed companion. But he knew there had been another sound here a moment ago. A sound, or maybe an absence of sound. The air tingled with it.

Sliding from the worn and rumpled sheets, he padded naked to the small motel table where his laptop stood open and on. The screen was black and it took him a moment to discern the message he’d been left. In places the normal flat slate of the computer face had grown depth, had taken on three dimensional form. He made out a phrase in the black on black. It said: “Ozark Mountains.” There was nothing else.

Layne shrugged, padded to the bathroom to do his business and then dressed in jeans and a navy blue T-shirt with faded white letters across the front that read “Hell Dog.” He turned off his laptop and packed it away in its weatherproof carrying case, then moved over to study the woman in the bed. She slept on, the sleep of the exhausted, with her short bottle-blond hair ratted around her head from where his hands had tangled during sex.

He leaned a little closer and sniffed her, and the combination of scents and sights brought a slice of poem driving hard into his awareness.

For the whiskey-breathed.
For the faint-beating heart.
Sweat-stained in the memory of love.

He smiled. The woman hadn’t been a very good lay but at least she’d been enthusiastic. That was worth something, he decided. He’d leave her a gift.

He turned away, slipped on his motorcycle jacket, lowered the laptop into his saddle bags, and quietly left the room. He had slept away the afternoon and evening. It was dark outside, the moon sailing black waters above him. He figured it for about 11:00 o’clock.

His bike waited, purple in the shadows, and he strapped the bags on it, then unlocked his full-face helmet and slid it over his head after tying up his hair. The night was chilly, and though he had a high tolerance for cold, he slipped on a pair of leather gloves. He didn’t want his hands to stiffen up on the ride.

Straddling the bike, he punched the starter and listened to the low growl of the modified Honda Magna 750 engine, the sound so different from the raw-throated chuckle of a Harley. The woman was probably waking up to the sound now, and he pulled from the motel’s parking lot and onto the street before she could come looking. He didn’t want to see her as he left; that might change his mind about giving her his gift.

He chuckled to himself as he thrust his boots up on the highway pegs and leaned back into the customized seat. Of course, the woman probably wouldn’t even realize he’d left her anything. But he’d left her alive, hadn’t he?

The road unfolded in a silver ribbon as he headed north in the wind.
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Rip Through Time

Some breaking news. I revealed something about the secret project I worked on this past summer in a previous post. It was a serial time travel story conceived by David Cranmer and executed by several guest writers, including me. The first installment of “A Rip Through Time” is now up online at Beat to a Pulp. This opening segment is by Chris F. Holm, so I hope you’ll check it out. My piece follows Chris’s in the story sequence. I had a lot of fun with my part, and from what Chris says here he had a lot of fun as well.

In other news, I’ve been kindlizing some old pulp stories, Doc Savage and The Shadow, for listening to on my Kindle while I make my commute to school. A problem was that the Kindle’s volume output was not enough to overcome the travel noise at much above 40 MPH. I first hooked up a set of speakers to the Kindle and used a cigarette lighter plug-in to power the whole thing, but this was pretty awkward and still didn’t produce enough volume to cover all contingencies. I finally bit the bullet and went to Mobile One on Saturday and had them put in a new radio/CD player for me with an auxiliary port, which I can plug the Kindle into directly so that it plays through my radio speakers. This is working out well. My 2005 Scion didn’t come with an auxiliary port, and I was needing a new CD player anyway so I killed two birds with one stone.

And speaking of Kindle and ebooks, sales have fallen off dramatically, (shall I say, precipitously), on my western collection, Killing Trail, so if you are hungry for some shoot outs and shoot-em-ups, please give the collection a try.


And for a final note for today, The Lovely Lana is running a contest over at her blog where you can pick up one of her great photos. Check it out.
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Withholding Information

I'm in a critique group that meets once a week and I enjoy it. I often find it very helpful. Right now I'm submitting chapters of a novel in progress to the group, and a couple of comments I got at our last meeting on that chapter started me to thinking about the power of information in writing.

One group member wanted me to reveal more about a character when we first meet her. Another wanted to know what role the "wind" was playing in the book because I'd featured the breeze in each of the previous chapters we'd looked at.

I appreciated the questions but they're not going to get what they want. Not right now, at least. The wind will be important. The character will be seen again. But for writers, "information" is the currency we buy and spend with. And we dare not give any information away for free. We are buying our readers' attention and emotional involvement, and we have to milk every last bit of purchasing power out of our information.

I don't remember where I heard it, but somewhere along the line I picked up a guideline for writing that I think is very important. "Never give the reader any more information than they absolutely have to have to understand what is happening in the story. Tell them only what they "have" to know and keep every other bit of information under wraps until it, too, has to be revealed.

That's a rule I can live with.
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Interrupting Our Normal Three Day Pattern

I'd normally leave "The Gray Man" post front and center for another day but there is some breaking news I wanted to share. Richard Godwin has interviewed me over at Chin Wag At The Slaughterhouse, and it's certainly the most unique interview I've ever done. There's already some good comments and discussion so if you get a chance to check it out, you might find it intersting.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.
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The Gray Man

He came frequently to the library. The gray man.

He was of average height but well above average weight. His hair was missing except around the edges and it was a lighter gray than his skin.

The man’s color always looked bad to me. I thought him on the verge of heart failure. At least for a while. But for four years I saw him at least once a week, often more, and during that time he scarcely changed physically except for losing a few pounds here and there.

When I arrived at the library as a grad student, people spoke of the gray man with an intense dislike. He was retired from the university. An ex-professor. But he seemed not to have recognized the “ex” part. I had heard that he would pontificate and exasperate. He was said to demand services, in a loud voice. He sent staff members scurrying to fetch the articles and tomes he sought. And he never said, “thank you.”

People watched the gray man with clouded and hooded eyes when he walked in. It was those eyes that made me ask about him. And I was told. I got an earful. No one liked him. They wished he’d retired to Florida. Some said, “to Hell.”

The thing is, I rarely saw him speak during the time I was at the library, and then only in a monotone, almost a stale whisper in passing. For four years I saw him come in, saw him remove papers and volumes from the small black satchel he habitually carried and spread them out around him on a library table. I saw him rise ponderously on occasion to fetch more books and journals from the library shelves.

For four years I saw him scribbling notes on the various legal pads he owned. I saw him transferring snippets of information from one place to another. I never heard that he published an article from it, or even that he’d put the material together to submit. I thought, perhaps, that he was working on a book, but the research materials he used were too varied to reveal a subject. During all that time I scarcely saw him interact with the library staff; he spoke only when spoken too, and then not at length.

Over the years, the clouded looks the staff gave him changed, from irritation, to resignation, to tolerance, to pity. Even after I left that school I sometimes thought of the gray man. He might have a lost a few pounds outwardly, but he seemed to have lost a great deal of weight inside.

And I wondered. Did the looks of pity dissipate too? Did the gray man finally become as gray and ephemeral as a passing rain? Did anyone in the library notice when he stopped coming?
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A Novel Spaces Day

I'm over at Novel Spaces today (Friday, August 27) with a post about two kinds of people, PO and LO. If you get a chance, drop by and visit.

Thanks,
Charles
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Contest Entries Up

Writtenwyrd's flash fiction contest is up and running. There are 12 entries, most of which are under 250 words. These were all written based on a prompt from "D." My entry is number 3: "With Eyes Like Fangs." If you get a chance and want some good quick reads, check it out. And you can vote for your favorite.

In other news, I'll be posting over at Novel Spaces again on the 27th. I'll put up a notice here. I've got a nice post already prepared and I think a lot of writers will find it interesting, as well as non-writers.

Till later

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Razored Zen's First Guest Blogger

I'm not sure when I first happened upon Sarah Hina's blog, but I do remember being captivated by her poetry and by the sheer loveliness of her language. Sarah is, in my opinion, one of the most talented ‘pure’ writers I’ve yet met in the blogosphere. Sarah recently had her first novel published, Plum Blossoms in Paris, and I immediately snagged myself a copy. I’ve not had a chance to read it yet, but it won’t be long, and I’ll review it when I’m finished. In the meantime, however, for the first time ever on Razored Zen, we have a guest blogger for the day. Please welcome…Sarah Hina, with “For Whom the Bell Tolls”!


FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS

His feet stepped over Point Zero, the origin of all measured distances in France.

He walked.

He walked past the chattering tourists and pigeons. He walked with his back straight and head tilted down, as if the layers of this isle’s history were an archaeological wind to tunnel through.

He walked through the entrance of Notre Dame, ignoring the saints and virgins, and found the stairway leading to the south bell tower.

He climbed.

He stepped over a rope line.

He climbed higher.

He stopped when he mounted the top of the stairs. When he saw what he came for. The lonely bass bell, sequestered from its four siblings in the north tower.

A man with a blue cape stood beside it.

**

I looked at the sweaty American and reached for my phone. Security was third on speed dial. And I had a luncheon to attend.

“Monsieur,” I said. “You are not permitted.”

I noticed his eyes. Leaden, like a soldier’s. Bearing the shadows of battles yet to be fought.

The cell phone stayed in my pocket.

“Are you the one?” he asked. “The keeper of the bells?”

I hesitated.

“Yes, I am Monsieur Fontaine, the chief sacristan,” I finally said.

The man stretched out a hand to lean on the bell. For support, I could see. Emmanuel did not budge. His clapper alone weighed 1,000 pounds. Gone were the days of striking hammers, and the romantic piffle of Quasimodo’s rope swinging. Everything ran to a computer’s atomic precision.

With my finger on the button.

“I need for you to ring this bell,” the man said.

I laughed.

“Monsieur, the bourdon is rarely rung by itself, except to mark the deaths of great and distinguished men, like a pope or archbishop. I am afraid you ask the impossible.” I cleared my throat. “And now you really must—”

“I know why it’s rung,” he said, more quietly. Urgently. “As you say. To mark the deaths of great people.”

I caught his subtle distinction and nearly reached for my phone again. This American seemed prepared to lecture me on his tour-book interpretation of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.

Well. If equality were his aim, then Death would sound constantly throughout the city. Even the tourist parts.

And I would never see lunch.

But instead of a speech, the man looked down at his feet.

So I did, too.

He did not wear shoes. Or, if he did, they were not visible beneath a pair of yellow hospital booties that were speckled red. The afternoon sun bathed their trauma in a soft, opal light.

Blood like wet paint.

“Monsieur,” I murmured, taking a step forward. “I am very—”

He waved me off.

“This . . . she . . . I didn’t know where to . . . ”

True.

“I need to feel." He inhaled sharply. “That someone. Is listening. That someone. Acknowledges it.” He tried to smile at me, but his face could not suffer it.

“You know?”

I closed my eyes.

I was not a man who looked outside my own reality. Or cared to, in truth. But sometimes, when working the towers, it felt like the cathedral breathed. Like she sighed over the wingspan of her centuries. For all she had been forced to see. During these moments, the bells’ clanging could almost remind me of a bloodletting. An exorcism.

If one believed in such things.

I opened my eyes.

**

He walked down the stairs. Over the rope line.

And down again.

He walked from the cathedral, and past the tourists and pigeons, snapping up their photos and breadcrumbs.

He walked because he was afraid to stop. Afraid. He might never stop. The river was right there. A bridge above it.

A solitary note clanged.

Low. Solemn.

Again.

And again.

He stopped walking.

Everyone—tourists, Frenchmen, stone martyrs—offered him a drink from their silence. All listening, instead of talking. Feeling, instead of looking. Connected, for a brief reverberation, by the atomic weight of thirteen metric tons, swinging.

His feet had halted on Point Zero. The origin of all measured distance.

His back hunched.

He grieved.

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Synopsis for Plum Blossoms in Paris:

Post-grad neuroscience student Daisy Lockhart has never been short on brains, but after her longtime boyfriend dumps her through e-mail, she is short on dreams. Alone for the first time in six years, Daisy allows herself to finally be an individual instead of half of a couple. On a mission towards self-discovery, new adventures, and healing her wounded soul, Daisy travels to Paris. Upon her arrival, she meets Mathieu, a mysterious intellectual with a carefree spirit, and Daisy begins to experience the passion and the fulfillment she craves. Daisy's tense battle between possible love and her newly found freedom forces her to decide what she really wants.
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Secret Project Revealed

Since the (in)famous “Sheriff” Cranmer let the cat out of the bag over on Meridian Bridge, I can at last reveal something about the secret project I referred to a few times this summer. David came up with an idea for a time travel romp featuring the hard-boiled Simon Rip in a desperate race through the ages to confront the end of time as we know it. David recruited a few writers to put more flesh on Rip’s bones and the results will begin to appear as a serial on Beat To a Pulp in September.

Chris F. Holm wrote the first installment and I picked up the baton for part 2. Matt Mayo has taken over for part 3. I had a tremendous amount of fun working on this project. It’s the first time I’ve ever taken part in a serial/shared world type adventure like that and it was a great learning experience. Challenging, but fun.

I’ve read Chris’s opening but will be reading Matt’s conclusion along with the rest of you when it hits BTAP. I’m looking forward to seeing the whole thing together.

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I know I've mentioned these before, but I didn't have the cover for one of them. In a follow up to my last post, these are two recent anthologies that have stories in by me.



Here are a couple of books on writing that I read years ago but don't own copies of. I'll be looking for these soon.


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The Post I'm Not Ready to Make

Well, it's over. And I weep for the passing of summer vacation. It was a fruitful one. I put together and published Killing Trail, which included several brand new items as well as heavily rewritten older material. I completed putting together a collection of my vampire fiction, which I'm calling Midnight in Rosary, and which also includes a lot of revised material as well as brand new stuff. That anthology is submitted as we speak.

I sold five short stories to various markets, two of which have been published, and completed a roughly 7,000 word secret project. I got a surprise publication with "Precious Cargo" being selected for the Clarity of Night: Contests, Volume 1. I had a couple of nonfiction articles on writing published, and five haiku translated into Bulgarian. I did a lot of promoting for various projects, including Killing Trail and Bitter Steel.


I did a LOT of blogging, and made 500+ friends on Facebook. And I read and read and read.

But, alas, all good things must come to an end. Tomorrow I start back to school, and the writing output will slow to a trickle. I'll still be blogging and facebooking a bit. I'll try to post here every 3 days at least, and I'll try to get around to as many blogs as possible. During this summer, though, I often spent an hour and a half a day blogging and facebooking and that simply can't continue. My commute alone takes almost 3 hours a day. School hours vary depending on the time of the semester, but it ranges from 5 to 12. Then there's eating, sleeping, hanging with Lana, and trying to keep some writing projects alive.

In short, you'll be seeing me a lot less until next summer gets here. Some of you will probably find that a relief, but some of you will miss me. I'm practically sure of that! Almost sure. :)

Best,
Charles Gramlich

Red Dead Redemption

True to my intentions, I've done almost no writing the past few days and instead have been relaxing in preparation for the hard labors to come when I return to school on Wednesday. I've been doing a fair amount of reading, but have been playing a lot of a video game called Red Dead Redemption for my XBox 360. My son bought me the game for Father's Day but I've scarcely played it up until now because I’ve been too busy writing. I must say I’m enjoying it tremendously and am rather glad I didn’t get into it until now. I would have lost some writing time, I imagine.



Red Dead Redemption is a western themed game. It is supposedly set in 1910 but looks like the 1880s for the most part. I think they set it later so they could introduce technology that wasn’t seen in the 1880s. It features a character named John Marston, who is being coerced into going after some old gang mates of his.

One of the good things about the game is that it has a big “exploration” element, which I like. You get to discover a lot of new areas and secrets, and that’s one of my favorite elements of video games. It’s why I liked Doom and Super Metroid and Zelda so much. There’s also a lot of action and shoot-em ups, which I also enjoy.

It’s easier to be bad in the game, to steal and murder, but it pays better and gives you better adventures if you are good. I’ve tried it both ways. I’m kind of liking being a good guy right now, though the bad guy game is saved when I want to go back to that.

One problem I’m having is that the game is clearly set up for a wide screen TV and I can’t read half the prompts and hints that appear on the screen. That has made certain discoveries a long time in coming. However, Lana found out there is a Red Dead Wiki available that can answer a lot of your questions and give you some good hints. I’ve been enjoying the game more since checking out the Wiki.

So there you have it. How I spent the last few days of summer vacation. And now I’m going to go play some more!
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A Contest and More

This is the cover for Beat to a Pulp’s first print publication, which is soon to be published. Some of you have seen it already but I think it’s pretty cool. I’m looking forward to this collection.

Writtenwyrd is having a writing contest I’ve already started on my entry so check out the contest and throw your tale into the ring.

I spent yesterday (Thursday) with my son, which is why I didn’t make my normal blogging rounds. We ate some sushi and had a nice walk. We shot the B-B gun some and played a bit of Red Dead Redemption, the video game he bought me for Father’s Day. “Redemption” is a western themed game and I’m having a lot of fun with it. I have ceased to be a law-abiding citizen within the confines of the game, however. Perhaps this should trouble me more than it does.

Today, (Friday), we’re having some tropical weather and net access is spotty at best. I’ve been unable to get around to just about any sites so that’s where things stand. It took half an hour of refreshing and working one window at a time to get the this post up.

Here's a book I'll be getting soon:

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A Novel Spaces Day

I'm over at Novel Spaces today, talking about the "one" rule of writing you must follow. Hope you will drop by.

And late breaking news: I didn't know this was going up today but there's an interview with me over at Aerin's In Search of Giants. It's even for charity.
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Winners and Losers

True to my intentions, I've taken a few days largely off writing and tried to just relax and do some reading. I've even engaged in a little TV/Movie action. I caught a few more episodes of The Office, watched some Frasier and Star Trek: The Next Generation reruns, and watched Hell's Kitchen. Last night I rented the movie The Losers, and I have to say I enjoyed it quite a lot. I've never read the comic book series it is based on, and it looked at first glance very much like an A-Team kind of set-up, but I liked the characters and the action was satisfyingly over-the-top. I don't know the names of the actors but among the characters we had the woman who played Uhuru on the new Trek, the guy who played the "Comedian" on Watchmen, and the guy who played Johnny Torch on The Fantastic Four, all of whom I like as characters. The villain was Jason Patric, who gave a pretty good performance as a totally conscienceless but sometimes blackly humorous evil CIA operative.

In reading, I started Hunt at the Well of Eternity, by our own James Reasoner, and am enjoying it muchly. I'm reading a collection of Loren Eiseley's poetry called The Innocent Assassins, which is, in general, not as good as his prose essays. I also started Flash Forward by Robert J. Sawyer and am liking it. I was hooked on the TV show before it was cancelled and the book so far is pretty close in many ways to the show.



I finished Ed Gorman's Harlot's Moon, which was very good, and Ira Levin's A Kiss Before Dying, which I liked a lot although I don't know if I'd consider it among the world's fifty best mysteries ever. I also read an enjoyable western by a fellow named Gary Addis, who I've mentioned in this blog before. I've copied my review from Goodreads below:

"Lance Jolley is a gunman. He's been shaped by childhood and by the harsh environment of the American Civil War into a hard man who can react with volcanic violence when he's pushed. And he's not adverse to trading on his gun rep.

But Jolley has a moral center and never forgets a friend. When the son of a friend is harassed into a gunfight that the young lad can't win, Jolley sets the range on fire as he rides for vengeance. Once more his enemies will learn not to push Lance Jolley, or those he cares about.

I just finished reading this for Kindle, which is the only way it's available at the moment. This is Gary Addis's first novel, I believe, although he's been published in nonfiction and fiction multiple times. It's a very good story, well written and strongly visual. There are flashbacks to the Civil War that are gut wrenching in their realism.

Good stuff, and I hope we see more of Lance Jolley."


Until next time, keep the word side up!
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What I Learned from The Office

Any “Office” fans out there? I am, although I definitely did not start out that way. The first time I tried to watch it I thought it was lame. I’d never have given it a second glance if not for Lana. She watched it regularly, so I watched a few episodes with her, often criticizing it at the same time, and suddenly at about 7 or 8 episodes in I found that I was enjoying it, that I was “getting” it. Now I even watch it when Lana is not around, and it’s the only TV comedy besides Frasier that I’ll say that about.

So what happened? And what does it have to do with writing? Well, first let me tell you why I didn’t initially like The Office. I didn’t because it takes the laziest possible tack toward storytelling. Frequently, the characters directly address the audience through a patently fake and quite silly “mockumentary.” We are supposed to believe that the folks are being interviewed at times and that the cameras and cameramen are recording the people at work. The problems are two-fold. 1). The “interviews” address anything the “storyline” needs them to address. 2). The cameras clearly catch elements that no documentary cameras would catch. This requires a level of suspension of disbelief far greater for me than believing in aliens, vampires, or an honest politician.

I know it is comedy, but you have to admit this is just lazy storytelling. Don’t we criticize writers when they directly address the audience? Don’t we tell writers to show and not tell, and to avoid info dumps? The Office does all of these things. Despite its flaws, however, I came to really enjoy the series, and it had to do with one thing: The Characters. Under Lana’s influence, I watched enough episodes to get to know the characters and I found that I liked them and empathized with them. I wanted to find out more about them. I wanted Pam and Jim to get together. I wanted to find out more about Dwight's twisted childhood. I even came to feel sorry for Michael, who I absolutely hated at first as a character.

What I learned, or relearned, in relation to writing is that characters are the single most important element in storytelling. Great characters will cover up a multitude of sins. That doesn’t mean the writer can or should neglect the other elements of a story, but if you were going to follow the Bill Clinton approach to winning the presidency in your writing, you might want to use the mantra: “It’s the characters, stupid!”
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Interview Part II

The second half of Richard Prosch's interview with me is up over at Meridian Bridge. T'would appear I'm fairly long winded. But you all knew that.

I just finished reading Crossroad Blues by our own Steve Malley and, let me say, I enjoyed it immensely. I highly recommend it. Here's what I had to say on Amazon and Goodreads:

In Crossroad Blues we have wonderful characters full of heart and emotion, one of the nastiest villains I've ever come across in fiction, and a setting that is both exotic and very real. We have joy and despair, and gain and loss. And all of it is written in a highly charged and highly visual prose.

The ending was one of those where you just sit for a few moments after the story is over and let the fullness of your emotions wash over you. It will be an ending that lingers in my mind for a long time, not because it was some special effects extravaganza or some impossible to see twist, but because it touched my emotions at a level far deeper than my eyes.

I highly recommend this book.


Another book I enjoyed recently was Slick Time by O'Neil De Noux. Here's my review of that one from Amazon:

This is a sexy caper novel, and it's a lot of fun. We've got New Orleans, the Caribbean, a sexy movie in the making, and a con. We've got a fake kidnapping, and a real one. We've got beautiful people, great food, and crystal waters cluttered up by modern day pirates. We've got some edge of your seat suspense and some excellent wry humor. And there's some steamy sex thrown in.

De Noux knows his way around New Orleans and around police procedures, and his settings are spot on.

I read this in the Kindle edition but there is also a print edition. I highly recommend it.

Interview

The first part of a two part interview with me is up over at Richard Prosch's Meridian Bridge. Thanks, Rich. I always like getting a chance to yak about writing. These were great questions and I had fun with them.

Heading into New Orleans today to check on some things at work. I have about two weeks of summer left before school starts. I love my job, don't get me wrong, but I sure have been enjoying my time away as well. Once school starts everyone will see me online and on the blogs quite a bit less frequently. I won't be able to make nearly as many comments as I have been doing this summer. I imagine the blogosphere will survive.

In those two weeks I want to put the finishing touches on a collection of my vampire stories, which is just about done, and then I want to take a few days off to do absolutely nothing but read and eat and sleep. Even though I've been off "work," I haven't been off writing and I've had a very productive summer. I do need some vegging time, though.
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Updates on the Updates

I keep learning more about the Kindle experience. I thought at first that kindle formatted stuff I downloaded from Smashwords couldn’t be read on the Kindle device, only on Kindle PC. I was wrong. If you ‘open’ a file bought from Smashwords it will open only in Kindle PC and then you can’t copy it from there to your desktop or Kindle device. However, if you ‘save’ that file to your desktop, then you can open it on Kindle PC or copy it to your Kindle device just fine.

The general consensus on the Amazon widgets seemed to be that I should use them on my sidebar instead of the covers by themselves. So, as you can see, I did just that. It was a lot easier than setting up the covers to be clickable anyway.

You might also notice that I now have a place on the sidebar, just below my first set of links, where anyone can subscribe to an RSS feed for my blog. I had to do that so I could link my blog to Goodreads and to the Amazon Author Page. It took me several hours to figure out how to do it, since I’m still using the original template I started with on Blogger a couple of Yarons ago. But, tis done now.

In writing news, a couple of anthologies have just come out with stories by yours truly included. These are:
1: Caught by Darkness, which contains a vampire story of mine called “Clowns in the Dark.”

2: Dusted, which has a short SF flash fiction by me called “Past Perfect.”

I have also been on a book buying frenzy for the last month, almost all of which have involved friends and blog buddies. I picked up Death’s Head Crossing and Westward! by James Reasoner, Adopted Behaviors by James R. Tomlinson, Plum Blossoms in Paris by Sarah Hina, Dark and Disorderly by Bernita Harris, What Remains of Heaven by C. S. Harris, Desert Justice by Paul S. Powers, Crossroad Blues by Steve Malley, Lancelot by Lee Whitney, Heroes of the Fallen by David J. West, Pallid Light by William Jones, A Storm to Remember and Revolt of the Dead by Keith Gouveia, Slick Time, New Orleans Mysteries, and A Short Guide to Writing and Selling Fiction by O’Neil De Noux, and Adventure Vol. 1, which contains stories by friends of mine, John Edward Ames, Mark Finn, and O’Neil De Noux. About half of those were Kindle purchases.

Unfortunately, my book buying budget is temporarily blown so no one else I know publish any books for a while. ;) Just kidding.
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The Skinny

I know everyone is simply hanging on the edge of their seats for updates on Gramlich’s life so I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. Here’s what I’ve been up to.

1. Thanks so much to everyone who has visited and commented over at Novel Spaces when I’ve blogged there. I much appreciate that. You folks are the best.

2. I now have an author page on Amazon. Nothing much to see except images of my books and a short bio that everyone has seen before. But I may add stuff to it over time and will let you know. It’s mainly for the twos and threes of folks who might stumble upon my work outside of this blog and find themselves desperately interested in the Big G Man.

3. I finished a semi-secret project and information on that will be coming out soon. I had a lot of fun with it. It’s quite different than anything I’ve done before.

4. I joined Amazon Associates. It’s free, and I’ve seen a lot of blogs around now with those little clickable rectangle widgets that are linked to specific products at Amazon. I wanted some of those for my own books, and for other things I might want to support. Here’s a couple of them below. I do have a question for everyone. The book covers on my sidebar are clickable and will take you to Amazon, but should I replace those with these clickable widgets to make that clear, or does that smack of too much “hackery?”





5. Killing Trail has now gone live at Smashwords, but let me lay down the skinny before anyone decides to buy it there. First, the price is the same, $2.99. Second, Smashwords does have a version for the kindle, and over there the table of contents is clickable so you can jump directly to the stories. HOWEVER, if you buy a kindle form book from Smashwords you can only read it on Kindle PC and not on the Kindle device. ALSO, the formatting is generally better on the Amazon version. Adding the clickables has meant that the stories do not all start on separate pages. Some do, but others start right after the previous story ends. The readability level of the book is fine in Kindle form.

In addition, though, at Smashwords you can also get the story in PDF format and it came out perfectly that way, with the clickable table of contents and all the page breaks just as they should be. I was happy about that. So if you want to read it but don’t have a Kindle, this is the best way to go.

There are a number of other formats offered by Smashwords and I uploaded every one to see how it would work. Here’s the skinny on those for Killing Trail.

A: Do NOT get the book in RTF or Plain Text. It’s completely unreadable in plain text and the formatting is seriously screwed up on RTF, though I don’t know why.

B: The HTML online reading is generally good with indents and centering of titles working just fine, but the clickable table of contents won’t work in HTML and the page breaks aren’t necessarily correct between stories, meaning that a new story doesn’t always start on a new page.

C: The Javascript won’t show the images in the book, and the clickable table of contents won’t work. But the text is readable and you can change font size and color. I definitely wouldn’t consider this ideal.

D: There are also some formats for other e-readers that I don’t have, so I couldn’t test them. If anyone does get the book for one of these formats, please, please let me know how it works so I can make good on any problems. Anyway, these are:

EPUB: Open industry format, good for Stanza reader
LRF: for Sony reader.
Palm Doc, PDB: for Palm reading devices.

That’s about it for now. Thanks for listening.

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Round Two

I'm posting over at Novel Spaces today. Please drop by.
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Rough Edges and Killing Trail

Killing Trail got a nice review over on Rough Edges, which is the blog of James Reasoner. That means a lot to me because James makes his living as a professional writer, and much of what he writes is western themed. James is the author of over 200 books, many under his own name and others under various pen-names. He writes or has written for a number of series, some very long-running.

I've got several dozen of James's books around here, not all of them read yet. But it's always nice to have some good stuff in reserve. Probably my favorites by James aren't westerns at all but a couple of noir thrillers called Texas Wind and Dust Devils, both from Point Blank Press. I’ve reviewed both of these on Amazon. In westerns, my favorites by James are his Judge Earl Stark books, but there are many others to enjoy.

Every couple of years I get to talk to James Reasoner in Cross Plains, Texas when I go there for Howard Days. I always enjoy those visits. The man is stuffed with information about writing and writers, and it’s always fun to pick his brain. His taste is impeccable, as witness his enjoyment of Killing Trail. :)

James's wife, Livia J. Washburn is also a professional writer, so they are an interesting couple.

And the cover photo at top, well, guess who sat for it. No, not me, but someone mentioned in this blog. And not Livia either. :)


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Some Notes on Publishing Killing Trail: Part 3

This should be the final post on publishing Killing Trail via Amazon’s Kindle ebook program. This one is mostly about the text itself, and about my results so far.

Text Issues: I purposefully decided not to make the first line of the stories flush left. Printed books do this but it always bothers me. Perhaps I’ve read too much stuff in manuscript form. Anyway, since it was my book I’d, as Cartman says: “Do what I want!” I indented the first line of all paragraphs, which looks better to me and improves my reading experience.

Whatever you decide to do about indents, however, you use the “paragraph” function on your word processor to set the margins. If you use the space bar to indent, it won’t come out right. You can manipulate the margins directly for the first line if you don’t want it indented. Always remember, though, that you can kindlize different versions of your manuscript to study before uploading it. That way you can use trial and error, if needed, to get the indents right. I’ve seen quite a few Kindle books that have indents all over the place and it does detract from the reading experience.

I picked up the margin information from Natasha, and I also learned that you need to create a hard page break after each section, as at the end of the table of contents page, and the end of each story or chapter in your book. There are a couple of ways to do this. You can put your cursor where you want the break to be, click on the “insert” button on your MS Word Menu and select “Page Break.” Or, you can put the curser where you want the break to be and hit the CTRL – ENTER keys. This doesn’t mean, necessarily, that the table of contents page will always appear on one page in an actual Kindle document, because the amount of words on a page depends on the size font the reader selects. However, it does make sure that chapter 2 starts on a ‘new’ page rather than a few lines down on the same page as the end of chapter 1.

Uploading Your File: After you have your file the way you want it (or before), have a look at the “Getting Started Guide” offered by Amazon here. You can also register and login from that page, which you’ll need to do to publish for Kindle. There is a very helpful video that walks you through the publishing process here.

Getting Paid: Amazon will pay you by check, but only when you’ve accumulated about 100 bucks. If you want to get paid before that, you’ll need to give them a routing number for a checking account so that the money can be deposited directly into that account. They apparently do this about every 60 days. I decided to set up a new account just for writing purposes and used that routing number instead of the one to my primary checking account. I’m not sure there’s any risk, but I’d prefer to take a chance with a 100 dollars instead of the several hundred in my regular account. I haven’t gotten my first pay from Amazon yet.

My Results Thus Far: And now for the good news and bad news. That is: Sales. The good news is that, between Monday, July 5th at 8:39 a.m. and Friday, July 23rd at 1:30 p.m., I sold 33 copies of Killing Trail. I make $2.07 per book at %70 percent royalties on $2.99 (minus .03 cent delivery charge), so the total comes out, according to Amazon, at $61.08. That’s $61.08 I didn’t have before. That’s a nice dinner for two at our favorite restaurant. But that’s not the whole story, of course.

The bad news is that I sold only 33 copies of Killing Trail in about 2 and a half weeks, and I laid out 25 bucks in giveaways before I even started. The bad news is that I sent several hundred emails to folks, did a blitz on my blog and on Facebook, got a big front page write-up in my hometown paper, spent 8 hours or more a day for most of the first week promoting the book…and sold 33 copies. During that time I also bought about $35 dollars worth of Kindle ebooks (and some printed books) from friends, to help them promote their work, and I know that most of them did return the favor. Take away 60 from 61.08 and I’ve got about enough for a MacDonald’s value meal. That’s still not the whole story, of course.

Honestly, I didn’t expect to do a whole lot better than this. I said going in that I’d like to sell 50 copies in the first two weeks. I figured 100 copies was real pie in the sky stuff. And, of course, the book is out there now and may continue to sell some copies over time. I can hope a bit of buzz develops. I can hope.

And, I also had good news in the form of some very nice reviews of Killing Trail. Those who read it genuinely seemed to like it, and that means a whole lot to me. I’m sure others are doing much better with their ebooks than I’ve done. Maybe they’re better writers than I am. Or better promoters. Or both. But they can’t be any happier when someone tells them that their stories are valued. I’ll end with a couple more of those reviews below.

From: O’Neil de Noux
KILLING TRAIL is a wonderfully familiar dusty, road - a thrilling ride of vengeance, unfulfilled love, sweaty saloons, bushwhacks, shoot-em-ups, bloody villains and cowboy heroes. What is familiar is not cliché when penned by Charles Allen Gramlich. The stories in KILLING TRAIL follow the tracks great western writers have left (Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour, Elmore Leonard, William W. Johnstone, Ralph Compton, Loren Estleman, John Edward Ames - the list goes on and I can't list them all). Gramlich joins the posse with stories of vengeance, right versus wrong and bullets flying. I highly recommend this book.

From: Gary Addis
The stories in Charles Gramlich's Killing Trail collection offer plenty of action, and surprisingly thorough character development as well.
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Some Things I've Been Needing to Post

I’ll post the third installment of the Kindle publishing series Friday, but here’s a few items I’ve been intending to blog about and/or announce.

First, the newest Illuminata is out, and there’s an expansion of my piece on “To A Writer” in it. There’s also some stuff by the blogosphere’s own Rachel Olivier. You can download the July 2010 issue free here if you want, in either PDF or EPUB format.

Second, Jason Evans over at The Clarity of Night blog has published the winning stories from his first 12 contests in ebook form. The design and layout were done by JR Tomlinson, who also has a chapbook out from Motor City Burning Press. The Clarity of Night book is free as a PDF and includes a lot of great flash fiction. My story, “Precious Cargo,” which received the “Reader’s Choice Award” in the 2008 “Running Wind Contest, is in it. You can download your free copy here.

Third, a buddy of mine, Gary Addis, who is a talented writing coach and line editor, is currently accepting clients. His rates are very reasonable. So if you're looking to put an edge on your next manuscript, you might shoot him an email. Here’s his blurb below:

“When your car breaks down, you can lift the hood and stare at it. Or you can call a mechanic. What you don't do is abandon a valuable property alongside the freeway. A rejection slip from a publisher need not be the death knell of your dream of becoming a published writer. Send that manuscript to a mechanic.

I taught myself to write professionally by writing and rewriting and rewriting as many times as it took to get it right. The process required years and enough rejection slips to wallpaper my office. Allow me to shorten your learning curve. My services to you a beginning writer include manuscript evaluation, line by line editing, and even total rewrites when needed. My rates won't send you to bankruptcy court.

Initial contact should be via email.
Gary Addis: garyw.addis@gmail.com”

Fourth, I finished reading Bernita Harris’s Dark and Disorderly and enjoyed it very much. Here’s my review below:

This book is properly categorized as Urban Fantasy and I’ve only read a few books in that genre. Most of them I didn’t care for. This book I really liked, however. The main character, Lillie St. Claire, just seemed like an absolutely honestly drawn individual. She wasn't some super ass-kicking babe who every vampire and werewolf is in love with. She had faults and fears. She brooded at times, lost her temper at times, joked at times, felt weak at times, and strong at times. I felt like I could identify her as a real person.

The story was also very strong and really built up a steamroller of tension toward the end, with some nice twists here and there that I didn't see coming. The writing was excellent. The author clearly spent a lot of time crafting her sentences and it shows in the rhythm and poetry of the prose. I like to see an author who really cares about the writing. Bernita Harris certainly did. I highly recommend this one.


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Some Notes on Publishing Killing Trail: Part 2

OK, so last time I talked about transforming the cover from an MS word file to a Jpeg and about inserting images directly into the word file and using them without converting. I discussed my copyright page and posted it as an example. This time I’ll talk about the text and the table of contents.

Again, I used an MS Word 97-2003 file for sending to Kindle and didn’t make any html notations in it before sending. I went with Times New Roman 14 as the text font, and I used TNR 16 point text for the chapter titles and for headings like “Table of Contents.” Here’s one thing I noticed. On page 2 of the collection I repeated the title above a picture of the gun in its holster. I tried to do the tile at TNR 40 point, which made it as wide as the image below it in my original file. It came out smaller than the image once Kindlized, though, which I think means that Kindle won’t recognize very large font sizes that are sent to it.

I don’t know what the largest size Kindle will recognize is, although I’ll do some experiments eventually to find out. If I had it to do over, I’d just convert page 2 to a jpeg too and insert it in the text. Font size is irrelevant to the result on Kindle when you do that.

For the table of contents, I did something different from any other kindle ebook I’ve seen before, and I’ve received one email from someone who thanked me for how I did it. Some ebooks have the table of contents set up as a “clickable” file using HTML. That means that you can select and click say, Chapter 12, and leap directly to that chapter. Other ebooks, including most that I’ve seen, just have the table of contents page without the clickables, which just tells you what stories or chapters might be in the book, but won’t allow you to jump to them.

It occurred to me that, for Kindle, the “location” is the equivalent to page number in a printed book. If you don’t have a Kindle this might not make much sense but I’ll try to explain. Killing Trail has 1371 ‘locations’ in it. If you want to go to location 1300, you press the menu button, select “go to location,” enter 1300 at the bottom of the screen using the keypad, and “click” the selector. You’ll be taken directly to location 1300.

What I did was figure out where the “locations” for the stories were going to be in the Kindlized book and add them to the table of contents as if they were page numbers. In Killing Trail, you don’t just click on the story “Powder Burn” to go to that story, but you enter the location for the story, which is 742, and that will take you to it.

How did I know what locations my stories would be at? Well, that takes me to the most important element of all this information. Kindle allows you to Kindlize all kinds of files. When I got my Kindle, it came with instructions about how to send any personal file to Kindle so they could change it to Kindle format and send it back. You can have these files sent directly to your own Kindle, for a very tiny charge, or can have them sent to your email for downloading free of charge. Then you can move them back and forth to your Kindle as you like.

I’ve Kindlized lots of text files for my own personal use. So, once I had Killing Trail set up how I wanted it, I kindlized it and had it delivered to my home email. I loaded it to my Kindle, checked where the locations were, and wrote those into the table of contents. Then I Kindlized that version to make sure the locations were correct. They were. I actually Kindlized five different versions of the book for myself and finally selected the one that I liked the formatting on best. That was the one I uploaded to be published.

At the end of the book, I wanted my contact information, my email and blog address, and I just typed them into the word processing file and hit enter after them. This automatically converts them to a clickable in MS Word, and that came through just fine on the Kindle when the file was converted, without doing anything else.

I also did the same thing for the “Other Books By Charles Gramlich” section. I typed the title of the book, then added the Amazon link and hit enter after it. It became a clickable and that translated into the final Kindlized version. If I had this to do over, I’d use the “tinyurl” process to decrease the size of the links. I did convert them to TNR font 6 in my text but they came out pretty large in the finished Kindle book. They are clickable, though. You select one and can jump right to Amazon to the listing for that book. Here’s exactly what it looked like in my original file:

Write With Fire: Thoughts on the Craft of Writing.
http://www.amazon.com/Write-Fire-Thoughts-Craft-Writing/dp/1434403629/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248328011&sr=1-1

OK, there’s still more I can talk about so there’ll be a third post in this series, but this is enough for today. I’ll end with another review of Killing Trail, this time from Bernardl. Thanks, man.

“KILLING TRAIL combines all the elements of good Western storytelling - strong characters, hard places, and grim down to earth action. It is a very entertaining read.”
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Some Notes on Publishing Killing Trail: Part 1

There’s certainly more than one way to set up a file to publish to Kindle, and maybe some are better than mine. But here’s what I did. If I did it all wrong, well, if you have a copy of the book you can see and decide for yourself whether the formatting worked. I’m going to cover my process over the next few posts. (Before I forget it myself.)

First, the biggest surprise of publishing with Amazon’s Kindle program was finding out how easy it was. I didn’t use any HTML code and formatted strictly with my MS Word. I used Word 97-2003.

For the cover, I created a word processing file with the title at top and my name below, and imported the picture into the file using the “insert” command. I sent it to Lana, who found the font and did the frame around the page. She sent it back to me and I converted it to a jpeg using information at this site. We had to download the cover font from the web because my word processor didn’t come with it. But that didn’t take long. Then, when the rest of the manuscript was done to my satisfaction in MS Word, I just used the insert command to put the cover jpeg at the front of the file.

For the interior illustrations, I simply inserted photographs directly from my files into the text at various points. These were not converted to jpegs, only inserted into the word processing file. These were all photos that Lana took, by the way, so there were no copyright issues. Since the cover was the pistol by itself, I inserted a picture of the holstered pistol on page 2 of my file, with a repeat of the title. I then used a cropped down picture of the pistol by itself as a header illustration for each story in the file. These were copied directly into line 1 of the page where the story started. I double spaced down to put the story’s title. This gave me the start position I wanted for the story on the page.

Note, about the images, Kindle does not support color images so even though the originals were in color, they only show up in black and white in the ebook. But you can get a preview of how the images are going to look before you decide to include them or not. I’ll talk about that later. (By the Way, Steve Malley turned me on to the fact that Kindle for PC will show the illustrations in color. Thanks, Steve.) I’d heard repeatedly that Kindle doesn’t handle images well. Other than the lack of color, I had no problems whatsoever inserting these pictures in the book, and I think they added to the overall presentation.

For the “All Rights Reserved,” “Copyright,” and “Dedication” information, I got out a few published books and used the basic format I found there. I edited some elements slightly for my own taste, then put it all together on a single page of my word processing file. I just double spaced between sections, and I’m going to stop today with a copy of what my copyright page looked like in my original word processing file. It did not come out as a single page in the resulting ebook, however, but on two pages at the smallest kindle reading font size. As you can see if you have the ebook, the lines as they will appear in a published Kindle book are not as long as the lines in a normal word processing file. However, they wrapped just fine when I uploaded the book to Kindle without me having to do a thing.
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Except for brief quotations, such as those to be included in reviews, no section of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author.

The short stories in this collection are works of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is coincidental.

Dedication: To Louis L’Amour, who made me love the west.

And to Roger James, my brother-in-law, who introduced me to L’Amour’s work and who never griped when I borrowed his paperbacks. All of his paperbacks.

Text Copyright © 2010 by Charles Allen Gramlich.
Cover Photo & Design copyright © 2010 by Lana Gramlich.

Published by Razored Zen Press, 2010.
Contact at kainja@hotmail.com

“Killing Trail” originally appeared in somewhat different form in Elbow Creek Magazine in 2001.

“Once Upon a Time with the Dead” first appeared in Bits of the Dead, 2008.
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I’ll leave you with a review of Killing Trail by Randy Johnson. Thanks, man.

“A fine collection of western tales by the author of the Talera novels and Cold In The Light. It is Mr. Gramlich's first venture into ebook publishing.

There are a couple of pieces that discuss authors, particularly Louis L'Amour, that influenced his writing and a bit about the old west in his home state Arkansas. I know what he meant about considering the west way out there and not realizing the history of his own state.

The price is right and the stories are good, an unbeatable combination. If you like westerns the Killing Trail should be an acquisition. I don't own a Kindle myself, but took advantage of the free Kindle download for PCs. It took me only about an hour to read this fine collection.

Definitely worth a look.”
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Gramlich Family Books, and Contest Winners

I am so pleased to announce that my very talented wife, Lana Gramlich, has had a book of her photography published. It’s called Eye Candy Photography: Scenes from the American South. The link is HERE, and you can get a preview of the images if you’d like. I’m happy to say I was present when many of the photos were taken. Most are in the general area around Abita Springs, although there are some from our trip last summer to Mississippi. You’ll see many of the wild critters that live around us here, from gators, to raccoons, to birds of many kinds. And there are some gorgeous pictures of sunsets through the massive old oaks. Treat yourself to some Eye Candy for sure.

And now for the drawing for the Killing Trail launch party. The first name out of the hat, picked by the Lovely Lana, was X-Dell. X will have a choice of whatever one of my books he might be interested in getting. The next name out of the hat was Ron Scheer, who will win a signed and framed copy of the cover photo for the book. I will be in contact with X and Ron shortly. Congrats to the winners. It might be as long as a week before I can get the framed cover done but the book I can send out right away.

Thanks to everyone who visited and commented on the Launch Party blog, and for those who bought Killing Trail. Sales were very good for almost a week, although they seem to be falling off rapidly since the weekend.

By the way, I'm finally updating and organizing all my blog links, so if you'd have a look and see whether I've put you in an appropriate place or not. Let me know if not, and if you are a frequent visitor to this blog but not on the list, let me know. I am trying not to forget anyone.
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Novel Spaces Day

I'm posting today over at Novel Spaces. My topic is on what writing isn't and what it is. This is my first post as a member of the Novel Spaces crew, so if you get a chance I hope you'll check it out. Feel free to comment there instead of here.

I will be conducting the drawing for the prizes from my Killing Trail launch party next week. Probably on Tuesday. So, if you haven't gotten in on that drawing there is still time for you to comment on the Launch Party post. And thanks so much to everyone who bought a copy of Killing Trail. I will be posting more about the process of publishing the book next week.

Thanks also for all the wonderful outpourings of sympathy for the loss of my brother-in-law. I appreciate you folks so much.
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Roger James

Strange how the world works. My brother-in-law, Roger James, died Tuesday morning, July 6th. I went up to Arkansas for the funeral, which was on Thursday. It was cancer, which also took his wife, my sister Dolores, five years ago.

Dying isn’t strange, of course. Dying is a waste of love and potential, but not strange. But there is a connection behind the scenes in this story, and that’s the subject of this post. On Monday morning, Killing Trail was published and I felt pretty good. Tuesday morning, we lost Roger and the good was gone. Yet, the connection I mentioned is between Roger and that book. Killing Trail is dedicated to two men. One is Louis L’Amour, the famous western author whose work influenced the stories in the collection. The other man is Roger, who was a big reader and who introduced me to L’Amour. Roger was famous only to his family and friends, many of whom just called him “Papa.” That was OK with him; it was all he would have wanted.

Fortunately, I sent the dedication, which included a short essay about Roger and L’Amour, to him about a month ago through his daughter, my niece, Anna. The essay included the story about how, as a kid, I used to borrow all of Roger’s books, and about how we often talked about the books once I’d read them. Roger liked a good story, and occasionally told a bit of a tall tale himself. Anna told me that Roger really liked the essay, and I’m glad he got to hear about how much I appreciated him before he passed. That doesn’t mitigate the tragedy of his loss. But somehow it lifts my spirits just a little. The good is not totally gone.

Roger was alive when I wrote that dedication. He’ll always be alive in its pages. And in our memories.
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KILLING TRAIL: OFFICIAL LAUNCH PARTY

WELL, IT'S DONE! Killing Trail is published via Amazon’s ebook program, and via Razored Zen Press. (I’ve always wanted to say that.)

SOMETIMES when books are published, presses throw a launch party. Well, Razored Zen is throwing a launch party right here! I’m in tight with the Press’s editor, you know. I told him I wanted a launch party or I’d never publish with them again. He caved right away, me being by far the most famous author the Press has signed so far. He still didn’t give me much throwing around money. (Cheap Son of a Gun.) That’s small presses for you.

BUT LET ME tell you a little about the book and how it got set up. First, the cover design (seen at top) is a collaboration between Lana and I, though mostly Lana. The picture is of my Uberti .357 single action revolver. The background is a weather-worn bench at the nearby Flatwoods nature preserve. Lana took the pic a while back and I decided it would make the right cover for Killing Trail. I showed Lana a mockup, which I actually published on the blog when I first started talking about doing this book. Lana found the great western style font and did the frame and color scheme.

SECOND, the price. I’d originally planned to publish this for .99 cents but Amazon has changed their program and the cheapest I could go was $2.99. So there you have it. This is the first time I’ve self-published, but I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and I like how it turned out. I’ll post later about the “process” of publishing with Amazon, which turned out to be quite easy.

THIRD, the contents. This is not a novel length work. There’s about 24,000 words of material, including four fiction stories (three long ones) and a couple of short, non-fiction essays. Since Amazon has not yet put up the “about the book material,” here it is below:

RIDE INTO DANGER!

Killing Trail is a collection of western short stories by Charles Allen Gramlich, the author of the Talera Trilogy and Cold in the Light. It contains:


Killing Trail: When they dumped Angela Cody on Lane Holland’s ranch she was scant moments from death. She managed to speak only a few words, but those were enough to make Lane strap on his guns and ride out on a killing trail.

Showdown at Wild Briar: Accused of a murder he didn’t commit, Josh Allen Boone has ridden a long way from his Wild Briar Ranch. But now he’s coming home, and the real killers are waiting for him with a rope. (Never before published.)

Powder Burn: They said Davy Bonner’s luck had run out and they ambushed him along a dark road. But luck or no, Davy wasn’t going down without a fight. (Written specifically for this collection.)

Once Upon a Time with the Dead: For the gray raiders, death was an old friend.

The work also includes two nonfiction essays, one about Louis L’Amour and another about the real Wild West.


FOURTH, the GIVEAWAYS. Those who comment on this Launch Party Blog will have their names entered in a random drawing. The first name drawn will get their choice of two prizes. 1: A signed copy of any one of my books. 2: A framed image of the Killing Trail cover signed by both me and Lana. The second name drawn will get the prize that the first person doesn’t choose.

I’m pretty happy about being a self-published author on this day. I worked very hard on the stories in this collection and I’m proud of them. I hope some of you will enjoy them too. Thanks for visiting, and I’ll be dropping in frequently throughout the day to respond to comments and to answer any questions.

FOR THOSE WHO DON'T OWN A KINDLE: If you don't have a Kindle, by the way, there is free app for the PC at Amazon. I've copied the link below. I downloaded it to my PC and it works just like the Kindle itself. You have to have an account at Amazon, which you probably already have if you've ever bought books from them. I'm glad I downloaded it myself.

Free Kindle App for PC Here


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Louisiana Saturday Night

Not really posting today, but if you get a chance, check out the interview with me at Louisiana Saturday Night. Thanks very much to Jessy Ferguson for interviewing me. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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