Well, I am thrilled that my second book is now out and available from Red Rose Publishing, www.RedRosePublishing.com. It should soon be available from all of the usual suspects, FictionWise, MobiPocket, Amazon, Crescent and Diesel. I just wish I had time to publicize and market it! I am so busy with the day job, the kids, the second job, that I just cannot find the time to promote it. So, do me a favor and help me out – tell your friends about it.
Hopefully it will get reviewed in the next six months, which is how long it took for “Pickup Lines From a Pickup Truck” to get reviewed, but hey, I am not on the top of the food chain...but if I was...well, I will leave that for another post.
For now, just know that I am inordinately busy with the daily detritus of demeaning demands of employment, parenting and paying the bills.
Spike
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Ambiguity
It is a concept that defines and clarifies without being specific. One of my interests is New Criticism which is a critical analysis of literature based on its organic unity as demonstrated by the use of ambiguity and the intentional fallacy. It is interesting that Romanticism is also concerned with ambiguity, primarily the moral ambiguity of man and a focus on the beauty of nature as opposed to the imposed beauty of neo-classicism.
I guess beauty is where you find it. Beauty can be the perfectly constructed sentence and, it can be the appreciation of a perfectly formed Rose. These concepts have been exhaustively explored by philosophers much smarter than I and so I won’t be so presumptuous to attempt a philosophical enquiry, but I will give my take.
Beauty is selling a book, novel or short. Beauty is going through the process; submitting, editing and cover art. Beauty is seeing the process coalesce into a product for sale. For me, beauty is seeing my book for sale.
Don’t confuse my enamoration with seeing my book for sale with the joy and pleasure I get from seeing my child score a goal or seeing my child smile and laugh. It’s a narrow application of the concept of the sublime. My book for sale at www.RedRosePublishing.com is sublime. Watching my child smile or laugh is sublime.
Webster’s describes sublime as “supreme or outstanding.” I think all of the above qualifies, as does having you read my blog. Therefore, since I have a second book being published, I have kids scoring goals and you are reading my blog, I am living the sublime life.
Peace.
I guess beauty is where you find it. Beauty can be the perfectly constructed sentence and, it can be the appreciation of a perfectly formed Rose. These concepts have been exhaustively explored by philosophers much smarter than I and so I won’t be so presumptuous to attempt a philosophical enquiry, but I will give my take.
Beauty is selling a book, novel or short. Beauty is going through the process; submitting, editing and cover art. Beauty is seeing the process coalesce into a product for sale. For me, beauty is seeing my book for sale.
Don’t confuse my enamoration with seeing my book for sale with the joy and pleasure I get from seeing my child score a goal or seeing my child smile and laugh. It’s a narrow application of the concept of the sublime. My book for sale at www.RedRosePublishing.com is sublime. Watching my child smile or laugh is sublime.
Webster’s describes sublime as “supreme or outstanding.” I think all of the above qualifies, as does having you read my blog. Therefore, since I have a second book being published, I have kids scoring goals and you are reading my blog, I am living the sublime life.
Peace.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Reflections of a Green Monday
St. Paddy’s day has always fascinated me. I have memories of quaffing pints of green beer and gluttonous consumption of corned beef and cabbage. My heritage is Saxon, but on St. Paddy’s, everyone is Irish. I worked on Monday so I wasn’t able to engage in the festivities. My brother in law goes into the city every year for the parade and I am jealous. I have only lived in New York for a few years and I have yet to make the pilgrimage for drunken debauchery – my bad.
I have had a bit of an epiphany of late. I don’t want to jinx it by speaking about it yet, but I am more motivated, more inspired, more energetic and more committed than I have been in years. I feel as if a dark cloud has been lifted and the jovial visage of jocund day is smiling at me. The timing is fortuitous – I have a new book coming out soon, March 27th to be exact – and things at work are reaching critical mass requiring an inordinate amount of my time and energy. C’est la vie.
Not much else is going on right now.
Peace!
Spike
I have had a bit of an epiphany of late. I don’t want to jinx it by speaking about it yet, but I am more motivated, more inspired, more energetic and more committed than I have been in years. I feel as if a dark cloud has been lifted and the jovial visage of jocund day is smiling at me. The timing is fortuitous – I have a new book coming out soon, March 27th to be exact – and things at work are reaching critical mass requiring an inordinate amount of my time and energy. C’est la vie.
Not much else is going on right now.
Peace!
Spike
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Writer’s Remorse
The new book will be released on the 27th. It’s called “A Slice of Life.” It’s a tightly written mystery, about 36 pages, in the vein of Mike Shane mystery mags.
I like this book very much. I think it is tight. I liked my editor and I think we did a good job. I penciled a drawing for the cover and Shirley Burnett brought it to life, made it sing!
So, if you liked “Pickup Lines From A Pickup Truck,” or you like my blog, you should buy “A Slice of Life.”
It’s available at www.RedRosePublishing.com in pdf and msn reader, will be available soon at Crescent, MobiPocket, Amazon in Kindle, Diesel, etc…
I am working on the next but am a little hamstrung. It will happen.
Spike
I like this book very much. I think it is tight. I liked my editor and I think we did a good job. I penciled a drawing for the cover and Shirley Burnett brought it to life, made it sing!
So, if you liked “Pickup Lines From A Pickup Truck,” or you like my blog, you should buy “A Slice of Life.”
It’s available at www.RedRosePublishing.com in pdf and msn reader, will be available soon at Crescent, MobiPocket, Amazon in Kindle, Diesel, etc…
I am working on the next but am a little hamstrung. It will happen.
Spike
Monday, March 3, 2008
One for My Homey
My brother Jon had a birthday on Saturday. Unfortunately he wasn’t here to enjoy it. He checked out on me in 2001 at the ripe old age of 39.
Murph, I miss you terribly!
Spike
Murph, I miss you terribly!
Spike
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Internet Approbation
Finally someone has recognized my brilliance publicly (Cara Preston too). A romance website reviewed “Pickup Lines From a Pickup Truck” written by Cara Preston and me. The reviewer gave it four hearts. I am told that it is a reputable site and four hearts is indeed an accomplishment. She wrote, “This reviewer would definitely recommend this for a very quick yet satisfying read with humor, wit and romance!”
I’m thrilled. The review can be found at http://www.loveromancesandmore.com/reviews/0208/pickuplines_mandie.htm
In other news, a cover is forthcoming for “A Slice of Life,” my second release with Red Rose Publishing. I’ve spoken to the cover artist with a few ideas and she is working on it now. Hopefully I’ll have something back in a week or so and then it will get in the queue to be published.
All for now.
Spike
I’m thrilled. The review can be found at http://www.loveromancesandmore.com/reviews/0208/pickuplines_mandie.htm
In other news, a cover is forthcoming for “A Slice of Life,” my second release with Red Rose Publishing. I’ve spoken to the cover artist with a few ideas and she is working on it now. Hopefully I’ll have something back in a week or so and then it will get in the queue to be published.
All for now.
Spike
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Rat Reflections
I flew to Florida on Saturday and boy, are my arms tired. Actually, I am tired. We rocked at the Tragic Kingdom on Sunday and Hollywood Studios on Monday during the day, then went back to Tragic Kingdom in the afternoon. We killed my kids, they were totally worn out. It has been an adventure.
Saturday morning we took a cab to the airport. The driver was suffering from the DT’s and kept having seizures that affected gas and brake and I think he was suffering from the cold as he cranked hot air for the trip while rambling on about his experiences as a PGA caddie. I guess all the jerking and hot air got to my 20 month old because as we pulled up to the airport, my son did a great Linda Blair impersonation and vomited in a projectile manner - sour milk and Mandarin oranges all over himself, his clothes, car seat and cab.
Picture this: Mom changing a 20 month old on the curb in front of SkyCap counter in 20 degress, he’s shivering with blue lips, there’s three large bags, two car seats, two strollers and a diaper bag strewn on the curb and dad trying to check in. I use diaper wipes as best I can to clean the car seat, bag and check it. We head for the gate. I notice we are not seated together, so I head for the gate agent, who is busy seating his boyfriend. I am standing at the counter with my rank smelling son while my wife takes my daughter to the bathroom. He ignores me and leaves. He comes back and without acknowledging me, gets on the phone, then the radio, then leaves again. When he returns on other business, I ask him if he is going to help me. He tells me to wait, in spite of the fact that I have been waiting for 20 minutes.
I explain that we are two adults traveling with two young children, one ticketed, one not, and that it would be best if we were seated together. He informs me that the flight is oversold and there are no available seats. I asked if the flight was oversold six months ago when I bought the tickets and he asked if we reserved seats together. I said I thought we did and he told me that they charge extra for that.
Are you kidding me? Charge extra to sit together? Welcome to AirTran Airlines.
We get to Orlando, get our luggage and realize, based on the stench, that we will not be able to ever use that car seat again - trash it and rent one with our car for $80 for the week, almost twice the price of a booster seat, but, what are we going to do.
Check in, all is cool, then a day at the park - my son has diarrhea, a lot of it, it spills out of his diaper and on me as he is sitting on me. Are you kidding me? I just spent almost $300 to get us into the park and now I have to take a bus back to the hotel while schlepping a stroller and my kid because we reek.
So:
Vomit - Free
Three nights at Disney - $650
Park Admission - $225
Two Tacos - $9.95
Souvenirs - $100
Ice cold beer - Priceless
Now I am in New Smyrna hanging with friends. I might play golf tomorrow, pretty sure we haven’t filed bankruptcy yet. The weather is here, I wish I was beautiful.
Saturday morning we took a cab to the airport. The driver was suffering from the DT’s and kept having seizures that affected gas and brake and I think he was suffering from the cold as he cranked hot air for the trip while rambling on about his experiences as a PGA caddie. I guess all the jerking and hot air got to my 20 month old because as we pulled up to the airport, my son did a great Linda Blair impersonation and vomited in a projectile manner - sour milk and Mandarin oranges all over himself, his clothes, car seat and cab.
Picture this: Mom changing a 20 month old on the curb in front of SkyCap counter in 20 degress, he’s shivering with blue lips, there’s three large bags, two car seats, two strollers and a diaper bag strewn on the curb and dad trying to check in. I use diaper wipes as best I can to clean the car seat, bag and check it. We head for the gate. I notice we are not seated together, so I head for the gate agent, who is busy seating his boyfriend. I am standing at the counter with my rank smelling son while my wife takes my daughter to the bathroom. He ignores me and leaves. He comes back and without acknowledging me, gets on the phone, then the radio, then leaves again. When he returns on other business, I ask him if he is going to help me. He tells me to wait, in spite of the fact that I have been waiting for 20 minutes.
I explain that we are two adults traveling with two young children, one ticketed, one not, and that it would be best if we were seated together. He informs me that the flight is oversold and there are no available seats. I asked if the flight was oversold six months ago when I bought the tickets and he asked if we reserved seats together. I said I thought we did and he told me that they charge extra for that.
Are you kidding me? Charge extra to sit together? Welcome to AirTran Airlines.
We get to Orlando, get our luggage and realize, based on the stench, that we will not be able to ever use that car seat again - trash it and rent one with our car for $80 for the week, almost twice the price of a booster seat, but, what are we going to do.
Check in, all is cool, then a day at the park - my son has diarrhea, a lot of it, it spills out of his diaper and on me as he is sitting on me. Are you kidding me? I just spent almost $300 to get us into the park and now I have to take a bus back to the hotel while schlepping a stroller and my kid because we reek.
So:
Vomit - Free
Three nights at Disney - $650
Park Admission - $225
Two Tacos - $9.95
Souvenirs - $100
Ice cold beer - Priceless
Now I am in New Smyrna hanging with friends. I might play golf tomorrow, pretty sure we haven’t filed bankruptcy yet. The weather is here, I wish I was beautiful.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)