You Can’t Always Get What You Want…
This weekend was my signing at the Barnes & Noble in New Hartford, NY. I was part of a Local Authors Signing that the store was doing and I was excited to be at a signing that I didn’t organize. Upon entry, I was greeted with this sign:
I brought my books in and set up with the other writers. Here’s a picture of me displaying my book:
The event started and we were all anxious to talk to potential readers about our new books.
And we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
In fairness, some of the authors had a few friends stop by and I think some of them bought one a book. But by and large, we all spent two hours and most of us never talked to another soul about our books (again, that’s not completely true, we did talk to each other about our books because we were the only ones there).
I’m not sure what happened exactly – maybe it was a bad day (there didn’t seem to be a ton of traffic in the store), maybe it was our location (we were stuck off to the side, out of the main traffic flow), or it wasn’t meant to be. I didn’t have any illusions that I would sell (m)any books, but I made up bookmarks for people to take – and there weren’t even people to take them!
But If You Try Sometimes; You Get What You Need
Sure, I’m a little disappointed that no one was there, but I was in good company. And that’s what I got out of the signing – companionship with other writers. We spent time talking about our books, our process, how we published, and how we try to sell our books. While writing is a solitary process by nature, it was really great for me to feel like I’m not the only one in the world who goes through the same triumphs and defeats.
It also sort of reinvigorated me and will hopefully give me the kick in the ass I need to get Reluctant Captain selling and finishing the very first draft of my new novel.
So here’s to the picking yourself up, brushing yourself up and starting all over again (am I allowed to mix lyrical references in the same post?).
Happy journeys!
Mike
PS – Just because I turned this experience into something meaningful for me, please feel free to join me at my next signing event; whenever that will be. While I appreciate the lessons in humility I learn, I also really want to sell books!
Read MoreNothing Profound…Just Some Updates
Since it’s been way too long since I’ve made a blog post, I thought I’d do something, even though I don’t have much to say right now…
Boldly Going Nowhere
I had mentioned that I had submitted a story for the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds fan fiction contest. Unfortunately, my story was not selected as one of the stories. I plan to put it on the blog sometime soon: I want to re-edit to include some “deleted” scenes that were cut in order to make the contest’s word limit. Since they aren’t publishing it, I can put it back the way I want…
Getting the Word Out
I’ve added myself to a couple of sites that highlight authors and their works. You can now find my profile on Author’s DB and The Literary Net as well as GoodReads and Amazon. You can also find me on Facebook and Twitter. I do have an account on Pinterest and if I ever figure out what to do with, I’ll let you know.
An Event!!
I have an event in the near future! I will be doing a signing featuring local writers at the Barnes & Noble in New Hartford, NY from 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM on Saturday, May 21st. I’m really excited because most book shops don’t carry self published books for sound economic reasons ( publishers buy back unsold books; if the shop doesn’t sell the self published book, they are stuck with it). I am happy that the Colgate Book Store is carrying my book, at least for a while. I’m really excited to at least get a crack at reaching another audience in New Hartford. If you’re free, I’d love to see you….and love it even more if you bought a book 🙂
Slow and Steady Wins the Race…
I’m working (very slowly) on the sequel to The Reluctant Captain. I think I’m about a third to half way through the story. I’ve written myself into a bit of a corner right now and I’m trying to figure out how to write my way out of it. So bear with me, it is coming….sometime.
That’s it for now. Hopefully it won’t be another couple of months before I post again.
Until next time, Happy Journeys!
Mike
Read MoreHappy (Belated) Birthday to “The Reluctant Captain”
Between work and concert band rehearsal last night, I totally missed that yesterday, March 8, marked the one year anniversary of the publication of The Reluctant Captain, my first novel.
Since I’m a writer, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mark the occasion with a few words (OK, a whole bunch of words).
The first two words that come to mind are: “Thank You!” There are so many people to thank for making this happen and I know I pretty much did it in the Dedication of the book, but I’m going to do it again:
- My family – to my wife and son who put up with me being locked away in my office when we could all be doing something together, for listening to me, and especially to my wife, who has read this book…many times. Also to my mother (for instilling in me a love of all things British and Scottish), my father (for instilling in me a love of science and electronics) and my sister (for showing me what courage and perserverance really mean).
- My friends Donna, Keven, and Melanie – who ready the second draft and…actually enjoyed it. Thanks for your encouragement and advice.
- Megan McDowell, my editor – for helping correct all the things I missed after going through it so many times, I though my eyes would bleed.
- Emilee Smith, my cover illustrator – for sharing her talent and making the HMA Daedalus come to life. I loved the cover so much that we had it framed and it hangs in our living room:
- The Sherburne Public Library – for hosting my first book signing.
- The Colgate Book Store for taking a chance to sell signed copies of my books.
AND THANK YOU TO THE MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE
THE READERS!
From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank everyone who has read my book. I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you took a chance on the book and many people have said very nice things about the book. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for your support and kind words. I especially wish to thank everyone who also took the time to write a review on either Amazon or GoodReads – it means a great deal to me to hear feedback and know how people feel about it.
So What’s up in 2016?
If you haven’t been reading this scintillating blog, I wrote and submitted an entry to Simon & Schuster’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds fan fiction contest. My unabashed love of Star Trek should come as a surprise to no one who knows me or has read this blog. I jumped at the chance to write a Scotty story. I should find out in the next few weeks if it was selected (keep your fingers crossed for me!) and stay tuned to this channel for future updates.
I’m also well into the sequel to The Reluctant Captain, tentatively titled The Reluctant Something (I’m still working on the title, obviously). It takes place roughly two years after the events of the first novel. It features new adventures from the main characters of The Reluctant Captain and some new characters as well.
If you’ve stumbled here because Google was having an off day or you haven’t yet read The Reluctant Captain, please consider reading it. It’s gotten 4 1/2 Stars on Amazon and 4 stars on GoodReads, so don’t just take my word for it. There’s links on the right that will happily take you to my online store, Amazon, Nook, or iTunes so you can purchase it (convenient, huh?). And if you live in the area, you can also purchase it at the Colgate Book Store in Hamilton, NY.
Thanks again!
Happy Journeys,
Mike
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My Writing Life or I Go to Extremes
“Call me a joker, call me a fool
Right at this moment I’m totally cool
Clear as a crystal, sharp as a knife
I feel like I’m in the prime of my life
Sometimes it feels like I’m going too fast
I don’t know how long this feeling will last
Maybe it’s only tonightDarling I don’t know why I got to extremes
Too high or too low there ain’t no in-betweens
And if I stand or I fall
It’s all or nothing at all
Darling I don’t know why I got to extremesSometimes I’m tired, sometimes I’m shot
Sometimes I don’t know how much more I’ve got
Maybe I’m headed over the hill
Maybe I’ve set myself up for the kill
Tell me how much do you think you can take
Until the heart in you is starting to break?
Sometimes it feels like it will”I Go to Extremes – Billy Joel
I’m in the middle of Billy Joel kick right now, brought on by the return of the Billy Joel Channel on SiriusXM this week. I have a 40 minute drive to my day job, so I really rely on satellite radio because otherwise, I have to change the station two or three times to pick up an FM station that I can stand…ah, the joys of country living.
This song has played a couple of times already and I’m afraid it’s now stuck in my head. But I was reflecting on it and it’s sort of a description of my writing life lately.
I recently completed my story for the Strange New Worlds Fan Fiction Contest and submitted it last week. I tried to work at it consistently all of last week, but my work was anything but consistent. I wrote all weekend and was psyched that I had the first draft finished. I went to work on the draft Monday night and found myself so tired, I couldn’t stay awake at my computer. Tuesday, I hunkered down after work and worked all night on it. I repeated again on Wednesday and Thursday when I finally submitted it.
Great, I thought, now I can return to my novel. I had a big chunk of time Sunday afternoon, I’ll dive right in.
Except, I didn’t. I spent all Sunday afternoon and evening playing Civilization and not even looking at my novel. I was out of sorts, irritable for no reason and generally in a pissy mood.
Fast forward to today…back to work and a hellish trip to and from home through lake effect snow. And tonight, I dove right in, wrote a bunch more and now I’m writing this.
It seems to be the way this works for me recently. The Reluctant Captain grew out of the NaNaWriMo Challenge (write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November, see nanowrimo.org for more information). It really was a heads down exercise in where I ignored the world around me and just wrote like a man possessed.
For this novel, there have been different factors at work. One is that my day job has demanded huge amounts of time from me. This, as well as the holidays, contributed to very slow progress. When I had time, I would write, but mostly, I didn’t. Work has leveled out (for now) and so I have more time and I’ve tried to use it effectively.
But then I have days like yesterday. It wasn’t exactly writer’s block. I knew where I was going with the story and I just had to start typing. But I didn’t. I felt like I couldn’t. I felt like the second verse – “Sometimes I’m tired, sometimes I’m shot,Sometimes I don’t know how much more I’ve got” That was me yesterday.
Today, when by all rights, I should be more tired (getting up at 5:00 AM, having two “delightful” drives through a lake effect snow storm and an equally delightful day at work), I get more accomplished in three hours than I did all of the weekend!
So my goal for the rest of the year is to try to moderate the yo-yo nature of my writing. As the old Aesop fable of the tortoise and the hare says “Slow and steady wins the race”. I have to remember on days like yesterday, I’m never as awful as I think I am and on days like today, I’m never as brilliant as I think I am.
Until next time, happy journeys!
Mike
Read MoreEbbs and Flows
I thought I’d babble a bit tonight about ebbs and flows in writing. This is really affects me in my writing because I tend to have limited windows available for writing. For example, much of December was consumed by work or holiday related activities. I had very little time to work on anything.
This past week, time has opened up slightly. I have been writing after work and I had huge block of time this weekend while the rest of the family was away at a high school theatre festival.
I think like most writers, I have days where it’s a struggle to type one word after another. The words come exceedingly slowly and I just have to painfully trudge through the night, happy to make whatever feeble progress I can. That happened on Monday night of last week as well as a part of Saturday afternoon.
And then there was Tuesday. It was one of those magical nights where my fingers couldn’t type fast enough to keep up with my mind. Everything was magical and easy. As a writer, you live for those days because they are few and far between.
If writing was always as easy as it was on Tuesday night, everyone would do it. I think though, I have more respect for myself as writer when I struggle through those days that it’s almost painful to get the words out of your head and onto the page. It’s like the brief period time I was a runner. Those days where just don’t want to be there and struggle through every step are probably the most valuable because you’re building a practice. You run because that’s what you’re supposed to do. It takes discipline (discipline that I am sadly, currently lacking).
The same thing goes for writing. You write when it’s time to write. It may only be a few sentences, it may be many pages, or likely, something in between. But you write when it’s time to write, regardless of the ebb or flow.
In other news, I finished my draft of the short story for the Stange New Worlds Fan Fiction Contest. I’m spending the next few nights doing final revisions before I submit my story (entitled “If My Grandmother Had Wheels, She’s Be a Wagon”).
Starting this upcoming weekend, it means I’ll be pulling my head back from outer space and back into the clouds with Malcolm, Joan, and Charles.
Until next time, Happy Journeys!
Mike
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We Interrupt This Novel Already in Progress…
I wish you all a very Happy New Year! Although I hate resolutions, I am going to try to be much better about updating this blog and giving updates on my work.
So, what have I been doing since the infamous (and barely read) Call of Chturkey post? Well, it was mostly work, get ready for Christmas, and work some more. My day job as a programmer has had me working long hours, but I have a feeling that it’s going to curtail sharply now and I’ll have more time to write. Both my novel and blog posts…that’s the plan at any rate.
As you might guess from the tag line, I’ve TEMPORARILY suspended work on my novel. Fear not – I am returning to the exploits of Malcolm and company shortly, but quite frankly, I saw a writing contest that I absolutely could not refuse to enter.
Simon & Schuster are sponsoring the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds fan fiction contest. Basically, you need to submit a short story about any character in the Star Trek Universe. The top ten stories will be printed in an ebook and physical book anthology.
When I saw this, I knew immediately that I couldn’t pass this up. As I’ve said on multiple occasions, the character Scotty has long been an inspiration to me. Possibly it came from meeting James Doohan when I was a college freshman majoring in Engineering. Malcolm’s character is directly inspired by Scotty. It should come as no surprise to anyone that my story would focus on Scotty.
Without giving too much away, the story takes place immediately after the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan after Scotty has been promoted to Captain of Engineering and transferred to the Excelsior. Hopefully you’ll be able to read it in the final anthology (keeping my fingers crossed).
Have no fear; I will be back to continue the adventures of Malcolm and his crew. The contest ends within the next two weeks, so I will turn my focus back to Malcolm and the Daedalus.
Until my next post, I wish all of you a very healthy, prosperous, and happy new year!
May the winds be at your back!
Mike
Read MoreThe Call of Cthurkey
I was going to write a blog post listing all things for which I am thankful, but fate intervened. I stumbled upon a story about the the Chermpumple and I noticed a link at the bottom to a story about…the Cthurkey. Here’s a picture:
After reading this, a story instantly came to my mind. And as a Thanksgiving gift to you, I present:
The Call of Cthurkey
by Michael Tefft
(with apologizes to H.P. Lovecraft)
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human stomach to tolerate the most obscene combinations. Cooking shows on the Food Network strain in each direction to inspire more and more strange combinations, but so far, none that our stomachs can’t handle. But some day, we will find the combination of foods that will surely drive us mad.
My knowledge of such a thing occurred this Thanksgiving. As was tradition, we assembled at the house of my parents. In the morning, we gathered in front of the television to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, as was our want. I could smell a strange odor coming from the kitchen; at once delicious, while at the same time repugnant. Strangely, my mother would not let me help in any way with the cooking, saying simply she was trying something different and wanted to make it a surprise.
After some time, I asked my father if I could borrow his computer to check the hockey scores as cell reception was nearly zero at my parents’ house and my fantasy hockey team was not going to run itself. He grunted from his recliner and I went to my former bedroom, now the home office.
As I brought up the browser window, I noticed that one of my parents had left the browser brought up in a page full of strange and arcane recipes. As I read the page, I looked in horror at combinations of gelatin formed into translucent prisons for meat, vegetables or fruit. As the dread rose along with the bile in my throat, I read the “Comments”. And buried in the comments was a link to what was described as the most forbidden food combinations put together. The link simply read “Crockernomicon”.
With some trepidation, I moved the mouse and with a deep sense of foreboding, clicked the link. The site loaded; I immediately felt like I had stumbled on some lost and forbidden lore. I saw recipes for Jellied Chicken Loaf, Shrimp Aspic Mold, and Pickle Stretcher Salad. The more I read, the more my stomach gurgled and I swallowed hard to force down the rising bile. And then at the bottom of the page was a link to “A Truly Unique Thanksgiving Treat”. To my horror, I realized that the link had been already visited. With trembling hand, I clicked the link.
At the top of the page, I saw the phrase “In his tureen of Gr’vy, Chturkey waits for dressing”. Before I could read any more, my sister came to the door to tell me that the feast was ready. I closed the browser before I could finish looking at the screen, sure that I saved my sanity.
I followed my sister to the dining room table and froze. Before me lay a tableau out of a nightmare. On plates and serving trays were a collection of abominations that would destroy a man’s sanity. First, a transparent green tower trapped what looked like cole slaw within its shiny emerald walls. Nearby, a translucent white mound with flecks of red and green; the whole thing wobbling as the plate was handed from person to person. More and more of these transparent or translucent concoctions were handed to me. I knew what was expected and with rising dread, I scooped the various congealed food onto my plate. As I stared at the utter horror awaiting me, I was snapped from my daze by my mother’s voice. “Now for the main course.”
Nothing that that I had seen in my life prepared me for the horror that arrived on the platter. On bed of brussels sprouts that looked like the spawn of the Triffids, lay a true abomination. A fully roasted turkey with the tentacles of an octopus and the legs of a crab stretched the limits of sanity of my mind. This could only be one thing: the dread Cthurkey. Nothing I had seen in the Crockernomicon had prepared me for this. My father took his electric carving knife and hacked into the monstrosity. When asked if I wanted white meat or dark, I asked for white in fear that I might be eating turkey stained with the inky blackness of the octopus.
I ate and soon the strain was more than my brain could handle. Dinner became a blur. I must have paused out as I awoke alone on the recliner in front of the television, dimly aware that a football game was playing. As I tried to shake the horror of the feast from my mind, I kept hearing in my mind the words from the dread Crockernomicon:
“In his tureen of Gr’vy, Cthurkey waits for dressing”
I wish you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful this year for everyone who has supported me as a writer. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Mike
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