Books Eats is a
unique blog. It combines literary review with food talk. Two things
that belong together. Whenever I travel in time or place, I'm always curious
about what people eat. I recently returned from Turkey and Spain and spent most
of my time in markets and restaurants. To me, they seem more interesting than
another cathedral. (Although the Sagrada Familia by Gaudi changed my mind a
bit.) Likewise, when I write about another time, I'm curious about what my
characters might eat.
Book Eats is fun and they like The Shopkeeper, so that makes them all good. You can read
I've been gone for a month, plus I let things slide for a couple weeks before I left for Europe. I just finished looking at my recent sales and it confirmed the ironclad rule of marketing:
If you do nothing, nothing will happen.
Books don't sell themselves. At least they don't build increasing sales without a boost. Actually, my sales held up remarkably well, but a slight downward trend was obvious when the numbers were examined carefully. It didn't surprise me, but many writers think they only have to shove a book out onto the marketplace and hoards of readers will gobble them up. Here's the problem: Amazon lists over 30 million books and released over 128,000 in the last 30 days. That's a pretty crowded field. An author has to do something to get noticed. So ... I'm scheduling events, dedicating a couple hours a day to social network marketing, and running an advertisement in True West. I'm confident I'll have things moving pretty good by the holiday buying season.
I love to travel, but it's always good to get home again. We attended a wedding in Istanbul, and then spent a few weeks in Spain. We visited Barcelona, San Sebastian, Madrid, Toledo, Seville, and Granada. Fun trip. Steve Dancy didn't fare well. I had intentions of working on the fourth in the series, but fatigue after a day traipsing around a new and fascinating city left little time or energy for writing.
On my return, I found two new blog reviews for my books and a host of new Amazon Customer Reviews. You can follow the links below if you're interested in reading them.
Thanks to all of my readers for continuing to buy my books while I'm off gallivanting in some foreign land ... and thanks for your kind words in reviews.
In a couple days my wife and I will leave for Turkey and Spain for about four weeks. I'm dragging Steve Dancy along with us. Hopefully I'll find some quiet moments to make some progress on the next Steve Dancy Tale. The working title for the next installment is The Return. After some shenanigans in Leadville, Steve and a few friends will travel to Menlo Park to get a license from Thomas Edison to use his inventions in mining. I'd sure like to find some excuse for Steve to visit Istanbul. Then part of my trip would be tax deductible. Unfortunately, he seems more and more attached to the Wild West. My bet is that he doesn't even stay in New Jersey long.
I'll write a post about our travels when I get back.
I have been asked by several readers if the image on the cover of The Shopkeeper is authentic. It is. L. A. Huffman was a famous frontier photographer in Miles City, Montana. The photograph below is marked, "L. A. Huffman, Miles City, MT" which stands for Montana Territory. This means that this photograph was taken prior to Montana becoming a state in November of 1889.
To add a sense of mystery, the photograph was cropped for cover of The Shopkeeper. Add professional typesetting some color adjustment, and you have a distinct cover.
The intent was to identify the book as a Western, but signal that it was a fresh take on the genre. I think the designer did an excellent job.
The difference
between reality and imagination is an important distinction for me. Especially
since I make my living writing fiction. The great thing about storytelling is that
you can make up new friends and enemies, embellish the truth, or even bend time.
I started writing
fiction when I was a consultant with a lot of idle time in hotels. After a stressful day, I could
come back to my room and after a few minutes of writing
I was completely at ease, transported to another
place and time. The imaginative had become reality.
I'm seventy years old. My brain still feels fresh and young, but the reality is my body is
sore and not always willing to do what I bid it to do. A while ago, I
rode the wave in the top photograph. My son, with a little Photoshop magic,
turned it into the bottom picture. I'd like to be able to ride a big wave, but
in truth, I'm happy as punch to get any rides at all. A couple years ago,
a ruptured disc made it impossible for me to get from my bed to the bathroom
without a walker. Now, every wave is a blessing and I'm thankful I can still get up
and down the hill to the beach. I have as much fun at my local beach break as I
used to have in more challenging surf. Beside, I can always sit at my keyboard
and imagine it to be whatever I want.
And that's the point … it's all good.
(Here's a recent surfing video made with a GoPro.)
John Wayne was not
only a great star, he was a king maker. Louis L'Amour had been selling well, but was hardly a household name prior to Wayne approving a blurb for Hondo that said, "Hondo was the finest
Western Wayne had ever read." Wayne also endorsed a TV Western that was
somewhat successful. (Gunsmoke still holds the record for the greatest number of
episodes at 635.)
“Unconsciously we
all have a standard by which we measure other men, and if we examine closely we
find that this standard is a very simple one, and is this: we admire them, we
envy them, for great qualities we ourselves lack. Hero worship consists in just
that. Our heroes are men who do things which we recognize, with regret, and
sometimes with a secret shame, that we cannot do. We find not much in ourselves
to admire, we are always privately wanting to be like somebody else. If
everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes.”
