Steve Dancy Tales -- Kindle Bargain

 

                   The Steve Dancy Box Set

Books provide hours upon hours of entertainment. If you're looking for rousing fiction, consider the Steve Dancy Kindle Box Set. The set includes The Shopkeeper, Leadville, and Murder at Thumb Butte, all three for $8.99, which is five dollars less than buying each book individually. Together, the three Western novels have 790 Amazon Customer Reviews for 4.4 stars and 1,878 Goodreads ratings for 4.0 Stars.

Bad Review Got You Down—Even the Best Get Dumped On

Huffington Post Books published an article titled "Bad Reviews Of Great Authors." When you get a bad review of your work, it’s comforting to know that supposed experts hated these classics.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

"There is not in the entire dramatis persona, a single character which is not utterly hateful or thoroughly contemptible."  Atlas, 1848

The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike

"Mr. Updike’s descriptions of these magical doings are cringe-making in the extreme, not funny or satiric as he perhaps intends."  Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

"... the book is sad stuff, dull and dreary, or ridiculous. Mr. Melville's Quakers are the wretchedest dolts and drivellers, and his Mad Captain ... is a monstrous bore." Charleston Southern Quarterly Review, 1852

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

"no more than a glorified anecdote, and not too probable at that... Only Gatsby himself genuinely lives and breathes. The rest are mere marionettes—often astonishingly lifelike, but nevertheless not quite alive." H.L. Mencken, Baltimore Evening Sun, 1925

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

"Unfortunately, it is bad news. There are two equally serious reasons why it isn't worth any adult reader's attention. The first is that it is dull, dull, dull in a pretentious, florid and archly fatuous fashion. The second is that it is repulsive." Orville Prescott, The New York Times, 1958

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

"... it is impossible to imagine how any man's fancy could have conceived such a mass of stupid filth, unless he were possessed of the soul of a sentimental donkey that had died of disappointed love." Rufus Wilmot Griswold, The Criterion, 1855

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

“What other culture could have produced someone like Hemingway and not seen the joke?” Gore Vidal

Europe's Infatuation with the American Wild West

Sometimes we forget that American genre fiction is popular overseas—Westerns included. And why not? We might think of the Wild West as uniquely American, but we enjoy King Arthur, Lawrence of Arabia, The Count of Monte Cristo, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and samurai adventures. If you write genre fiction, don't neglect this market. (The Steve Dancy Tales are popular in foreign counties, especially England and Germany.) 

If you want a feel for Euro-Westerns, visit The Tainted Archive which is based in the United Kingdom. This article is about Sergio Corbucci's spaghetti Westerns. Not as well known as Sergio Leone, Corbucci wrote and directed the original Django, among other Westerns.

(A couple yearsback, I did an interview with The Tainted Archive.)

It used to be difficult to sell in foreign markets, but not anymore. This is another major change brought about by eBooks. Your book can be decomposed into ones and zeros, bytes can sprint across the globe at the speed of light, and then be instantly reassembled in some far off land. In a small way, Scotty of Star Trek fame has been displaced by a Kindle.

One of the First Mass-Market Bestsellers

The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister was one of the first mass-market bestsellers. The 1902 novel received immediate critical acclaim and was hugely popular, eventually spawning five films, a successful play, and a television series. An instant success, it sold over 20 thousand copies in the first month, an astonishing number for the time. It went on to sell over 200,000 thousand copies in the first year, and over a million and a half prior to Wister's death. This Western classic has never been out of print. (You can read my review, "The Virginian, A Classic Western Revisited" at Ezine Articles.)

The Virginian inspired hundreds of stories about the Old West—including the Steve Dancy Tales. After reading The Virginian, I thought it would make an interesting story if the Easterner was the protagonist rather than the narrator. I always enjoyed fish-out-of-water stories.

The Virginian is credited with inventing the literary Western, and many people are familiar with the book. Less is generally known about Owen Wister. In 2002, Harvard Magazine published a short biography of Wister: oddly titled "Owen Wister, Brief life of a Western mythmaker:1860-1938." (By my math he lived to be 78 years old.) Thousands of Westerns have been written, but The Virginian set the benchmark for excellence in the genre.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah

This is my favorite time of year. How could it not be? We not only celebrate Christmas with my daughter and her family, but each year on the 27th we all fly to some fun destination and meet up with our son and his family. We get to see our kids and all six grandchildren together. It's a great way to ring in the New Year because it reminds us of what is really important in life. May all of you have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2013.

Leonard's ten rules for writing

Elmore Leonard

In 2009, The Western Writers of America presented Elmore Leonard with their prestigious Owen Wister Award for lifetime achievement. Leonard wrote 3:10 to Yuma, Hombre, Last Stand at Saber River, and many other Westerns. He also wrote novels outside the Western genre, including Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, and Out of Sight.

Leonard published his 10 Rules of Writing, which was actually a padded version of his New York Times article. The book may be panned for its brevity, but the advice is sound.

Leonard's ten rules for writing

1. Never open a book with weather.

2. Avoid prologues.

3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said."

5. Keep your exclamation points under control.

6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke out."

7. Use regional dialects, patois, sparingly.

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.




The book is pricey, but you can get the gist of Leonard's advice at the New York Times archive.

Polish your manuscript

It is the superfluous things for which men sweat.

Seneca (c. 5 BC-AD c. 65), Roman writer

A friend of mine unintentionally changed my attitude toward revisions. He restores antique cars and starts each project with barely more than a chassis and some rusted sheet metal. With utmost care, he painstakingly replaces every single part until his recreation is better than the shiny piece of the American dream that was driven off the showroom. When he finishes, we go on a ride and I can tell he enjoys the envious looks and honks from other car enthusiasts.

After these inaugural rides, I always assumed the cars were finished, but every time I visited, he would be in the garage replacing this piece or that piece. If he wasn't installing a newly acquired part, he would be polishing nooks and crannies that no one in a standing position would ever see. Sometimes I'd come over to find that he had painted the car a different color or replaced perfectly good upholstery.

One day I asked him if he ever tired of constantly changing an already beautiful car.

"Hell no," he said. "Building the car is work. This is the fun part."

"The fun part?"

"Whenever I start a new project car, I look forward to the day when the basic restoration is done so I can perfect it . My joy is in making it flawless. I fix the little details so people love to spend time with my creation."

"But you keep working on it. How do you know when it's perfect?"

"One day I'll walk all around it, open the doors, lift the hood, examine the truck and there won't be any more changes I want to make." He shrugged. "Then I sell it and start all over again."

Now I look forward to completing a manuscript so I can tighten and polish it until there are no more changes I want to make. Then I sell it and start all over again.

The Future of Large Print

The popularity of eReaders has decimated the mass paperback market, and several publishers have even abandoned the format. An eReader can display font in any size, so I assumed the next casualty of eBooks would be large print. Not so. Or, at least, not yet. When I received my statement from my large print publisher, I was pleasantly surprised. How is it that large print holds its own against the ebook revolution?

I think it has to do with the market for large print books. Whether it’s libraries or direct purchase, the market is seniors. Seniors are not gadget prone and remain attached to the feel and simplicity of a real book. No buttons, no touch screens, no hot links. Books are what seniors have read their entire life and only their children prod them to change. Seniors can’t see the point. They get lost in the story and turn the page without conscious thought, just a motor reflex learned through decades of practice. 

The boomers will probably carry their eReaders into old age, but most of their parents will remain loyal to the printed book.

If you're looking for a senior gift, you might consider one of these large print books.

Honest westerns filled with dishonest characters.

All of the Steve Dancy Tales have been published in large print, library binding editions by Center Point. Some have sold out, but are still available through used book dealers.