Take this book... please.

Let's start with this: writers don't make shit. Well, except for those lucky few. (The actual number of the lucky is as dark a secret as the Facebook Algorithm and the real reason Dan Brown books sell... ok, no one knows that second one.)

Anyway, to repeat, most writers don't make shit. I'm one of them. So I decided to give a bunch of books away. Smart move.

You see, not only do I love to write, and I actually need to, but I love to be read. That is more important to me than selling a whackload of books and finally getting that vacation home in Florida. I don't even like Florida. (no offense, readers from Florida - I'm just making a point.)

I've been chasing that elusive book deal for more years than I care to mention. Along the way, I've had readers at all stages of my work. I get jazzed when someone reads a first draft and points out the glaring structural errors and character missteps. And when a manuscript is further along, I love when a reader copy edits, and suggests overall tightening of the language. And most of all, I love when something is finished and a reader responds. That's it, just responds, good or bad (not so much indifferent.)

I write to be read.

So when I finished Surf City Acid drop and decided that it would be the first book I put into actual paper, I had to figure out my marketing strategy. Insert: sigh.

One of the main reasons I wrote Surf City Acid Drop was to rediscover what I love about writing. Over the last 15 years, I've toiled on a lot of stories, a couple of novellas, and three full novels. And if you hang around this blog, you know how close I got to that elusive deal. But it was hard on me. Damn hard. Writing Surf City rekindled a lot of things for me. For one, I got to create Luke Fischer. A character, I believe, with legs. And I got to dip into a genre I had never fully inhabited (neo-noir-crime-fiction... with a splash of surf rock, and a lot of 1970s detective movies).

I have other projects in the works right now, and I could say they are more serious - but Luke is serious in a different way. Still, I have to remind myself as I work on the follow-up, that I am doing this to have fun. Any writer worth their salt knows the demanding task of putting 80,000 words on paper - so not fun, like as in a barell full of gin-soaked monkeys. But fun as in, hey, I love that this exists.

This was the spirit that led me to give away my first order of Surf City Acid Drop books to friends, family and colleagues. Eventually, I will get around to selling them (or Amazon will) - but for now,
take this book... please.

Oh, and when you're done - think about reviewing it.

Because, you know, marketing.

Reading paper

As mentioned on various social media platforms... it's a book.

Very exciting to hold a copy in my hands. Funny how that goes. I am huge proponent of ebooks, and have published a few. But for some reason, holding that trade paperback in my hands is something else all together. I also love plunking it down on my night table next to the stack of books that I keep planning to read. It sits there very nicely.

Wanted to give a shout out to the people at CreateSpace - the product is very well done. The support was quite good - I did break a bunch of rules, having the typography bleed off the edge like that, and that created a cycle of rejection from the CS folk. Mental note: maybe next time don't do that.
But nonetheless, it got figured out, and they finally accepted my design.

So this is actually the proof copy - meaning it is the last stage of proofing before I release the book into the wild. In others words, you can pick it up at Amazon, or I am going to getting a whack of copies to giveaway. If you have read Surf City here at the blog, and you live in my city, there's a good chance I will give you one (or at least, charge you a very minimal amount to cover costs.)

Now, I've edited this thing a lot - and others have had eyes on it - so I expected to find very little in the way of mistakes or needed edits. Uhhhhhhhhhhm... right. 

How the hell did I miss these things?

Well, editing 101 is work from a hard copy for those final edits (and maybe even earlier versions.)

So yes, it's a book. And soon it will be a better edited one.

"Great novels are never finished, they are abandoned."
(Can never remember whose quote that is.) 

So what's up next...

As I get closer to having an actual paper copy of Surf City Acid Drop, I am planning my next projects. One of them being that treadmill that I love hate but mostly hate - why isn't there an exercise pill? We can put people on the moon and freeze dry just about anything, but we can't make a pill that gives you the benefit of running?
(Available in handy 2, 4, and 8 mile dosages.)

I digress.

Already.

Of course there is going to be another Luke Fischer in the works - and if you pick up the paperback of Surf City, you will find a nifty surprise about that in the back of the book.

The next big big project though is a reworking of a novel I've been working on a long time. I finally undid the chain on my wallet and hired a freelance editor to help me restructure, rework, re-imagine (really anything with a re- ) this novel.

There's no 70's neo noir detectives in this one, nor even one surf board - but there is that 70's vibe. I've talked about it at the blog before, and it's got a bit of Watergate, Acid (the LSD kind), and a thirteen-year-old at the centre. It does take place in 1973 (hence the Watergate bit), and there is still music, always music. My novels usually have a soundtrack, if only in my mind, and this one is all about Steely Dan. At one point in the drafting and editing (the first couple of rounds), I designated each chapter with a different Steely Dan tune.

OK, kinda geeky, but there you have it. 

So stay tuned for news on the Surf City paperback. I am viewing proofs this week. And be sure to follow me on twitter (cterlson) for other news and random things that spring from my brain.

Do brains have springs?

Digressing again.

A look at the final jacket

So wait - is designing a cover supposed to be this fun... hmmm... yes, I think so.

Almost done.

The cover - Part Deux

Thanks everyone for all the responses - I really appreciate the group think on this. For round two, I've moved away from the handwritten bruch font. As someone said, they like it, but it might suggest something too light, or too youthful.

Sometimes when you come back to a design after a while, you see things fresh - and that happened with the brush font. Just not quite right I think (though please disagree if that was your fave.)

As for the orangish-one from before - I just wasn't digging the OC meets Nicholas Sparks (!!!) vibe of that one. Though. I do really like the heat of the orange. I've reimagined that one a bit, still using that Mexican sun, but not so much Hallmark, as the beach in The Last Goodbye.

Once again, have at it!