I'm Such A Freakin' Tease...

Jon Bassoff, publisher of New Pulp Press dropped me a line today letting me know that Advanced Readers Copies of Crime Factory: The First Shift were ordered today and will be sent out to various industry publications for pre-release reviews.

Needless to say, when I read the e-mail, a smile crossed my lips and my stomach got a bit of a flutter in it. (or maybe I was just gassy, who knows?)

But let me tell you this, there's no greater feeling in the world knowing that something you had a hand in creating is about to become apart of the world. (well, a lot of you might)

And you have no idea how proud I am to be apart of team who put this anthology together. Cameron Ashley and Jimmy Callaway are two of the best editors in crime fiction and my hat is off to both of them.

And, of course, none of this would be happening without our amazing contributors - You guys rock and all of you brought your best to the table. (Damn, I wish this thing was out today so everyone could read these amazing stories.)

Anyway, to celebrate a wee bit, I thought I'd share a small piece of the cover with everyone. (No, not the whole thing, like the title says, I'm a fucking tease.)

The cover was designed by internationally renowned graphic artist Lou Beach (If you've never checked out Lou's work, you can see more of it right here at: www.loubeach.com. But chances are you've seen his work on more than a few magazine and book covers over the years.) who I was thrilled to have design the cover.

Alright, gang, that's all for tonight, don't let the door smack you on the ass on the way out

Pimping Wednesday: Review—Every Shallow Cut by Tom Piccirilli

Over the past few years, I’ve started to think that novels over 250 pages are a bit overrated. Don’t get me wrong, certain stories need a broad canvass (Justin Cronin’s the Passage comes to mind.) but 99% of the time if a novel goes over the 300 page mark, I’m usually of the opinion that the author is stretching the narrative too thin.

For some reason the market (i.e., Publishers) demand that manuscripts be of a certain length, otherwise the airport/Wal*Mart crowd won’t want to shell out $25 for a hardback. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, (namely Chuck Palahniuk, who’s novels rarely exceeds the 225 page mark) but for the most part, if you’re buying from the big six (and really, who isn’t?) you’re buying an over inflated and—at times—sloppily edited paper bricks. (But I’ll digress and sorry to turn a review into a diatribe.)

Luckily small publishers—such as New Pulp Press, Pulp Press, and the newly minted ChiZine Publications—have no issue with publishing “little” books or in the case of Tom Piccirilli’s Every Shallow Cut, books which pack the wallop of an 800 page epic in a scant 175 pages.

Here’s The Skinny from the ChiZine Publications Website :

“Alone except for his beloved bulldog, Churchill, a despondent man who's failed at his career, his marriage, and his own simple hopes makes his way across the fierce American landscape and the spectacle of his own bitter past. As he heads home to his distant brother, he witnesses various tragedies and crimes which bring out the killer in him.”

The storyline of Every Shallow Cut is a simple one: Part road story, part descent into madness, part meditation on the condition of the American dream. Piccirilli’s nameless narrator is an every man driven to the brink; full of self loathing for what he views as his “failures” and is disconnected from other people to the point of paranoid delusion. (This is most evident in his interactions with his older brother.)

Over the past several years Piccirilli’s “noirellas” have been a mixed bag of horror and noir, but with Every Shallow Cut, he’s leap frogged both genres and has created a unique disturbing, and utterly compulsive narrative voice which cannot be defined by genre. Each sentence is a sharply crafted gut punch keeping the reader on edge as Piccirilli’s no where man finally lets go of the ghost of his old life and fully embraces insanity.

If you’ve never read Piccirilli before—yes, you’ve been missing out on one of the strongest talents in the business—I would strongly suggest you make Every Shallow Cut your first foray into his extensive catalog.

Highly recommended.

(BTW, folks, if you’re interested, stop by Day Labor for my interview with Mr. Piccirilli right HERE)

Let’s Talk Social Webbies Part 3: Facebook: The DON'Ts

So last week I was all cuddly and covered the Dos of Facebook. It was a good time and I hope I made everyone feel all warm and snuggly. This week, however, I’m going to cover the DONTs. This post is not going to be as feel good because I’m basically going to stand here with a Sunday edition of the L.A. Times and whack people across the face with it.

Anyway let’s get right into the DON’Ts.

#1: Don’t Make It All About Yourself.

This one’s been drummed into our collective heads so many times that this should practically be a Facebook mantra for writers.

But it’s a tough one.

As writers, we spend hours a day crafting our stories and we’re proud when a new book or story of ours comes out. We love seeing ourselves in print and we want to make sure everyone in the universe knows about it. The downside of only posting about us is that it starts to become a drag for your friends and unfortunately when this happens, they start to tune you out.

Yes, your page has become a freeway billboard.

Passers by may glance at it for a second, but they’re already speeding down the road.

So does this mean you should be posting stuff from your other writer pals when they have a new story or book that comes out?

Sure, any little extra attention helps.

Should you post links to news stories, videos, music, and other general interest content.

Yes

Remember, the point of social media is to get personal. Give people small glimpses of what you’re doing on a daily basis: Let people know what you’re watching, reading, listening to and thinking about. This will break up the monotony of your page and draw people into actually viewing your posts.

#2: Don’t be friends with just writers

‘I’m only Facebook to socialize with people I know.’

I get this, some people are only on Facebook to stay in contact with friends who live cross country and who you only get to see once or twice a year, and there are some writers on Facebook for this exact purpose and there’s nothing wrong with that.

But you know as well as I do that most writers aren’t on Facebook to exclusively stay in contact with friends, they want to spread the word about what they’re writing. And, yeah, it’s great when you first jump online and you see that there are so many writers who you admire or who you’re friends with in the real, real world, but chances are they’re on Facebook for the same reason you are. And chances are they want to support your efforts, but they’re going to want to support themselves even more.

So, how do you get out of the writer rut?

The easiest way is to use the Find Friends/Edit Friends option in the account menu. At this page you will be given several search options including hometown, current city, high school, and college.

Now I can tell a lot of you are cringing when I mention this option and I know all the arguments—I don’t want to re-connect with high school/college/work place/home town douche bags and when it comes right down to it, I don’t want to either. But you can filter the douche bags (just like you did in high school, the only difference is they’re not a physical presence) and maybe connect with people who you really liked. I’ve connected with more than a few guys and gals who I went to high school with and guess what? They’re still just as cool as when we were kids.

And, yes, I’ve rejected more than a few douche bags along the way, too. The great thing about social media marketing is it is selective marketing. You approve who you do and don’t want to have as a friend or who you interact with, so it should be relatively easy to weed out the assholes who you didn’t want around before your writing life.

The one thing to remember, though, is you are on social media sites such as Facebook to develop and expand your fanbase and if all you’re doing is chumming around with writer pals, you’re not exactly doing that.

#3 Don’t Create A Fan Page

So you’re thinking about creating a fan page, huh?

Before you do that, you need to ask yourself these 2 questions.

Is my name:

Stephen King

J.K. Rowling

Cormac McCarthy

Michael Connelly

Stephanie Myers

(Insert any mega-selling author after this)

Or

Do I have 5000 friends? (the Facebook maximum number of friends)

If the answer is NO, then you don’t need a fan page.

A couple of years ago more than a few social media mangers were pushing the idea of creating fan pages down every authors throat. But here’s the problem with fan pages, unless people are interacting with the page on a daily basis, fan pages rarely make it into the Facebook news thread, therefore they’re basically invisible.

Now if you’re an organization such as Crimefactory (yes, I want you to be a fan) or Needle Magazine, or Crimespree then your only real option is to create a fanpage if you want a Facebook presence. But once again, if people are not interacting with the page on a daily basis, it won’t appear in the news feed.

(Quick side note, folks. For those individuals who have a fan page and someone requests your friendship through your individual FB account, don’t be that that guy who then immediately posts a link to your fan page to your new friends wall. Seriously, don’t be that guy, because everyone wants to punch that guy in the face really, really, really hard, or delete/block you as a friend)

#4: Don’t Post Too Much

How much is too much?

Honestly, five times a day is about as much as you want to post and that’s pushing it. My personal comfort level is a couple of posts a day and then I leave it alone and respond to those two posts and posts on other people’s pages. Sometimes I get real crazy and put up a third post, but it’s pretty rare.

And what’s wrong with posting too much, you ask?

Well, it’s just like the people who do not adhere to DON’T #1. Yeah, you’re a freeway billboard, you’re white noise. So, before you think about posting that 17^th cheesecake photo of the day or music video or news article and it’s only nine o’clock in the morning, stop yourself and look at the interactions you’re having with each post, because chances are you’ve been tuned out.

(Another quick side note. Here’s probably the biggest DON’T in the posting too much category: DON’T post to FB using Twitter. I know, I know, it’s so much easier to handle your social networking that way, but here’s the deal: Your FB and Twitter followers are going to be virtually identical. Sure, there’ll be some people who are only on Twitter and some who are only on FB, but for the most part, there is going to be a lot of cross over between the two and if the content you’re posting is identical on both sites, people are going to tune you out. So do me this favor, go to the apps section of FB RIGHT NOW and disable Twitter for Facebook)

#5: Be There

I love it when I get a friend request and I accept it and I go the person’s page (and this is author or otherwise) and the only thing posted on the page is that so and so is now friends with you and fifty other people. Now let’s say you go back to that page a month later and guess what? The only new posts are so and so is now friends with fifty other people….

Yeah, kind of lame.

For authors who have this kind of FB page, let me give you a piece of advice…Are you listening? Good…

You don’t have to be on Facebook to be a writer.

You don’t have to be on any social network to be a writer.

Does it make marketing your writing easier?

Sure it does, but if you’re going to take the time (and it does take time) to create a FB page, do something with it other than collecting friends or just delete it, because otherwise, you’re just static.

Okay, I’m sure there are a bunch more DON’Ts I could cover, but for today that’s what I’ve got.

Remember, if you have a DON’T you’d like to share, feel free to add it in the comments section.

Alrighty, so I’ll be back sometime next week to cover my favorite social media (and least effective) platform, Twitter.

Where The Hell is Jackson Donne? Guest Post by Dave White

I recently I asked Dave White to stop by old Bloody Knucks to do a little guest blogging in support of his new thriller Witness To Death. And when he asked what I wanted him to blog about, I had only one question on my mind:

Where in the Hell is Jaskson Donne?




Growing up, I loved thrillers.

From the time I was in second grade, when I first saw View to a Kill and North by Northwest, I responded to fast-paced, action-filled epics. I remember reading Michael Crichton’s The Terminal Man, the James Bond novels (by Fleming and Gardner), and Jeffery Archer’s Honor Among Theives*.

So, when I’d finished writing my two Jackson Donne thrillers and it came time to do something else, I turned toward the thriller genre. Donne had come to a natural pause moment at the end of The Evil That Men Do, and his voice kind of went away. He seemed settled**. So I started to think about what I had in my life that I could relate to—because that’s where it starts for me. How can I relate to this story?

The everyday man in trouble is what caught my eye. As a teacher, I know, teachers are rarely in life-threatening danger. (Okay, that’s not exactly true. Some schools are pretty bad and dangerous. And the New Jersey governor is trying to crush our health benefits—which is kind of life threatening.) So, I asked myself, how can I get a teacher in trouble?

And, my love of thrillers from wayyyy back started to sprout in my mind. Cary Grant is just an ad man. By the end of the movie, he’s throwing guys off Mt. Rushmore. I wanted that feel for my book. So I dropped in some spies. And what are spies searching for these days? Terrorists.

And that’s how I got to a standalone thriller. I love noir, but at times it’s too slow paced for me. As a writer, it’s tough for me to get into a slow burn. I need thinks to happen. I need some snap, some flash. Witness to Death has snap and flash. It has explosions, fist fights, torture, and romance. It has story.

And, man does it move. Which is exactly what I want.

*Saddam Hussein steals the Declaration of Independence and threatens to burn it on nation television? On the Fourth of July? My eighth grade brain couldn’t handle the awesomeness of such an idea. I LOVED that book when I was a kid.


**You know, when Dennis Lehane said Kenzie’s voice went away I kind of scoffed. I figured he just wanted to write other things, which is his right. But it’s true. Sometimes voices go away. Donne’ll probably come back one day, but right now he’s taking a breather. And he’s not talking to me.

***I freaking hate footnotes in blog posts.

Cameron Ashley Swings Into Action

As you know, Jimmy Callaway's hetro life mate and my partner over at ye Ole Crimefactory is one very talented writer, but where his storytelling skills truly excel is in the world of comic books (If you ask him nicely--and if they're still in existence after Cam's laptop was stolen this past summer--he might even show you some scripts he co-wrote with a certain A-list novelist.)and I was thrilled this morning when I woke up to this brand new webcomic scripted by Ashley with art by the very talented Patrick Halpin. So when you get the chance today, make sure to check out BEST BEFORE right HERE

What All The Cool Kids Are Reading (And Me)

Oh, e-books, you are truly addicting.

Not only do I now have to contend with new releases in print, but now I've got all these great writers releasing their wares independently.

Not that I'm complaining, folks, there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to read it all.

And not like most of you don't already have a mile high TBR stack, but I wanted to pass along a few recommendations of a few ebooks
that I picked up recently

I discovered the fiction of Barry Graham through the Patrick Millikin edited Phoenix Noir. (Akashic Publishing) Graham writes tough, unsentimental, character driven crime fiction and recently Graham has been dipping his toes into the e-publishing world by releasing his novel How Do You Like Your Blue Eyed Boy and short story collection Scumbo out into the world. Well on Tuesday he re-released his first novel, The Book Of Man.

Here's The Skinny:

Researching a television project about his former friend and writer Mike
Illingworth, London-based playwright and performance artist Kevin Previn returns
to Glasgow, where his abusive childhood and subsequent years of decadence flood
his memory. The recent death of Illingworth, a junkie and a victim of AIDS,
leaves a hole in Kevin's life and prompts numerous questions about his own
drug-filled, promiscuous past as well as his lost hope, love, and sense of
identity. Graham deftly portrays a decaying city and culture. This is a bleak
present filled with postpunk notions: cocaine and heroin addiction, welfare
living, alcoholism, and general apathy. Graham's words are raw and gritty, and
his observations unrelenting and brutally honest. Though this may be considered
counterculture to some, The Book of Man is sadly real and deeply poignant. It is
a book about strange friendship, youthful freedoms, perpetuated cycles of abuse,
and the ripples of violence flowing through every level of society. Moreover,
this book is about identifying our demons and accepting what role we play in
their creation

The Book Of Man is available on Amazon Kindle for .99 cents for a limited time right HERE.

As most of you know, I'm a pretty big fan of Dave White around these parts and on Tuesday as well, the scariest public school teacher in New Jersey released his second e-book only release (After of the phenomenal short story collection More Sinned Against) Witness To Death. I was luck enough to get to read an earlier draft of WIT, so let me tell you, for thriller fans, this is a seriously tough as nails read.

Here's the lowdown:

John Brighton is an ordinary young schoolteacher still hung up on his ex,
Michelle. Suspecting her new boyfriend is cheating on her, John decides to
follow Frank's Lexus and find out the truth once and for all. Turns out John's
in for a major surprise. Frank isn't heading for some sack time with another
girl. Instead he drags John into the middle of a shootout on the banks of the
Hudson River, and before John knows what's happening, he's knee-deep in bodies.

Before the corpses can even cool, Frank disappears and John finds
himself wanted for five murders. With no way to prove his innocence, John goes
on the run-not only from the police, but a vicious assassin as well. And when
Michelle is kidnapped, John's worst-case scenario comes true. Though his head
tells him to stay in hiding, his heart says otherwise. He has to save the woman
he loves or die trying.

As John begins to uncover the truth surrounding
the events that have turned his life upside down, he learns it isn't just
Michelle he must rescue. Thousands of other innocent lives are in jeopardy too.

A heart-pounding, heart-stopping, heart-breaking thriller from two-time
Shamus Award nominated author, Dave White. For fans of Harlan Coben, Thomas
Perry and Jeff Abbott

It's a Hell of a read and is available for .99 cents right HERE

My current e-book read is on a favorite subject of mine:

The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse.
Yeah, I love me some undead cannibals.
What's most interesting about this story is that the grisly end of human existence seen from the perspective of a dog.

Here's more info on A Prarie Home Apocalypse, or What The Dog Saw By Albert Berg:

The dog did not understand when his people left him behind in the cold and the
rain. He did not understand when the sound of gunshots echoed through the air.
And he did not understand when the things came into his yard. Things that moved
and moaned, and smelled very very dead.

With all he has ever known in
tatters the dog is forced to forge ahead into an uncertain world where the
dead-things roam and danger lurks at every turn. All he has to his credit is a
keen nose and an unswerving devotion to the girl who rescued him.
Together
these two innocents will risk everything for each other in a world where evil
reigns supreme.

You can snap up Berg's little slice of Hell for a measly $2.99 right HERE

Let’s Talk Social Webbies Part 2: Facebook: The DOS

“Man, I fucking hate Facebook! I can’t stand it!”

You have no idea how many times a week I hear this. It gets to the point where I just zone it out and I implant these words into an author’s mouth instead:

“Man, I fucking love Facebook! I’m on there 3 or 4 times a day!”

Let’s face facts, if an author or anyone else for that matter hated Facebook that much, they wouldn’t be on it, they would avoid it like the plague. But most authors are on Facebook and with good reason.

Let’s get into the nuts and bolts before I get into some dos and don’ts.

As of January 2011 there were 600 million registered Facebook users and by the end of the year there may very well be a billion.

That’s right, by the end of the year 1/6 of the world's population is going to be a registered Facebook user and for that 1/6, this will be the way they view the internet. It will be where they come for news and entertainment stories. This will be how they communicate with family and friends. Facebook will be the primary way an author, whether established or new, will market the stories they have to tell.

I know there are going to be a lot of people out there who say you shouldn’t be using Facebook (or any social network) for marketing purposes. It should be for social interaction and social interaction alone. And what I have to say to these individuals is:

You’re being naïve.

When you have this many people logging onto a single site on a daily basis, you’d be a fool not to use it for marketing purposes. But I will say this, marketing and trying to get the word out about your writing should not be the only thing you’re using social media for. When it comes right down to it, the key to social media is being SOCIAL.

And I know what you’re thinking: No shit, Rawson. Duuuuhhhhh…That’s why they call it SOCIAL networking, dumbass

The only problem is a good hunk of writers out there aren’t getting the social end of things AT ALL and are turning Facebook into a giant billboard.

Okay, before I get into the dos and don’ts, I want to point out some writers who I think get Facebook absolutely right. Why am I doing this? Well, sometimes it’s good to see what others are doing—and what they’re being successful at—and not so much trying to replicate what they’re doing, but observe and maybe pick up a few pointers along the way

Here are my Top 5 Facebook users:

Jason Pinter
Christa Faust
Tom Piccirrilli

Kyle Minor

Joelle Charbonneau

I’ve set links to all of their accounts and if you’re not friends with them already, I encourage you to request them.

Alright, let’s get to the nitty gritty.
(and I guess I should mention that I don’t want anyone to use what I’m about to write as a Facebook Bible. Nothing here is written in stone and if you have a “strategy” that is working for you, please keep doing it. I am by no means what you would call a social media “guru”—because what the hell is a guru anyway?—I’m just a guy who spends way too much time on the internet. ‘Nuff said)

Dos

I think it’s best to start off with the positive before I head into land of ‘stop doing that because all you’re doing is alienating potential readers’ land.

So her we go:

#1: Interact

I think this is the hardest one for writers to grasp. When you post a link—whether to a news article, a link to your latest book, a positive review, whatever—and someone responds to it, make sure to respond back. Now I’m not saying hover over your computer and wait for a Facebook response e-mails so you can immediately jump online and provide your thank you. But if you’re cranking through your latest work in progress and you take a break and check e-mail and you notice the notifications starting to stack up, log onto FB and respond back. The great thing about FB these days is you can now individually tag users in a post so you can personally respond to every one who’s taken the time to comment.

And once again, I know what you’re thinking, I already do this, you’re not telling me anything I don’t know. But once again, it amazes me how little interaction goes on in posts sometimes, if any at all.

#2: Get Personal

This is one of the cooler recent posts I’ve read on Facebook and it comes from Dave Zeltserman:

"I've got a family of foxes living now in my backyard. It looks like 2 adults about 6 pups. It could be worse. When I called animal control, I was told some people in town are seeing fisher cats roaming their backyards."

Why is it that I think this post is so cool? Simply put, it’s giving us a brief glimpse of Zeltserman’s daily life. Yes, we all know that Dave has a million books out there in either print or as e-books, but it’s rare that we get a glimpse into Dave’s private world. Yes, having foxes living in your backyard may seem trivial, it may seem like no one in the world could possibly care about those foxes, but they do.

They care about the foxes

They care about your kids

They care about what you’re having for dinner

They, in general, care about you as a person.

Yes, chances are they’ve never met you, but they read your stories, they feel that they know you through your fiction, so don’t be afraid to let them get to know you on a personal level.

This means post pictures, post how you’re feeling—both physically and mentally—In your status updates. In the long term, this will draw readers in.
(Quick Note: Only release what you feel comfortable with. Sometimes getting too personal can backfire if you drag them into your own personal soap opera.)

#3: Interact on OTHER people’s pages

I know we’re all busy. Most writers work day jobs, they have families, they actually want to get some writing done between it all, but I can’t stress the importance of going outside the boundaries of your page. It takes five minutes to congratulate someone on a story acceptance, a book deal, a birth, or offer sympathies when something has gone not so right. This will also help you in actually in creating a network of other writers and friends when something great happens to you. Which leads me to…

#4: Networking

Here’s an interesting only to me fact: Did you know when Cam, Liam and I released Kung Fu Factory the link was reposted 75 times on Facebook? Yeah, and with issue 5 it was reposted 63 times. That’s a pretty broad reach and most of this has to do with the fact that, yes, Crimefactory is a solidly made product and that we have a large audience because of it, but it also has to do with the fact that Facebook is a network of friends and it’s a network which I’ve spent the last three years carefully cultivating by trying to get to know the people who I’ve become “friends” with. True, I’ve had other interactions outside of Facebook with my core network, but a solid chunk of folks who support my writing and publications are people I only interact with on Facebook.

And I know this may sound trite, but I appreciate every single one of those people. Yes, reposting a link only took a second, but in that second they exposed Crimefactory to all of their friends and there’s a better chance than not that one or two of their friends then reposted. Yes, sometimes Facebook can be nothing more than one great big chain letter, but a chain letter that actually works. So try and get to know the people you’ve become friends with and support what they’re doing if you think it’s cool (I’m going to be going into this aspect of social networking in the DONTS portion)

#5 Have Fun

Here’s another one that a lot of writers seem to have a tough time accomplishing and I largely think this has to do with the fact that they consider social networking and the marketing end of writing a job, it’s a chore. But I’ll tell you this right here and now, it’s okay to be cruising the social webbies all day long if it’s your job (Yeah, right here.) but it’s quite another thing if all your doing is web crawling instead of writing. Social media for the non professional should be something you do in your spare time ONLY. Because I swear there seems to be dozens of writers all do nothing but post to Facebook and the other social sites. So I repeat this once again, SOCIAL NETWORKING SHOULD ONLY BE DONE IN YOUR SPARE TIME. Seriously, you have much better things to do

Anyway, that was a bear of a post and hard to believe its only part #1.

Hopefully I’ll have part #2: The DON'Ts ready to go by tomorrow.

By the way, if anyone has any questions through out the course of these posts, please feel free to leave them in the comments section.

And I have a link to share with you as well.
After nearly a year on ice, Tony Black’s Pulp Pusher is back in Business and you can check out the details right HERE

So Let's Talk Social Webbies....

I talk with a lot authors, either through e-mails or face-to-face

Authors ranging from the newbie looking to find their footing in the publishing world-to-authors who have five or six novels under their belt and tons of critical acclaim, and without fail most of these conversations lead to sales and marketing i.e., How the Hell Do I Sell More Books? How Do I Publish More Stories?

For most writers, their biggest struggle is not how to write a better book or story, but how to get the fine novels and stories they’ve written out to a wider audience so they can make more money and dedicate more time to writing better novels and stories. But in order to do this, there has to be an audience to begin with. A core of people who will not only buy the books and read the stories, but who will pass it along their suggestions to friends and family who will then (hopefully) act on those suggestions and do the same thing and so on and so forth.

It’s called creating great word of mouth.

It’s called getting the audience to work for you and simply put, it is a huge pain in the ass to accomplish.

At one time, creating great word of mouth was a bit easier. Publishers had vast marketing departments who would design print and media campaigns, get copy out to key outlets and the only thing the author would have to worry about is writing his/her next book in their contract and concern themselves with the quality of their hotel rooms on their book tour.

All of this, of course, changed with the invention of personal computers, the internet, and publishers becoming larger, publicly traded corporate entities.

Suddenly publishers weren’t so concerned with developing new and exciting talent or even designing media campaigns for them, because all they really became concerned with was the bottom line. And marketing campaigns cost MONEY, money that was being taken out of the pockets of stock holders. Besides, with e-mail and blogs and instant communications, the author was now able to do a lot of the leg work if not all of it.

I know, it sucks.

Writers are artists, not sales people.

They should only be concentrating on the written word, not on if they’ve earned back their advances. But like it or not, the writer handling his/her own publicity is here to stay and I say it’s better to learn the ins and outs of it.

Now at this point, I know what most of you are thinking, you’re thinking: c’mon, Rawson, you don’t have a book deal, you don’t know the real financial struggle of an author.

And you’re right, I don’t, and I don't know if I ever will either?

But what I do know a thing or two about is how to market: How to get word out about books, stories, authors, publications, and how to audience build. It’s been a long time hobby of mine that has since grown into a budding career—and not to toot my own horn—I’ve gotten pretty good at the social marketing end of writing. And with me spending so much time working on how to best promote my own writing and Crimefactory, I’ve observed a few different ideas in social networking that work very well and others that just plain fall flat.

So what I’ve been doing in between fiction writing and day-to-day life is I’ve started writing down a few of the things that I’ve learned and I’ve decided to write them up and post them to my much neglected little blog (because guess what? Blogs are kind of essential to a modern writer and a lesson I should be slapping myself silly over) over the next couple of weeks.

And you can take these posts as you will.

You can read them earnestly or think I’m just full of shit. Either way, I don’t care because I’m going to post this stuff anyway.

I’ll see you in a couple of days when I start to cover Facebook…

A couple of things before I go, here’s some links I wanted to pass along:

First off, have you read Jedidiah Ayres Beat To A Pulp debut Down, Down, Down, Burns, Burns, Burns yet? If you haven’t, give it a read right HERE. It’s a different kind of story for Ayres and I honestly think it’s one of his best.

Secondly, Dan O’shea’s Red Cross Tornado Flash Fiction Challenge has produced a fine line up of stories that I’m just starting to delve into thanks to a rambunctious weekend. But you can check out the full line up right HERE.

Lastly, I made my debut over at Kent Gowran’s sweet Flash Fiction site, Shotgun Honey. You can read my story “The Floating Man” right HERE.

And with all this reading, if you run across a story you like, make sure to leave a comment, writers are fond of those.

Tornado Relief Flash Fiction Challenge: Have you ever seen the rain?

Here's the skinny: Devilish Dan O'Shea set a challenge to us writer-y folks that for every flash piece that was produced he'd donate $5 to the Red Cross for relief from the rash of devastating tornadoes that tore the asshole out of more then a few southern states recently. I thought it was a solid idea, so I threw in my hat. Anyway, here's my piece, I hope you like it (By the way, folks, the RED CROSS near the top of the page is a link, so if you feel up to donating, every little bit helps.)

Hide and Seek

The rain’s pissing down on me warm and rank, like god’s giving me my own special electrolyte infused golden shower. That’s just how the rain is in Phoenix in the middle of the summer. You would think that in the middle of the night it would bring some coolness, some relief from the scorching hundred degree temperatures.

Wrong.

I’ve been digging up my backyard for over an hour. I’m covered head-to-toe in tacky red clay, my hands are blistered raw, and the muscles in my lower back feel like two small dogs are tearing at each others throats underneath my skin

I guess this is what I get for spending the last ten years behind a desk instead of going into the grunt end of construction like my old man wanted.

Despite it all, I work past the pain and keep digging.

Jesus, some days I just hate my kids to pieces.

#

--So you’re sure it’s no trouble? I know with Jean out of town you’ve got to have your hands full

I do, but I don’t tell him that.

--No, it’s no trouble at all.

What the fuck else am I going to tell him? No, you asshole, the whole situation is un-fucking-acceptable. Now why don’t you just go and waddle back into your office, shut the door, close the blinds, and stroke one out to some internet porn and pretend you’re in a meeting for the rest of the afternoon and forget this whole conversation ever happened.

--Because if it is, seriously, you can tell me…

--It’s no big thing….

Liar

--I know how it is

--It’s just that it’s been so long since Marina and I have been out alone together and it’s really starting to affect us.

--Hey, Jean and I came close to ripping each other’s heads off after Scotty was born, so I know how it is.

His rotund body shutters with emotion and he knuckles a couple of tears out of the corner of his eyes.

He’s crying?

All I can think is that Marina must really be putting the heels to him.

--I can’t thank you enough, Bret…So is seven okay?

--Seven’s perfect. I know the boys will be excited, they love Tara.

#

The boys hate Tara.

And to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of her either.

I know, what kind of man hates a little girl? But honest to god, I think the little bitch is Hitler reincarnate.

Maybe that’s going a little too far?

But she’s one of those precocious kids who know she’s the apple of her parent’s eyes and thinks the rest of the world should be at her beckon call just like mom and dad. And Marina and Frank—my boss—they fall right in line with what ever she says.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe a parent should be involved in their children’s lives, but there’s a line and those two stepped over it a long time ago.

#

Frank and Marina dropped Tara off at seven right on the dot.

They stayed a couple of minutes, Marina fluttering around Tara, asking her if it’s still okay for them to leave her?

Marina’s a stick thin bird of a woman, a worrier to the core and I’m sure if she wasn’t a health nut she’d be a two pack a day smoker with her fingernails chewed to the quick from gnawing at them all days. Frank’s the same way, but instead of hitting the treadmill three hours a day he stuffs seven or eight Caramello bars down his throat throughout the day.

They’re quite a pair, perfect for each other, really.

I finally got them out the door, their mouths full of promises that they’d be back to pick up Tara by midnight at the latest and the minute they’re gone, Tara’s already starting in on Dave and Scotty, trying to get them to play along in some elaborate make believe game where she’s the queen and the boys are her lowly servants.

Dave’s your typical eight-year-old boy, loves action figures and the Power Rangers and doesn’t take shit off of cootie queens like Tara. Yeah, he’s at that ‘all girls except mom are gross’ stage. Scotty, though, that’s a different story and he falls right in line with whatever Tara says.

Scotty’s five and like most five-year-olds, he’s out to please everyone. Most of the time he’s out to please Dave, except when there’s a girl around.

What they say plays.

He’s a Casanova, my little Scotty, and most days I’m proud of how smooth he is. But some times I get these flashes of him when he’s a teenager and I have these visions of a half a dozen girls standing at our front door with swollen bellies and red eyes with their angry parents standing behind them wanting to kick Scotty’s ass

I try not think about this future too much.

After an hour of Tara’s shouted orders and Dave shouting back that he doesn’t have to listen to her.

I’m going out of my skull.

--So who’s ready for pizza! I shouted.

We live out in the sticks, so nobody delivers to us and I have to make the thirty minute drive to go and get it. Normally I don’t mind the drive, but then again, normally Jean’s home instead of helping her sister move out of her deadbeat boyfriend’s house out in Vegas.

And for a brief second, I think maybe I should just take the three of them along with me.

That would be nice and safe.

That would be nice and responsible.

But then the exhausted, negligent parent who’s been ruling the roost since Jean left on Monday kicks in and says: Fuck it, man, leave Dave in charge. Dave’s old enough to handle things. Besides, these kids are driving me up the fucking wall. I need some quiet.

--Okay, Dave’s in charge, I’ll be back in a half hour.

#

I had an ‘Oh, fuck me’ moment the minute I pulled into the drive way and step out of the SUV, two pizza boxes piled in my arms, fumbling with my keys:

I had left an eight-year-old in charge of a four and a five year-old because all their mean spirited chatter was giving me a headache.

What kind of asshole does that?

This was the statement that always popped into my head when ever I was watching the evening news and saw a story about a toddler drowning in a swimming pool or a parent who leaves their two year old in a minivan on 115 degree day with windows rolled up to let the kid cook in their own juices.

Who the fuck does that?

I did that, me.

I’m thinking this as I finally get the keys plugged in unlatch the deadbolt and I’m immediately hit with a wave of sound from the living room speakers which knocks any thoughts of irresponsible parenting clear out of my skull and is replaced by ‘those kids need to turn the TV down’, which repeats over and over again as I make my way to the dining room table with the pies

I’m not going to say I knew something was wrong the minute I turned around, because I didn’t, (Right, I was all about the TV being turned down) but then I notice the pile of toys in the middle of the living room and that the large clear plastic Tupperware container that normally houses them is missing.

And the boys are the only ones stretched out on the couch zoning out to Kung Fu Panda.

First order of business:

--Would you guys turn that down….

Second order of business:

--Where’s Tara?

#

Maybe I was a little harsh, but I think if you bury a four-year-old girl alive you deserve to have your ass beaten.

Maybe I went a little too far? Maybe I should’ve laid the belt to their asses after they showed me where they buried her and then laid into them. But instead I left them in a welted, monkey red ass pile of tears, snot and incomprehensible apologies and headed out to the backyard, grabbing a shovel along the way.

Normally, I don’t think it would be all that hard to find a small mound of dirt with a little girl stuffed into a Tupperware bin burried beneath it. I mean, how far down could the boys dig in only a half an hour?

But work men have been back here all week digging the hole our new pole is going to poured into, so the backyard is nothing but small mounds of dirt. Plus the rain turning the entire back yard into a mud pit isn’t helping things out, either.

I pull my cell from my hip pocket and check the time:

10:38

The way I figure it, Frank and Marina are going to get sick of each other around 11:00 and start making their way back over here.

Best case scenario, they get here around 11:30, worst case, 11:15.

For a second, I think about going into the house and shaking Dave awake, but then I spot a loose pile of dirt along the far side of the yard and think to myself, that’s it, that’s going to be the one she’s hiding in and I get back to work.

Epiphany or Blather?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the writing process lately.

I know, a writer thinking about process, huge shocker, right?

Not mechanics or grammar or anything along those lines, but what makes a writer sit his/her ass down in the chair day-after-day and put words on paper.

What drives someone to actually want to put themselves through all of this?

(By the way, Anthony Neil Smith has a pretty great post about regarding the day-to-day crap that most of us go through right HERE)

I don’t have any answers, I’m not going to pretend that I do because most days I keep asking myself the same damn question over and over as I drag myself into my office after putting in a very full day.

I keep saying to myself:

I’m hot

I’m tired

I want to watch TV and zone out until it’s time for bed.

But still, I come in here because it’s becomes habit.

But even with the habit, you can still sometimes get lost.

What I mean by this is when you spend so much time writing, you occasionally get bored with what you’re putting down on paper. It just seems like the same old shtick and you want to open up a little more, experiment and try different things so maybe what you’re putting on paper isn’t so bland to you

And don’t get me wrong, a little experimentation sometimes does the trick and gets you back to the nitty gritty, and sometimes it just leads you down a path that you can’t pull yourself out of and you lose the VOICE.

That’s the other thing I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is the writers natural voice.

It’s a hard thing to achieve finding that voice.

There are some folks who just get it right off the bat.

They sit down and pound out page-after-page and it’s pitch perfect for them. Others, it takes a few years to find it.

I’m of the latter category. My voice can warble some days, it can fall flat on its face on others and two or three days a week it’s spot on.

I started thinking about natural voice a couple of weeks ago when I went to go see Joe Lansdale at the Poisoned Pen. As you know, Joe’s a big favorite of mine and a huge influence.

But when I say that what do I mean?

It’s not like my writing mirrors Lansdale’s all that much. Sure, there are some similarities, but it’s not like his style has radically affected the way I write.

But here’s the thing with Lansdale, when you talk to Joe and when you read Joe, it’s virtually the same thing. He’s a big, gutsy storyteller and he has a big, gutsy NATURAL voice and this is Lansdale’s biggest effect on me, that utter originality that can’t be mirrored or duplicated.

As writers, I think that’s what I’m looking for the most and fortunately I had the opportunity to have myself reminded about the importance of following that voice and ignoring the nutty twinges of experimentation and simply pushing forward even if I’m getting a little bored with what I’m doing.

By the way, if you haven’t seen my most recent interview with Lansdale yet, (you didn’t think I was going to pass up the opportunity to do a little pimping, did you?) you can check it out right HERE.

Anyway, I’m going to cheat tonight and call this post part of tonight’s word count.

Besides, I’m tired, I’m hot, and I want to watch a little TV before bed.