#61:  For writers, readers, and others who want to know a bit more about me and peek into my insane writing world, check out my guest post “When, where, and how do writers’ ideas originate?” posted yesterday at Erin O’Riordan’s blogspot: erinoriordan.blogspot.com.  Note:  Erin’s genre is a bit orthogonal to mine, but erotica and romance novels have a big following.  She’s a master of her trade, wielding her pen (or laptop) along with the best.  Clearly, we have a common interest, the business of writing.  Hopefully my comments resonate with readers and writers in all genres.

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I have made some noise in this blog about the fact that I’m going all eBook.  I have a list of reasons, but there is always that alter-ego of mine called “buyer’s remorse” who is telling me that I’m killing myself.  Read on, Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath, and console me.

Let’s enumerate the reasons again.  The top one is that I can’t afford to keep on paying for POD.  Even though prices have come down and service has gone up (I have no complaints about Infinity Publishing’s production of trade paperbacks, for example), for the same price I can produce multiple eBooks.  I have many stories I want to tell.  If this paradigm shift to digital publishing continues, eBook media is my most economical route.

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#50:  I hope you caught my guest blog post on Donna Carrick’s Carrick Publishing website.  If not, take a look.  It’s a brief look into my career as an indie author.  Somewhat related was my blog post “Why blog?” posted on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  These two posts are directed more to writers, but readers might enjoy this glimpse into what makes writers write.  [Note: Donna Carrick is author of the award-winning The First Excellence and her hubby, Alex, has several collections of short stories, one of which I reviewed.  I’m waiting for a collaborative effort—it should be good!]

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The crowds forcing their way into stores on Black Friday or Blue Thursday confirmed my prescient labeling of Thanksgiving and the day after as black-and-blue events.  People fought and were trampled, shots were fired, pepper-spray was used—it was as if we were in Egypt but with consumerism as the goal, not democracy.  What do people outside the U.S. think of us when we become so mesmerized by the ownership of goods?  “I want your Xbox!” or “That’s my wide-screen TV” takes the place of “Down with the military junta!” or “Out with dictator X!”

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Due to the bad economy, merchants seem desperate to bring in customers to the malls, superstores, and boutiques.  If you are a patriotic American, I suppose, you’d start your Christmas purchases before Halloween…or, at least, starting at the same time you’re buying all that Halloween candy required to make the little tykes need fluoride.  Not only has Black Friday become a consumer tradition, many of those superstores are throwing their doors open to their super sales on Thanksgiving.

Not only do I hear about crazy consumers ready to forego the family eating orgy and head off for those sales, the store employees are forced to leave their relatives and friends to attend to the onslaught of zombies looking for those early Black Friday bargain.  Let’s call it Blue Thursday in recognition of how sad it truly is.  We should even adopt Elvis’ Christmas song—I’m sure someone can adapt the lyrics to reflect the forlorn turkey.  After all, that gobbler was sacrificed on the altar of family love and universal friendship—his sacrifice shouldn’t be in vain.

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It used to be that a blog post talked about what you had for breakfast and walking the dog, for example.  Today that uninteresting trivia (well, maybe it’s interesting to your neighbors, especially if you leave the poop on their lawn) is relegated to Facebook (FB manages to cover the whole spectrum from domestic trivia to the Occupy X City news, from a pet peeve, i.e. complaints about your pet, to the Arab spring uprisings, and so on).  Blog posts should be, and now usually are, more substantial.  They truly are op-ed, i.e. opinions, about something.

The something can be almost anything!  This post is about writing, a particular form of writing.  You’ve all read op-ed in a newspaper—that’s usually politically or economically motivated.  Most of my posts here are similar to those commentaries on current events.  If you like, you can say I have an ax to grind.  (Some people become very upset about my opinions, so I generally allow comments, as long as you keep them clean.  I call it “Join the Conversation” on my “Steve’s Writing” page.)

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It’s a funny thing about book reviews—especially when someone is turning a critical eye to your own work. Often, you realize that other people don’t always view your characters in the same light you do. An example:

Steve Moore just wrote a nicely-crafted critique of my hard-boiled mystery Shotgun Start for Book Pleasures [note from Steve: see last Thursday’s post]. He liked the book, for which I am grateful, and gave it a generally positive review and recommended it. All good. But he had an interesting take on my protagonist, Neal Egan, a former cop who is eking out a living as a golf hustler. Steve says: “Egan is a jerk, cad and misfit.” My immediate reaction: “A cad? A jerk? Is not.” The misfit part of the equation, I’ll concede. But a cad? Steve, this isn’t a Noel Coward play. You might as well have called him a bounder.

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#43:  I’ve just reviewed Mike Nettleton’s Shotgun Start.  If you’re looking for a good read, look at this one.  If you’re studying how to write good PI action-suspense, study this one.  Of course, read my review first (blog post just preceding this one).

#44:  My guest blog post will appear on the Carrick Publishing site November 20.  Look for it.  I discuss my experiences as an indie author.  Donna Carrick has set up a whole series with this common theme.  (Also see #45 and #49.)

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(Mike Nettleton, Shotgun Start, ISBN 978-0984652419)

A raw portrait of the best and the worst the Southwest has to offer, this tale of a down-on-his-luck PI trying to prove his ex-wife is innocent of a violent and sexually explicit murder is like straight shots of tequila taken as a cure for a hangover between the rounds of your very own ultimate boxing match.  Your adrenalin will run high if you’re a reader—as a reviewer, I could only admire the craftsmanship.  I highly recommend this book (I read the eBook version, which is a bargain compared to the trade paperback and it saves trees).

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#41:  What’s the deal with Amazon’s new lending program?  For readers, as near as I can tell, you have to be an Amazon premium member, so right away that’s a limitation.  I can’t figure out what it means for authors, if anything.  As near as I can tell, Amazon chooses which authors to put into the program.  This means indie authors will get crumbs, if anything—but then again, the Big Six are not going along with the program just yet, so maybe Amazon won’t have any legacy authors in the lending list.

The Amazon site is so hard to negotiate.  It seems impossible to get to Author Central via the usual amazon.com—I have to google amazon author central and go in that way.  When I do, I find nothing about the lending library for indie authors.  Let me know about any gossip you might have.

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