MAY I QUOTE YOU?

A "fella" not in the previous post's sense, called yesterday wanting me to ghost write an attack article about a corrupt judge...or something like that. Couldn't quite grasp the concept from the message he left. I remember back in the journalism days when people would approach me about writing an article for the paper about this or that personal beef, grievance, complaint. What almost always stopped them was the question, "May I quote you?" Usually they'd say no and that was that. No article needed. Those times when the answer was yes, it was a good story.

SEIZE OPPORTUNITY

A "fella" called Monday. Said Savage Press came highly recommended. He wanted to publish a book about his Mob experiences and then as an FBI informant. He had a good rap so I asked him if he had a manuscript. "No." I asked if he wrote. "No." When he asked me if he could be prosecuted for revealing facts about a murder the phrase, "No statute of limitations on murder" popped into my head. The entire conversation got too long and too fraught with questions so I directed him elsewhere. He called back Tuesday and we went through the same song and dance. Him pitching (pushily) his story. Me being practical and suspicious. Practical: "You have no manuscript." Suspicious: "Is this guy for real?" If half of what he said is true, it could be a blockbuster type kiss-n-tell, sorta True Crime type book. But the whole hyperventilated conversation was too much, too soon, too "good" to be true, so I declined again. Did I pass on a bestseller? What would you have done?

THAT BOOK DONE YET?

When is a book done? That's easy. Never. I'm still filtering through Lambeau Leap, finding sentences that displease me and making them more pleasing, adding fun and puns and jolly scenes designed to inform and please the reader. At some point I'll let it go and move on to another project such as going through Pony Girl, finding and improving sentences and scenes that displease me. Or I may go back to DIEreland, or Death by Corvette, or any number of the many trunk books sitting in the corner gathering dust. There's a couple of poetry books that I think on now and then. Or I could start a new book, plow through a first draft, crunch out a second draft, drag a third draft down a few revisions until a bunch of the rough edges are ground off by contact with skillful, articulate, insightful, helpful, willing advance readers. Whatever the path, I know the book will never be done, even if it gets published for the wider world to see.

THE TITLE'S THE THING

Thinking about cover ideas for Lambeau Leap. This fifth Alphonse "Dave" Davecki book is a fun Packer parody where Dave meets a fascinating bald woman named Davina who lures him to his first Packer game where, at a critical moment in the game, Davecki does a reverse Lambeau Leap into infamy. If this brief description suggests a cover idea to you, please do share.

THREE JOBS

The new Savage Press Intern, Sarah Kaster a UMD grad student, is also working three jobs in addition to learning the publishing ropes. What energy!

Her job title is V.P. of Corporate Development (Intern). She has chosen to work on Lambeau Leap, the fifth Dave Davecki book and developing the potential of the Kelly Culhane Writing Prize.

HOT HUMID PAGES

Just heard today of a guy in North Carolina who is spreading the word about Spartan Negotiator to all his friends on-line. This is the new WOM (Word Of Mouth). Reports indicate that these friends who are scattered across the U.S. are making inquiry at their local Barnes & Noble stores regarding Spartan Negotiator. I'm grateful for this outstanding WOM, but, not wanting to be anything but grateful, I'm hoping for more. Hoping this sharing bit goes viral. How things have changed from the old days when books changed actual hands. I'm envisioning a gnarled, soil-stained hand reaching out for an actual artifact and taking it from the fingers of the giver, probably at a camp meeting or a river crossing, or a train station. Now-a-days electrons change screens and downloads are initiated. It's the same concept but antiseptic. No dirt under the giver's fingernails...that can be seen anyway. No musty smell of humid pages wet from being transported in a wool pocket next to a hot body on a warm rainy day. No eye to eye contact. No seeing the smile wrinkles as the gift is given and received. Be these things as they may, I do not deplore virality. I actually enjoy it because...because...well, because it is the modern age and the modern way and the raft at river's edge waiting to transport passengers and mules and produce to the other side is history not modern life. In significant ways the "new" WOM is just as fascinating as a single book exchange in a rural American setting. It just takes place in cyberspace, a place that is also fantastic, mysterious, intriguing, enigmatic, and foreboding.

Read a book blurb yesterday morning about a bald woman character. It's trending. With cancer being epidemic there will be more memorable women sans hair. Davecki meets a bald woman in his latest. Way way back in the beginning, Davecki lived on a boat in a marina because the rent was cheap. Not long after that Dirty Harry turned up living on a boat in a marina because the rent was cheap. Trend setter me...ha! Speaking of ha, wasn't real fond of Frances Ha until two friends explained why it was meritorious. Thick headed I often am.

Advance Reading

     Recently finished a new book called Lambeau Leap where Davecki meets a bald woman, ends up at Lambeau for the first time, and does a reverse Lambeau Leap to save endangered Packers QB Baron von Dodgers from imminent harm...or so he thinks. It's a Packer romp in parody and I've got a copy out with an advance reader to see if it is entertaining.
      Now going back to Davecki's last adventure, Pony Girl, where he gets on the trail of a girl abducted in New Jersey when she was nine years old. Now, eleven years after the crime, the trail leads him and the girl's mother to northern Minnesota, land of 10,000 wierdnesses.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Lake Effect

by Mike Savage

Giveaway ends July 07, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

KELLY CULHANE WRITING PRIZE BACKGROUND

   
     The inspiration for the Kelly Culhane Writing Prize came from my own experience with the passing of my niece Kelly in August of 2010. As was my morning ritual on that Tuesday I walked to the upstairs rear window to look out and check the weather. Approaching the window, the horn on the neighbor's car honked once. There was nobody in the car. I stepped closer to the window to see what was happening and a brown sparrow flew to the white pine tree branch two feet away from the window. The tiny brown sparrow looked me intently in the eyes, chirped once and Kelly's presence instantly filled the room and my being. I knew instantly and certainly that she had died. I looked at the clock. It read 7:29 a.m. A half hour later Sister Joyce called to tell me what I already knew. Beloved Kelly Meier Culhane, wife, mother, daughter, sister, niece...after a three-year struggle with debilitating breast cancer, had started on her new journey at the precise time of the sparrow's visit. I am still humbled that one of her first stops on her new and irrevocable path was to say goodbye to her, "Uncle Muk."

     The sparrow's (and Kelly's) visit comforted me as much as a hug, touch, or visit. The palpable sense of her spirit with me reassured me, eased my pain and helped me heal.

     My hope for the contest is to honor Kelly of course, but also to honor and respect the spiritual nature of our living and dieing. I believe that your writing and sharing will ease and heal your process and that publishing your words of healing will be a gift to you and all who read them.

Visit www.savpress.com for more contest information and details.

The first Kelly Culhane Writing Prize anthology from 2012 can be viewed at: http://www.savpress.com/Details.asp?ProductID=170

Additional information about the authors and stories in the 2012 anthology can also be viewed at:https://www.facebook.com/34000Lives?ref=ts&fref=ts