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

Smashwords

The Last Spartan is up and available for $0.99 at Smashwords.

New Blog the Check On

http://www.ghostburglar.com/

Ghost Burglar Appearing

Like the ghost burglar himself, GB business cards are appearing everywhere!

TIME TO GO TO IRELAND

Well, it's that time of year again. Time to go to Clare and take in the Corofin Trad. The annual traditional music festival. And to see the beautiful old sod again.

Writing Prize

So honored to be getting writing submissions for the Kelly Culhane Prize. Very touching stuff. Tell your friends, if you would. By all accounts it is a good thing to write about cancer, about the arrival of illness, about the dark companion.

Nice Old Hub Cap

What do you think? Is hubcap one word or two? It's a cap for a hub, right?

Excellent Review of War Memoir

Got a nice website review of Bud Wagner's memoir. Click the link to see the book's webpage where there's some outstanding period photos posted of war machinery and people.

Here's the review:

Rating: Excellent.

Comments: A remarkable document, fascinating day-by-day account of a signficant segment of history. A "must have" book for any WWII buff or anyone with relatives who fought in this major war.

Submitted by: Ed Newman on 10/15/2011 8:34:17 AM

UNINTERRUPTED POETRY DAYS

Diana Randolph, author of In the Heart of the Forest, and a talented, prolific, inspiring painter, used the phrase, "uninterrupted poetry days" in a recent email. I tried to conceptualize what an uninterrupted poetry day might be like. The concept seemed heavenly at first, but then became more difficult to imagine as I pondered it. What would an uninterrupted poetry day be like for you?

In the Spirit of Amanda Hocking

Shipped 40 books today. 20 Devil of Charleston. 20 Spirit of the Shadows. Both penned by Rebel Sinclair of Charleston, SC. Shipped two BattleNotes: Music of the Vietnam War yesterday. Peeled a balsam log earlier this morning, when it was cooler. Made two 2 x 8 boxes last weekend. One for grease guns. One for loading / towing straps. A dedicated Ghost Burglar blog is coming soon. Here's a photo of a sign with a misspelled word in it. First to tell me the misspelled word gets a free book.

Ghost Burglar Interest

Jim King, co-author of the upcoming True Crime book, Ghost Burglar, was recently on a wedding cruise (Not his own.) on the Chesapeake Bay and was asked, "What's your book about?"

His Answer:

It's a case I investigated for about five years.

The wealthy areas in and around Washington were getting hit hard by silver burglars in the mid-70's due to the rising price of silver. There were a lot of criminals doing this, but one MO stood out. Most burglaries were daytime, but these particular ones were in the evenings. They were distinguished as much by what was not stolen as what was. Whomever was doing the crimes took only good silver, jewelry, antiques, art, oriental carpets, and furs. No TV's, stereos, checks or credit cards. Slowly we, the investigators, came to the conclusion it was one person.

But that was impossible. This criminal was hitting three or four times a night, five to six nights a week and no one had ever seen him. He was like a ghost.

In the springtime these particular thefts stopped, only to continue in the fall. It was like he took the summer off. None of the normal police tactics worked. There were no fences, no informants, no witnesses, no finger prints, nothing left behind.

Over the years the criminal was getting more aggressive, maybe even cocky, because of his success. He began to confront people and rather than running, he beat handcuffed and even raped lone women in their homes. We investigators recognized this behavior from other serial criminals and knew he would increasingly confront victims until somebody was killed.

In 1978, from one of the raped women, I discovered that the criminal had a full set of false teeth. I remembered a police meeting from four years before of a similar burglar in the Richmond, VA area. I contacted a detective in Richmond and learned that a suspect had escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility, commonly called Dannemora, a New York prison. Prison records indicated that a man named Bernard Welch had received a full set of false teeth while incarcerated. I put it together.

Bernard Welch, followed the same MO in D.C. as the burglar in Richmond and also hauled his loot to out of state auction houses. I started contacting auction places up and down the East Coast. Welch was from New York and had sold stolen goods in Florida. That effort produced no results so I tried mailing wanted posters to the Midwest. I got one response from Illinois, but it was the wrong guy. I never sent anything to Minnesota, because who would sell hot stuff in Minnesota? It was at this time that Welch was arrested for the gunshot murder of famed cardiologist Michael Halberstam.

Welch went on to escape from an escape-proof jail in downtown Chicago and return to Greensburg, Pennsylvania where he resumed his life as crime as had done in New York, Richmond, VA., and Washington D.C. until he was again caught because he was double parked in a car he had stolen in Wisconsin.

The best line of Jim's tale was, "They all said they would buy copies of the book and read it because it sounded so interesting."

SWEET!