Ebook and Print versions of Out in the Garage are for sale!

Okay people, the paperback version is now out on Createspace.  It will be 5-7 days before it goes on Amazon, and all the other sites where Createspace distributes my books.

I will let you all know when I hear about Smashwords and the Premium catalog.  This time around I am going to let them distribute my ebook to all of the sites, instead of self-distributing it to the Kindle store and the Nook store.

That being said, I highly recommend purchasing from these sites.  They are safe and secure, and by doing so you will be supporting me and all the other indie authors who use these services to publish their books.

Thank you all for your support---especially all of my friends and family who have supported me in writing this and listened to me babble about it, time and time again.  I really appreciate your support.  I especially appreciate the support of my wife, who has been so supportive and understanding and has really been the one to keep pushing me to keep working on it and to think about things like the design from a different perspective.  I know I can be difficult to work with!  I love you!

This is a day I have been working towards for nine years---it is actually very surreal.  It is going to take me a while to get used to the idea that this book is actually finished, and that I can begin to move on---that I can focus on my thesis and grad school and teaching and getting this shit done!  I will also be spending time finding new, creative ways to promote this book and try to extend my reach.

Anyways, I am rambling---when is that any different, right---and I need to get to work.  Thank you all again, and please, if you do purchase it and like it, please write me a review on whatever site where you bought it or Goodreads.

New Out in the Garage Description (in progress)

I just wrote this but I felt that it was pertinent to share it with you (as well as update the description on my BOOKS page).  My goal was to write a more enticing, professional-sounding description of my book, and I think I have accomplished that (just go back and find the various other versions, strewn about throughout this blog).  This description will also be the one on Amazon and all the other websites as well as the one on the back of the book.  Anyways, here is the direction I am going, and I think this turned out very well (we'll see if it is the one I actually end up using):

Lance Adamson was born in the 80's, stranded in Nodtown.  There, he lives with his mom and Grandpa Harry at Grandpa Harry's house.  He spends most of his time playing drums -- when he's not in school, anyways -- jamming with Grandpa Harry, who plays bass, but it is the furthest thing from cool.  While Grandpa Harry is the one who took Lance out to the garage for the first time and taught him how to play -- how to really play, how to let the music carry him away -- to Grandpa Harry, jazz is religion, and, nowadays, all Lance really wants to do is rock out.  Wayne, Lance's best friend, plays trumpet with them -- but he is actually more of a guitarist.  He plays that thing as often as other dudes masturbate.  Lance and Wayne could totally start the greatest band in rock n' roll history, except that Grandpa Harry will never let that happen, not in that garage, anyway.  Lance knows that it's time for a change...

Of the various different versions I have written, I think this one is my favorite.  It sets up the story but doesn't really give anything away.

PRICE DROP (what?)!

My short story collection is now only $6.99 (or cheaper on Amazon) for a paperback and $2.99 for an e-book (now available for Kindle and Nook).

Zippity Dippity Doo on a Tuesday morning before work

I am hoping to order the proof of Out in the Garage by this weekend, along with some copies of my short story collection, Tales From the Fringes (which is only $6.86 at Amazon right now, by the way).    While these are copies to give away to family and close friends, I am going to start keeping some on-hand to sell and use for promotional purposes.  You never know who you are going to meet, or what opportunities will come your way.

And yes, I am starting on research.  Right now it is mainly an online thing until I find all the relevant articles and books.  I will probably start out by doing a lot of reading about American Exceptionalism before I start my historical research.  The former will help to shape the latter as I make a more complete connection between the Melville the and the thing he was criticizing (which is as relevant as ever in today's 24-hour propaganda cluster-fuck).

My goal is to go through AT LEAST two chapters of Out in the Garage a day until I have gone through all 17 chapters.  For the most part I am happy with everything, and I have no desire or see no need to change the story, the plot, the characters, etc. but there are some places where the language is still a little funky or inadequate and the descriptions are flat, boring, or too melodramatic.  

The melodrama worked more in previous versions where everything was over-the-top.  However, in the current version, it just comes across as cheesy, so I am going to tone it down a bit.  I want it to be vivid, yet subtle.  At least subtly over-the-top, or an implied over-the-topness -- if that is even possible.

Part of me does want to just say fuck it and publish it how it is, but I still have the time to polish it up before the release date.  That is one of the nice parts about current technology, and one which I will definitely continue to take advantage of.

I feel like I can't do any new writing until I have completely exhausted all of my current projects and the upcoming projects are thorough planned out.  I also need to get better at using my time wisely and dividing it more evenly between the things that are important in my life.  Sometimes some things might usurp more time than others, but right now there is nothing in particular that needs that.  I can be very productive if I push myself -- I just gotta be more Type-A than Type-B right now.

These blogs help with that.  In a strange way they help me organize my thoughts about my work and focus on what I need to be working on.  I have so many goals to accomplish, and I am not going to accomplish them by being lazy or focusing too much on one thing.  I can't lose sight of the importance of school, but yet my writing is also important -- it is, after all, what influenced me to study English and finally get my bachelor's degree-- and self-publishing is a challenging and rewarding hobby.

Random Notes:

Been distracted by shiny things, lately.  Will be getting back to business, shortly.  And by business I totally mean my thesis.  That thing is... Here.  Yikes!


Very exited to be reading Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (as well as other books, including The Mystborn by Brandon Sanderson).


Recording is...  Going well.  Check out www.soundclick.com/survivalpilot.


Check out the books page to read the updated description for Out in the Garage, my debut novel, which I am self-publishing / releasing for sale on October 18.


*Making my wife watch Warm Bodies because I know she'll like it once she gives it a chance*

GIVE AWAY

The first ten people to email me (gabegott@gmail.com) right now will receive a free advance PDF of my upcoming novel, Out in the Garage.  It will be as true to the final version, and you will easily be able to read it on an e-reader or a tablet or a computer screen.  If you ask me very nice, I might be willing to print you a paper copy on my high-volume laser printer.  ;-)

I have the free version on my Kindle and I really like the way it looks.

NOTE: If I get ten people really quickly, I will probably give away more.

IDEA:

I think I want to focus this website more.  Or join something. I know I have been considering these things for a while.

I would like to write more about music -- not merely my own projects but also those of my friends (who wish it) and articles about classic albums or the occasional, currently-good album.

Maybe treat my blog more like a magazine.  I might consider getting some contributing writers, or start a website with a group of writers who will all contribute equally.  A way we can all write and publish and promote ourselves and each other.   Maybe I should go more broad, though.  I don't know.  I am rambling.

Maybe a good way of putting it would be an online artist collective.  Not pretentious --artists of any type, of any style -- and not anti-commercial, but anti-over-commercialization.  Artists of any stage of their career.  We could provide each other constructive criticism as well, but the end-goal will be to increase the audience for ourselves as a whole and as individuals, with both free products and for-sale products, with no difference in the quality of either, just each meeting a specific audience demand.

Sure we could continue to go it alone and maybe get lucky after years and years of trial and error but not really getting anywhere and settling for careers that keep us content, or we can reasonable work as a group to help each other pursue our dreams.  Sure, we will probably have to work day-jobs for a while, but if we put our heads and different skill-sets together, it can only be beneficial.

It's true I could join such a community that is already in existence, but I like the idea of putting one together myself that is as all-inclusive as possible.

School's Not Quite Out for the Summer, Yet (Sorry Alice)

Three more weeks of classes, then finals, but, the only thing I have to do on finals week is turn in papers, and I am honestly hoping to be done with them by that point.

I now have a thesis and an adviser.  I am searching for one more person for my panel, and I have to fill out the paperwork, but those are minor things compared to the research I am going to have to start doing over the summer.

My thesis is going to be on Melville's critique of American Exceptionalism in his novella, Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile.  I am going to have to do a lot of historical research, but it is a good jumping off point to studying satire.  It is definitely Melville's most entertaining work, and it should be more widely read.

Except for class presentations on papers, I am through with my presentations for the semester.  I have learned a lot, and I am definitely glad that I took the opportunity to give a presentation at the University of Akron Student Innovation Symposium (UASIS).

Hoping to find out whether I have gotten an assistantship or not.  I am thinking it should be any time.  People who are currently graduate assistants have told me -- from the phone call I received last week asking me whether I was still interested or not -- that I am under consideration.  We'll see.

I need to find a job for the summer.  It would be nice to do something tutoring related, but I am not above working waiting tables or something like that.  Waiting tables might be my best bet, but that would ruin my nights and weekends, which I have grown pretty accustomed to.  Still, as the phrase goes, "beggars can't be choosers" -- unless you're that guy who begs by the alley outside of my old apartment building in Chicago.

The High Speed Police Chase to the End of the Semester

"It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses."

"Hit it."

I get in my car and have someone weld the door shut.  I start the ignition, put my foot on the break, put the car in gear, and superglue my hands to the steering wheel.  There is a cardboard sign in my back window that reads, "May or Bust."

I can't stop.  If I don't spend virtually every waking hour on my school work, I will not make it there.

I can't let silly little things like sanity slow me down or stop me.  I've got to keep going.  Word after word, inch after inch, page after page, mile after mile, I must reach my destination or die in a fiery explosion.

Next week I have five presentations, three on Wednesday and two on Thursday.  Not to mention two paper proposals, and my regular reading and classwork.  The three presentations on Wednesday don't scare me, they are three of the same presentation, to three different college composition class, on writing research papers.  The one presentation on Thursday isn't a big deal, it is to my Melville class, which only has like 8 people (including myself), and is about our reading.  

The other presentation on Thursday, however, is at the University of Akron Student Innovation Symposium.  It's not a big conference or anything, but it is more official, and it is  based on my research of the Middle  English romance, Havelok the Dane.  The title of my presentation is "Class, Status, and Social Order in Havelok the Dane".  It is based on a paper that I wrote for my Middle English Lit class at Kent.  I am not nervous...Yet.  I volunteered to do the presentations on Wednesday so by Thursday (in addition to the ones I have already done this semester) so that by Thursday I will be a seasoned pro at presenting.

Hopefully this experience will then translate to me giving a presentation at the MMLA Conference next November.  That I won't find out about until June.  That presentation, if they accept it, will be on John Updike's Rabbit, Run, and my assertion that there is no subjective narrative voice in the text.  In addition to the experience, it will be cool to go to because it is in Milwaukee.

There is also a Shakespeare Conference in the fall that I would like to present at.

Right now I have to focus on getting my classwork done.  But all these presentations are good experience (and good to add to my CV, which is still rather bare), but I won't be going very far if I don't have good grades.  I already have two of my final papers somewhat figured out, and one more to figure out.  I have two proposals due and lots of research to do, which means that my weekend is over. Hell, my weekends for the next month are over.  Sorry, folks.  I'll see you all after May 10.

I *should* be finding out soon whether I am getting the assistantship. I don't know whether I will or not, but I do know that I am still in the running.  I am keeping my fingers crossed and my nose to the grindstone and hope that my application is strong (Hell, I know it's strong, but hopefully it is in comparison to the other applicants) and that the professors who are on the committee know me and believe I am capable of handling a position (because I know I am).  If I don't get it that will change my future plans (since I won't be able to get into a PhD program without it).

In addition, I have thought of a thesis topic and have contacted a possible adviser about it.  

This has been such an up and down semester.  Two weeks ago I was at the verge of losing my nerve and now I am more confident and reassured than ever.  This is the first time I have ever needed a Spring Break just to keep my sanity, but it worked.  Everything seems to be coming together.

Speaking of which, I am still trying to get Tales from the Fringes together.  I need to give it a thorough proofread before I am satisfied.  I don't have to make any major changes, and I am satisfied with the formatting and the content.  By the time school is out for the semester I will be ready to promote it like crazy.

I am still weighing my options about my novel.  On one hand I definitely have a great idea and it would be worthwhile to rewrite it; however, many of the criticisms from my professional reader I was prepared for, and these things didn't bother me necessarily, beforehand. I am thinking that I am going to self publish the current version and take that part that she liked and expand on it and write it in a more focused, detailed, and professional way.  

The main problem with my novel as it is now is that the style is out of date.  The publishing industry has a very narrow concept of what makes a good novel, and it doesn't necessarily mesh with the canon of Western Literature.  Then again, many of the works that constitute that canon weren't popular at the time. 

I'm not saying that I am that good or anything, but, as a student of that literature, particularly as someone who is working towards a PhD. in it, I am highly influenced by the canon.  If I limit myself to what currently constitutes "good" literature, while I am certainly more likely to get published, I feel like I am vastly limiting my creative possibilities.

I am not saying that I am not going to write books that fit within that narrow scope, but I am not exclusively going to do so, nor should anybody.  Maybe that is a part of the problem with the publishing industry.  Too few people get to decide what is relevant, and what they say is relevant doesn't match up with what is historically relevant.

While I am not against progress, I am against putting myself in a box, especially since, even if I meet the standard and I do get published, that doesn't guarantee any sort of success, which is why I am focused on trying to make a living in Education.  This way I can still do what I love and make some kind of living.

I just think it's illogical that many of the books that we define as great, that have stood the test of time and are still relevant today and are still studied widely all over the world, Melville for example (who is MORE relevant now than when he was alive), wouldn't get published today, because they don't fit in with what the INDUSTRY defines as good.

I am not saying that I am Melville, but, I am not saying that I am not, either.  Maybe my novel has faults, but it also, I think, has many strengths, too.  It is definitely a first novel, and it is well past due to be presented to the world.  I really want to move forward, and, since I am not delusional and have no intention of trying to make a living as a writer -- if it happens, it happens -- and I have already spent SIX years on this same goddamn novel.  I feel like I have been jerking off for the past six years.

I feel like I do owe it to my audience to put it out and make it accessible.  I will likely write a more focused, YA version of that one particular section, but there is no reason why I can't put out what I have.  What else am I going to do with it?

I don't know.  For now, I am going to get through school, get my short story collection out, build more of an audience and advance professionally.

I am thinking, I am really leaning towards, self-publishing my book as it is.  We'll see what happens.

I should get back to work.