Underground Following?

So apparently the second edition of Out in the Garage is being downloaded and read off of some illegal sites somewhere, which, upon first finding out, irritated the shit out of me.

But then it occurred to me: people are actually reading and liking the damned thing, which is what any author wants, really, isn't it?

It still bothers me that people are getting it illegally, but I am happy that people are posting comments like this one:

"It is easy to characterize this book in one word – masterpiece!"

I am not sure what part of the web these forums exist on, but I don't think it's on the surface side, if you know what I mean. 

So, as I sit here in a bit of shock, even though it is not my favorite edition, I have opened the second edition for sale as an eBook on Smashwords and Amazon.

Maybe there are people out there willing to pay 99 cents for it.

UPDATE:

I have also decided to re-release the second edition as a paperback. The process usually takes about 24 hours before Createspace will release it for sale after I click the button.

Also, just FYI, I am still releasing the third edition, Escapes, but I might just keep all three editions open for sale.

A Book Description, A Bio, and a Fun Fact

In case you were wondering,  here is the book description, the bio, and the fun fact from the back of the last edition of my first novel, Escapes (formerly Out in the Garage). I am very excited about this project, and I think that people are going to really like this final version. After a lot of careful thinking and some effort, I have been able to transform it into its best version. Over the past year, I have really grown as an editor, thanks to being a grad student and working as an adjunct. This is by far my favorite version, and I am proud to say that it is finally the satire I intended when I started writing it ten or eleven years ago. The first two versions had some good qualities, but they both also fall short in a number of ways. The novel is now more focused and cohesive than ever, and it is organized how it needs to be to give people the effect I was intending while playing on my strengths (and hopefully minimizing my weakness) as a writer. Please take the time to check this out on JUNE 1 when it comes out:

Some people escape from life’s track to avoid confronting the hurdles. For Lance Adamson, anyway, that is the case—although, he came by it naturally. After all, like anyone, he is the product of his upbringing. Born poor in the Republican stronghold of Nodtown, Ohio, he quickly realizes that life for some people is more difficult than it is for others—some people just have more shit to deal with. Some, like Lance, find out that there are problems you cannot escape, no matter how hard you try. In fact, most catch up with you sooner or later, and when they do, your life really gets turned upside down. Fortunately, someone as resourceful as Lance can always find a new distraction.

Gabe Gott is a husband, writer, human being, music geek living in Akron, OH. He has degrees in literature from Kent State University and The University of Akron. You can find his short story collection, his blog, and his flash fiction in various locations around the web. Fun fact: he prefers creamy peanut butter over crunchy.

A Chicago Story: Writing While Riding

Having to spend twelve-plus hours this weekend riding in a car to and from Chicago, I figured it was an opportune time to work on novel number two. While I did not work on it as much as I could have, I did roughly double the length of my manuscript, and I finally was able to get through that scene that was giving me trouble and preventing me from moving forward. Sometimes, you just have to take the time that you have been given and get the idea out no matter how it turns out, because you can always go back and make it better later. After all, that's why it's called the rough draft.

Since the novel is set in Chicago, and has some relation to my personal experiences (although it is not directly based on them), spending some time in the Windy City and retracing my steps around my old neighborhood gave me just the inspiration I needed. While I haven't forgotten my experiences, it was a good idea to refresh my memory and keep the pictures that I have in my minds eye sharp and clearly focused.

However, it not only helps for describing the scenery and the people, but also for reminding myself that I have done it before and can do it again: I wrote my first novel while riding the El to and from work. Going back and riding the trains and seeing the sights, and feeling echoes from the experience of going on an adventure with the woman who became my wife, helped me to get back into the right frame of mind. 

It is kind of funny that I wrote my Ohio book in Chicago, and that I am writing my Chicago book (mostly) in Ohio. I have a feeling that this won't be the only time that I will need inspiration to continue writing before I am done with this book. I would like to make it out again sometime this summer--maybe next time the trip won't be so last minute and I will actually have time to visit some old friends.

Because my TV and internet are out at home (a fun surprise when we got home last night), and AT&T is sending a new router overnight, I suppose I will probably spend my night adding what I wrote over the weekend to the manuscript file. I do this regularly so if a tragedy happens and I somehow lose the notebook I won't lose everything. 

As always, it won't be an exact transcription. I often add and change things--make improvements--as I am typing it out. In that way, I suppose, I am technically, to some degree, editing as I am writing, which is why I like writing my first drafts by hand and then going back and typing them. I often do this with my short and short short stories, as well.

That's why I am a strong proponent of doing what works for you and not following some formula, which is what I teach my students. I, of course, suggest different ways of doing things, but I leave it up to them to figure out what works. Different strategies work for different people, and no one way is truly correct.

Take It In

My wife has already been up for two hours when I get up up at 9:47 and walk down the stairs. She is watching HGTV, which has become our latest addiction, as we dream of one day buying a house and remodeling it. The dream is still on the horizon, and we keep chasing it down, hour by hour, day by day, year by year, until, one day...

But for now we settle for the dream, still deep within the romance of the  idea, as realistic as we are trying to be about it.

She goes off and does her thing; I get my coffee, and then get an urge and change the station. It's time. Reporters and politicians are screaming across tables at one another in elegant voices, lost in linguistic sword fighting. These are the people who perpetuate the status quo through their inability to come to any terms--but the people aren't that divided. We are just meek, or so we think.

She is kissing me on the cheek as I am lost, trapped in a cave, staring at the shadows. Then she is pulling out the driveway, and I realize a few minutes later that I am by myself. 

Then it is over, and I get this urgent need to be productive so I clean. The dishes. The counters. The floors. The cat boxes... Before long the windows are letting in the insecure sunlight, and everything is glowing as the scene of my neighborhood fills my windows as I sit at my desk in my office, and I wonder how many around me have also won their Sundays. In this neighborhood, probably more than a few.

I realize that I don't stop enough and appreciate  my accomplishments, I am too caught up in the chase for more. I was swept away in the whirlwind and I have gotten too busy to notice that I am all of the sudden in technicolor. I need to catch my breath and slow the beating of my heart and stop the rush. I become awash in the softness of the daylight, and just take it all in... I let my breath out and become awaken to a  new state of mind... Seizing the day, I pull out my guitar.

"Going It Alone": Gaining the Necessary Toughness It Takes to Become a Professional Writer

While I do not get paid to write, or solely to do that, anyways, I do get paid to use my writing skills, which means, of course, that I have to keep them at a high level. It is worth the effort, though, just to be able to earn a living related to something I deeply enjoy.

I am currently making a living both as a writing teacher and a marketing generalist, but I am also, when I can be, working towards becoming a professional writer. Instead of getting another degree (I mean, Jesus, I already have an M.A. in Literature), I have chosen the trial by fire method: self-publishing.

When it comes down to it, I have a hard time letting go of control, and while I don't mind working for others--in fact, sometimes it can be downright enjoyable when you find the right job--I am adamant about pursuing a writing career over the long-term. Any time I am performing the task, thinking about the act or teaching it, I am working towards figuring out how to get paid for it. When I am successful in my marketing and copywriting career, I will have learned the required skills that I need to eventually become a successful writer, if I am willing to continue working towards it. Persistence, I believe, is the key: always figuring out how I can become better at the task, and always working towards the goal.

In order to be successful as a writer, you need to make it about your skill, and you need to understand that it's not just about what you produce with it, it's also how you make an effort to best reach those who you intend to reach, with whatever means necessary, and that means figuring out the most effective means of doing so. I believe it also helps if you enjoy the process, and are willing to accept the highs and lows and chalk it all up to experience.

It's all about, in the words of Will Ferrell as George W. Bush, "Strategery," and maintaining the necessary toughness that it takes to make it through the early stages. It also, I think, becomes about maintaining a connection with yourself: who you are and where you came from, because the thing that scares people the most is dishonesty, even though it seems like we are all dishonest with each other and ourselves all of the time.

That means that you just have to keeping loving writing, no matter what, because, when it comes down to it, it's all about the writing anyways. Does that mean that you shouldn't try to make a living doing it? No, but you do have to have an eye for long-term success and not expect it to happen overnight, and not wait around for it to happen, either. If you want things to happen, you have to make them happen if they are going to happen at all.

Making Progress on Your Novel is Hard, But You Have to Keep At It

My second novel, which shall for now remain nameless, is coming along, somewhat. Definitely slower than I had hoped. Definitely not doing the three-hundred words a day; although, I am making progress. It's hard to find the time. When I do, I try to make the most of it, though.

I don't think it is going to turn out as long as I had originally thought. I don't really think stretching it is the right approach, so it will just have to come out naturally and be what it is. That's how these things kind of take on lives of their own.

Of course, I am writing from an outline, but I am leaving a lot of room for the moment. For me, the outline is only the skeleton, and I have to flesh it out and make it a living and breathing organism. That can only come from a little bit of inspiration and a lot a bit of putting my fingers to the keyboard or my pen to the notebook and making progress.

When I think back about how I wrote the first one, I remember taking every free moment to work on it. At the time, I was living in Chicago and was constantly, every day, riding public transportation, mostly the Redline El traveling between Wrigleyville and downtown Chicago or vice versa.

For work, I got off at the State and Lake Station, which is right down the street from the Chicago Theatre; for home, I got off at Addison, which was literally Wrigley Field. With headphones buzzing, I spent equal amounts of time gawking out the window, people watching, and writing. The first draft took about six to eight months to finish in this fashion, after having spent like five years writing around thirty pages.

Then I spent a lot of time editing and rewriting it, and I would also do that while riding the trains. I paid to get it printed, so I had these giant, three-hundred-page stacks of 8.5 x 11 white paper with this world I created printed on it. I would read it and mark it up, writing in the margins; then I would go home at night and incorporate all of the changes to the file. I went through this process several times.

The second time isn't as romantic; although, I have matured quite a bit, and learned a lot, and hopefully it shows in the quality of my writing and my ideas.

Hopefully, one day, it will all pay off. Then again, maybe, in some ways, it already has... Sometimes, money isn't everything. I don't know if I can describe in concrete terms what writing does do for me, but it has to be as close of a thing to an orgasm or a religious experience as anything I have ever experienced.