Unleashing The Muse on June 16th

This June 16th, from 10am to 6pm, Tyward Books of Albertville, Alabama, in conjunction with PDMI Publishing, LLC, will host “Unleashing The Muse”, our spectacular multi-author book signing event. If you love reading, don’t miss your chance to attend one of the biggest multi-author events Alabama has ever seen. Admission is free to the public.

Our event features TV/film producer and author Joel Eisenberg, co-author of “The Chronicles Of Ara,” a heralded new eight-volume fantasy novel series, now being developed for television by Eisenberg and his co-author Steve Hillard. Joel will be signing copies of “Creation,” Volume One of The Chronicles Of Ara series. “Creation” debuted on March 15th in a standing-room-only event in Pasadena, California, and it has already received countless five-star reviews on Amazon and millions of hits on social media channels. Don’t miss this rare chance to meet Mr. Eisenberg in person and get your copy of “Chronicle” signed right here in Albertville, Alabama, instead of having to travel all the way to L.A.!

Other authors confirmed for our signing event include Kristen Lamb (renowned blogger and author of the #1 bestseller “Rise Of The Machines”), Lawayne Childrey (Nationally-renowned News Journalist, winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award, and author of “Peeling Back The Layers”), Jack Gannon and Cyndi Williams-Barnier (“Murder in Twos & Threes”, “Ancient Footsteps”, “Trail Of The Talon”), Clay Gilbert (“Dark Road To Paradise” and the “Annah: Children of Evohe” Series), Greta King (“Waiting For Santa”, “The Adventures of Fred and Ted”), Andrea Zug (the “Lancers Inc. Mysteries” Series), Virginia Jennings (“The Alien Mind” and “Visionary From The Stars”), Daven Anderson (the “Vampire Syndrome” Saga), James Christopher Hill (Renowned Artist), Clarence Bonner (“I Talk Slower Than I Think”), John T. Wayne (“Catfish John [the anatomy of a bottom dweller]”, “Ol’ Slantface”, “Blood Once Spilled” and “The Treasure Del Diablo”), T.K. Thorne (“Angels at the Gate”, “Last Chance for Justice”, “Noah’s Wife”), Debra Guyton (“Butterfly in the Breeze”), Delilah Fondren (“The House Warming”, “Be Still My Love”, “Michael [The Final Chapter]”, “Marriage, a Barrel of Laughs [Unless You’re the One in the Barrel]”, “I Fell in Love With a Witch”, “When the Storm Rolled In Lead [Surrendering My All]”, The “Forgetting” Series of 5 Novellas, Joy Ross Davis (“Countenance”, “Emalyn’s Treasure”), and Ginger Sanders (“Round Eyes”, “He Goes Before Us”).

Don’t miss this chance to meet all of these renowned authors in one mega-event, and get your books signed!
Tyward Books, 7032 Hwy 431, Albertville, AL 35950

Viking English, or OMG The Oxford Comma LOL

Many times it has been said that English is an “evolving” language.
This morning, Kristen Lamb used a more accurate term as we were trading comments on Facebook.
English is a “Viking” language, a language that regularly raids neighboring languages and adapts whatever words its speakers may happen to fancy. For that matter, so is Spanish; as I can see every time I pass a car lot with banners advertising cars as  “Carros” (automóvils) and trucks as “Trokas” (camionetas).

What started this discussion was Kristen’s Facebook post concerning the use (or non-use) of the Oxford comma.

My comments can be summed up as this: After reading multitudes of Oxford-Comma-less examples such as this for four decades, in published novels, my brain would not normally even conceive of the orange-juice-poured-over-toast scenario pictured above.  My brain will instinctively correct my mental picture to the normal scenario of a glass of orange juice next to the plate of toast. In my case, the author would have to specify “orange juice poured onto toast” to break me out of my “auto-correction” patterns. THIS is how a lack of Oxford Commas has conditioned generations of readers.

Kristen (who, God bless her, could ‘see’ the example above without prompting) countered that if the English language continues to “evolve” like this, future novels will be ABBRV 2 OMG ROTF LMAO proportions.

Fortunately, the ABBRV generation does still expect novels (as opposed to everyday online speech) to be in “proper English” (whatever the hell that may be anymore!), but Kristen did bring up an excellent point about the generations to come.

The poor misbegotten Oxford Comma. If even readers of my generation can read “At my table, a cup of coffee and motor oil” and assume the motor oil is still in its bottle, resting next to the coffee cup, you can bet the ABBRV generation and its descendents will read it the same way.

LOL 😈

I am a WANACon 2014 Presenter

WANACon Feb 2014 Session List

My Presentation:

Why Choose A Small Press? – Daven Anderson

Daven will explore the strengths and drawbacks of each method of publishing (New York, Do-It-Yourself and Small Press), answer authors’ questions, and give these authors information to help them decide which path is right for them.

One my syllabus points sums it all up nicely:

The Three Boxes:

DIY: Thinking Outside The Box
NY: Thinking About The Big Box
Small Press: Building A New Box

Rise Of The Gearheads

Kirsten Lamb, from “Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World“:
“Ten years ago, no one cared if a fiction author gardened, was a gourmet cook or a wine aficionado who loved Golden Retrievers”
‘Consumers want authenticity. They long to connect on mutual ground. They get excited when they realize their favorite author also loves dogs and collects My Little Ponies”
“What this means is that all those hobbies, passions and idiosyncrasies that had no value before are now a priceless friendship chest”
***
THIS is why I want to have a book signing at the Mile-High Nationals next July.
To go where no author has gone before.
To say, “I’m a gear-head, I’m one of you. I love the smell of burning nitro from a Top Fuel dragster. I know the difference between a Boss 302 and a Shelby GT-500. I’m not a Stephen King who will say Christine’s Hydra-Matic pops out of park when I’ve known for decades that a 1958 Plymouth has a push-button Torque-Flite transmission. I have written what is most likely the first book any of you will ever read that has NO CAR MISTAKES, yet it is far more than that. It is a real and moving story about a young man with special needs overcoming challenges that threaten his very existence, without all of the saccharine sentimentality normally sugar-coating such books. I have all the visceral thrills of the Fast and Furious, but in my story’s heart beats the life of a young man who defies all the odds to win the hard-earned respect of his community. It is my highest honor to be here at the Mile-High Nationals, with my fellow gear-heads, as the first published author to be hosted here.”

Welcome the massive three

Kristen Lamb hits the bulls-eye again:
Big Six Publishing is Dead-Welcome the Massive Three

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Comment #210 by Vampire Syndrome on May 8, 2012 – 8:53 pm

One begins to wonder about a new risk factor in signing with the Big Six. One or two of them might go under or merge in the next few years (to say nothing of the smaller imprints). And they would take the publishing rights of many their authors’ books into limbo with them. Any books with the copyright in the publisher’s name, any contract not including rights of reversion to the author when the book goes out-of-print, any contract with nebulous clauses, etc. etc. Some authors will end up having to buy the rights back to their own books. Others won’t be so lucky…