Some days it just is not there or maybe I'm not.

There are times when I want to write I do not want to write. Huh? It is more like that I want to write and get on a roll it is just my motivation is not there and it took my imagination with it. Maybe they are both on vacation to Florida or some sunny place. I would not blame them I hardly take them anywhere since I do not like to fly. Funny, I love planes but the thought of flying is another thing entirely. Anyway, I hope they return soon so I can write something pretty cool but until them I will be  working in my shop making knives and a gold sluice for  trips I am planning this summer. I bet my motivation and imagination will return if I end up finding some gold. Well, I will try to catch ya'll tomorrow, until then God Bless ya'll.

Self-publishing, My Attempt

Well now that I am back to blogging or at least trying to, I want to talk about self-publishing. As a writer, or to some a "Wanna be " I am slowly learning the business from when pen first touches paper till some finished project is, as in my case, crapped out in epub or print form. I am joking of course, but I have made mistakes and I am not perfect.

What I like about the industry so far is what opportunities that the Internet has opened up for people like me. Twenty years ago I would have had to struggled to publish anything without a literary agent not to mention a publishing company, now there are numerous resources out there. I am just finding out what to do to get my writing out there, but I am way ahead of where I would have been twenty years ago. There is something similar now to then I do not have money. (I mean I am not rich.) That is no problem, there are many no to almost no cost options out there. Remember too that the Internet is a tool you can use to draw people to your writing, something like blogging.

This is just a short, shoot from the hip, sale pitch about self-publishing and my allergy meds are making me drowsy so here our some resources for the "wanna be" writer.

Smashwords Independent good for epublishing across multiple formats and very easy to use. You can also check out other authors who self-publish, many for free. check it out.

Kindle Direct Publishing This is a program ran by Amazon best for publishing for the Kindle. You hit a large audience this route. Amazon also offers away to make money from people borrowing your books using their Amazon Prime account. The program is called KDP select, check it out.

Createspace This is an option from Amazon that will self-publish your book in print. Do it yourself or pay for services. A great option. I felt so good when my book was delivered in print format!

Pub It This is Barnes and Noble's self-publishing program for the nook platform. very easy to use.

My first novel The Last Run is available at Amazon just click the link. The book is about a young man who serves as a deck hand for an old rummer now running a cargo delivery business in the South Pacific during the outbreak of World War II. Try it out.

Again sorry about the quality of the blog, blame it on Allergy meds.

These are a few options out there. All of the options above allow you to set your price and will pay you royalties. Look into them and try them out.

Right now my book

I am back and it feels good!

I took sometime off because,well, I guess I just did. I am back now and it feels good to write. Something else feels good. Yesterday I received a delivery from UPS, it was a book, my first book in print. It was not a proof nor a discounted copy, it was bought at full price from Amazon.com.
Why, you may ask, would I buy my own book at full price? I had to, I wanted to own the very first actual sell. It felt so good when it was delivered I got such a feeling that I cannot describe, pure pleasure.
So far as I know I still own the only copy ever sold (for now) but I do pray that changes. I cannot wait to sell more books in print and in email formats.
Right now you can purchase The Last Run from Amazon.com
Below is a picture of my copy and below that is a link to the Amazon page.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Run-Charles-Parmele/dp/1475104790/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333593407&sr=1-1

Blog or Write? The Author's choice.

Well today, well I guess the whole of the time I was trapped inside due to our inclimate weather here in the Pacific Northwest, I got to thinking, what should I do work on my novel or write my blog? Such a conundrum. Working on my novel is most important, it is what I want to do. Writing on my blog, blogging, is fun to do but I don't want to make it a 'have to' type thing. The blog is where I can express my view of things, whether they have to do with writing or not. (actually, I admit, I need to work on grammar and such sometimes. That's what happens when you write on the fly. And man writing on the fly is hard. They are small and quick and I have yet to find a small enough pen, but anyway.)
Ok, in the end I compromised. I will blog three times a week. On writing my book(s), I will work every day because I want to and have to, it makes me happy.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment.

Writing to Kill, The Author as a Serial Killer.

Well I have been negligent in blogging. I'll just blame it on the winter storm we have had here in the Seattle area. Now on to the blog. 

One thing that I have had to get use to is killing people. Not actual people, fictional ones, my characters. I know that it is not the same. Or is it? Real people have feelings and have family that care for them. What about characters? They have feelings, friends and family. They have the feeling that is given to them by the writer, and through individual perception, the reader. They have friends and family, again the reader and the writer. Heck, the other characters are family, friends, and even enemies. A lot of people real and imaginary you have to think about when you off a character. How will the death of a character affect everyone? Well it depends on the character right? Yes and no.

Think about this. When you right a character good or bad you are creating an entity in being, with a life even if it is in words. When you do this you are putting some of yourself into your creation. Oh, yes the bad guys too. So what do you do when you come to a point someone has to die in your story? (Yes you may have to kill off a beloved character now and again. How else can you bring forth the tears?)  You become for a few moments to plot the death, you then write the scene. Next you turn your emotions back on and mourn through the characters closest to the deceased.

See, you have to become a serial killer if you are writing something that requires a high body count. Heck, if you write more than one story and kill off one character per, then you still rack up a serial killer like body count. What you don't do is make it easy on yourself. Use the stress and emotions from offing a character and put to work for you. Let it seep into your story and the other characters. I mean, if you stay cold then your work becomes cold. The only thing cold in your work should be the body of the deceased.

Speaking of cold, I cannot wait till spring!

How to handle a bad review?

That is a good question now, isn't it? I think so. Do I have an answer to the question? Oh heck no. I do, however, know what I will try to do. I will try to put a positive spin on the negative review and use it to improve my writing. One thing I will not do, I will not let it stop me from writing and publishing.

Why am I writing about this? Well today I checked out one of my short stories on a well known website run by a well known book retailer, one of the reader reviews cut the crap out of the story. When the review title says your story was edited by a 6th grader, well that is pretty much cutting the heck out it isn't it? Oh yeah.

Man did that hit me like a ton of bricks. The first thing it does is shock the heck out of you, then you feel embarrassed, then you get mad at the writer of the review (How dare they!) finally you accept it and let it slide off your back (well, you try to anyway). After I went through all the above I thought about things and determined, well they are right.

When I write, I fly through getting my words down. Sometimes I type one word when I mean another for no other reason than be careless. I know this and try to catch myself, but I slip-up. Another problem I have is I proofread and edit my own work. Yes, I do catch a majority of the misspellings, typos, and bad punctuation, but many get by. The same eyes, the same mistakes. Oh, the dread of it all.

In the end I learned one more thing to help me and I will try to incorporate this in my writing. Actually, I learned two things. The other ones is that reviews are good even it they do seem bad at first.

Cover up! Cover up!

Ok, not a cover-up, but a cover upgrade. What am I talking about? Well, if you read my last blog you know I have been thinking about ways to increase downloads of my writing. One of the things that I figured would help would be to improve the quality of my book covers. Yes, I know you are not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but a snappy sharp cover goes a long way in drawing a prospective reader's attention to a book. I mean, how many of you picked up a book from an unknown author because the cover caught your eye? I know you have. I have. You may not have purchased the book after you checked out what it was about and even read a few pages, but the cover did draw your attention.

Ok, here is my problem. I, of very modest means, and modest artistic ability, am having trouble producing a professional looking cover. I look at other self-published writers and go "Wow, they have an awesome cover. How did they do that?" I envy these people. What I would like from you readers is recommendations. I want to know what I can do to improve my covers, what programs to use, and who may help with the cover. If you care to help feel free to email me at: ceparmele@gmail.com. Thank you.

What's in a name?

Recently, I was thinking about publishing. I started to consider different variable outside of content that could affect how a book sells. The thing that first occurred to me was the name of the write, my name, which is essentially the brand name.
If you think about it, most of us consider brand names when we purchase a product even when we are looking for a deal. I mean if you are going to purchase a new toaster you are more likely to pay a few more dollars for a Hamilton Beach, Oster or other known brand before you by a no-name 4 slice fire starter. We all know that a well known brand is more likely to have a quality product. (Not Always)
This philosophy pours over to books. I mean you will be more inclined to buy or check out a book from Stephen King, James Patterson, JK Rowling, Dean Koontz, Gregg Olsen, and the late Michael Crichton before they purchase, or even download for free, some Joe Shmoe or even one of mine. People will pick a book by a celebrity not known as an author before reading a new no-name. (Some celebrities are excellent writers, such as Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.)
Know the information above, and knowing there is little I could do about my name without changing it, I figured I could make my name more attractive by using my first and middle initials along with my last name: C. E. Parmele. I was satisfied by this for awhile until I watched a British comedy, Keeping Up Appearances. (BBC and other British shows are great) I always found it funny how the main character, Hyacinth, always corrected how people pronounced her last name Bucket. She wanted it pronounced like bouquet. Why? For no other reason to make herself feel important, of a higher social class. In truth this was silly but made for a good laugh. I reflected on my own name I publish under and felt silly. I am not C. E. Parmele. I am Charles Edward Parmele. I am known as Chuck by my family and friends. In the end I compromised with myself and settled on Charles E. Parmele. (One initial is still cool) I will now publish under Charles E. Parmele.
Yeah, I know that it is not a well known name in the literary world, but it is a proud name all the same. (My grandfather used it all his life, though I think he went by Charlie) And yeah, it does not do anything to improve my product, my writing, but it does make me feel good. I like my writing and feel it is of a good quality. (yes, I sometimes let typos slip by) I figure if my writing is good it should do just as well published under Charles E. Parmele as it did under C. E. Parmele. Remember what that Shakespeare guy said in that tragedy about those teenagers: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." I hope this holds true but I know the converse is just as apt: "What's in a name? What we call a turd would stink no matter what you might call it." (Redneck inverse off the previous quote.
So, as Charles E. Parmele, I ask you to save a tree and read an EBook.

Too Lazy

Well, the title says it all. I have been too lazy to blog. I guess I have to get back to it. I have not been so lazy to not have done something. I have finished This, That, No Kitchen Sink a collection of short stories. It has a little this and a little of that. A little scary and a little funny. Two of the short stories were previously published as singles under C. E. Parmele but now are under Charles E. Parmele.
Check them out on www.smashwords.com. Well, I got to go eat dinner. Catch Ya'll later.

Marketing, A salesman I am not.

One thing I will never claim to be nor have I ever claimed to be is a Salesman. I mean if I was hired to sell new cars I I was told to sell a brand new Rolls-Royce for the special price of one dollar and I had a week to do it, well let's just say the next Monday I would be out job searching. I am just not the type of person who would go into sales. I am not really a socializing type of guy. I am quite shy when it comes down to it. Yes people will say in social situations I may talk a lot but that is just nerves.
Now here is my problem, something I am not is hurting something I want to be. I want to write and have people read my creations but I find it hard to get people to my work. The new Rolls-Royce is stuck on the lot with the dollar price tag and I am hiding in my office, or the restroom (where would you be if your nerves were acting up?) Yes, people drive by the lot see the price tag but keep driving thinking something has to be wrong. Well there is nothing wrong except there is no one on the lot to explain the deal. I mean it is a perfectly good car with a lot of extras and styling (can you believe i am comparing my writing to a Rolls?) but there is no salesman to say "Hey check this deal out! No gimmick just a get to no me deal.".
If I could get people to read my books and not make a dime I would be happy but, well, I don't know. "It's free, can't be good" mind set come up to rear it's ugly head. (Damn Catch 22, A good book and movie by the way).
I will still write and still put it out there. I will try to market the book and myself (No, not that way. I'd go broke with my looks). In the end I may have a ton of books out there with only a few followers, but they will be my creations and if just one person enjoys just one of my books, then I can call myself a writer. (Never a salesman)