Never say never: get Occasional Soulmates for free next weekend

April 24, 2015 ~ John W. Howell ~ 2 Comments

This is a five-star read and it won’t cost a thing next weekend. I would go get one.

I know, I know. I said I’d never do it. Early in my self-publishing experiment, I declared (at least I think I did) that I’d never give my books away as a promotion. The very idea repelled me. I gagged at the notion that people would grab the thing by the hundreds for free but they wouldn’t pay the 99 cents I usually ask in a promo. Yet, it seems to be the case that self-publishing ebooks is almost dependent on the freebie.

What changed my mind, you ask? Well, for one thing, sales of Occasional Soulmates have been (sob sob) disappointing. My experience this time around has driven home the fact that you have to market constantly, you have to spend quite a bit of money, and you have to obsess over the selling of a book to give it any kind of life on the charts. Possibly I…

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Guest Post and Five Star Treatment- April by John W. Howell

April 15, 2015 ~ John W. Howell ~ 2 Comments

A guest spot on Sally G Cronin’s site is an honor. To be given the Five Star Treatment as well is beyond exciting. Check it out and the rest of her Smorgasbord – Variety is the Spice of Life. Thank you Sally

Here is my interview with John W. Howell

April 7, 2015 ~ John W. Howell ~ 5 Comments

I was very pleased to be interviewed by Fiona Mcvie on her authorsinterviews site. She asked some very good questions and it was a lot of fun.

authorsinterviews

Name John W. Howell

Age Seventy-Four

Where are you from.

Born in Detroit Michigan and pretty much left there to go to college. Since then I have lived on all coasts of the US as well as Chicago and Indiana

A little about yourself `i.e., your education Family life, etc

I graduated with a Social Science degree from Michigan State University and went to work for a large consumer products company. I went back to school and received an MBA from Notre Dame University in South Bend Indiana. I stayed in consumer products for over twenty-five years and finally took an early retirement. While working as a consultant I was hired by one of my clients a large telecommunications company where I spent ten years working on some fascinating projects. Happily married with three children and four grandchildren. My wife and I live on Mustang Island in the Gulf…

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Friday JohnKu – AKA – TGIF

April 3, 2015April 1, 2015 ~ John W. Howell ~ 22 Comments

Friday is here at last. I have been editing my last book and I am constantly amazed at how stupid I am when I’m in the writing zone. Words fly like the wind when I’m working on a piece and, unfortunately, at times when I go back I have to scratch my head and mumble to myself, “what was I thinking.” I thought the words all came out right the first time. Yet here I am faced with what would be my version of the dead sea scrolls to interpret. I might as well be in some dusty tomb with a spyglass and a flashlight as to be sitting in front of my computer. I write a thousand words a day and the work boils down to about eight hundred understandable. So my editing is all about the dreaded rewrite. The story line is good, the characters solid it’s just I can’t understand what the hell is going on with words like gret, sid, ot,form,laght, sotp, saop etc. Today’s JohnKu (a term coined by Words 4jp) is a reflection of my thoughts today. hope you like it.

Typing is God’s gift,

To save us from handwriting . . .

Typos Devil sent.

Tuesday – Anything Possible

March 31, 2015March 29, 2015 ~ John W. Howell ~ 18 Comments

Hey, I just wanted to take a moment to remind all you beautiful people to look over to the right on the sidebar. There is some interesting stuff over there and if you hang out in the reader you just might not have seen it for a while. Yes, I have a book for sale and there is a sample. Also, there are some nice folks who visit often and some badges that are worth a peek.

Thank you.

May Wonders Never Cease to Exist

March 30, 2015 ~ John W. Howell

One of my favorite people has a poem published in a Tipsy Lit feature. Check it out.

Marie at 1 Write Way

Although I occasionally write poetry, I don’t make a fuss about it because I so rarely do it. And because I’m never quite sure if I should call it poetry. My poems don’t rhyme. They don’t have a recognizable meter or structure (and I don’t even know what I mean by that, either). They don’t measure up to the poetry of Luanne Castle or Pamela Beckford. But I write them anyway.

And sometimes I actually submit a poem for publication. On a lark, as it were. As I did with this one poem, When I Said Goodbye. I submitted it to Tipsy Lit, an indie publisher founded by novelist and poet Ericka Clay. To my happy surprise, Ericka accepted my poem and recently published it in Volume 1 of the Tipsy 10, available free on Wattpad.

If you want to go directly to my poem…

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Thursday – A Little Personal

March 26, 2015March 25, 2015 ~ John W. Howell ~ 19 Comments

This week’s personal item started as a trip to the library and then moved from there. Our town has a library, and it is a very nice one. In fact, they are very helpful folks there. During the winter, when all the Northerners come down here to escape the cold the use of the library expands twenty-fold. I have always wondered how this kind of increase does not cripple library operations. There is an organization called Friends of the Library who does a great job of fundraising with special book sales. Although I must say the staff never allows the overcrowding to reduce their friendliness or courtesy. Here is a picture of the front of the building.

You may wonder about those little boats (green and blue) in front of the building They are cement and are depictions of a watercraft called a Farley boat. These are for the yard and made in honor of the Farley Boat Works. There are a number of them all over town. I think one day I will do a pictorial of just the Farley yard boats. The Farley Boat Works was a Port Aransas original and manufactured fishing boats from 1915 until the mid-seventies.

The works is now a museum where a limited numbers of boats are in production. The picture above shows how it looks today.

Here is a picture from in 1936 of President Roosevelt and a Farley boat and an unlucky Tarpon. Port Aransas used to be the Tarpon capital of the US. The great Texas drought in the fifties brought the building of dams to preserve water had an effect on freshwater spawning for the Tarpon. Also, runoff from fertilizers altered the coastal waters and overfishing spelled the end of Tarpon fishing in Port Aransas.

I got lost in the story of the Farley Boat works and the Tarpon. I was going to let you know My GRL is in the library and here is a picture of her sitting in the New Books section. (You have to look close to find the little blue cover and yes I pulled her out of the alphabetical by the author arrangement for the picture. I did put her back after ) Thanks to the Port Aransas Library staff for putting up with my foolishness.

A Shout-out – Copper, the Alchemist, & the Woman in Trousers

March 25, 2015 ~ John W. Howell ~ 2 Comments

Here is a great story by a wonderful person. I had such a small part it is embarassing but loved the shout out.

Teagan's Books

I’d like to thank the Academy…

By the “Academy” I mean the group of wonderful people, writers, chefs, photographers, readers, and bloggers who come here to Teagan’s Books each week.

You see, when I introduced the previous episode, I got a little off track. Ever since, I have felt that I did not do justice to the amazing chef and blogger who provided that set of “three things” — Suzanne Debrango at “A Pug in the Kitchen.”

I know Suzanne never thought of it that way, but I can’t deal with feeling like I didn’t do my best for someone who has been so very supportive of me and my writing. Then I thought that it would be nice to do a shout out to everyone who has sent “things” so far!

So I’d like to thank the Academy!

Episode-1: John W. Howell John gave us the…

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Wednesday Story Day – AKA – Hump Day

March 25, 2015March 22, 2015 ~ John W. Howell ~ 24 Comments

Last week was the conclusion of the Frank and Billy saga. Although it looked bad for the duo, there was a last-minute trick a la Bob Newhart finale where I pulled a dream sequence to save the boys from certain destruction. Maybe some day we will see Frank and Billy again but this week we have a brand new cast of characters. The first character is named Bob, and he wants to be a published writer. The second character is Bob’s mentor named (you guessed it) Jane. The reason the names are a little like a primary reader is so we don’t all get lost in the dialog and can concentrate on the story. Okay, okay, I’ll change the mentors name to Charlotte. There everybody happy? So the opening scene has Bob in Charlotte’s office, and this is their first session together. I give you Bob and Charlotte. Hope you enjoy.

“So what is the first thing I need to do to get published Charlotte er I can call you Charlotte right?”

“Yes, Bob Charlotte is fine. You have finished your manuscript?”

“Yes, I have it’s right here.”

“Let me look at it.”

“Sure here. Watch out it’s pretty heavy.”

“Did you print this from your computer?”

“Not exactly. I wrote it by hand.”

“You’re kidding me. Let me see this. Oh my gosh, this is all in cursive writing.”

“Yeah, I don’t feel comfortable working with a computer on my books.”

“Why not for heaven’s sake?”

“I don’t think the true value of the work comes through. You know the pain, the angst, the struggle.”

“You don’t think working with a computer would ease a little of that for you?”

“Yes, but then how will a publisher know of my journey.”

“A publisher doesn’t give a crap about your journey. They want to be able to read the work and evaluate whether or not it is commercially viable.”

“I have a problem with that word.”

“Which word?”

“Commercially. I am an artist, after all.”

“And you want to be published.”.

“Yes, of course.”

“I agreed to mentor you only because your mother and I were roommates in college. I have to tell you I’m not sure you are ready.”

“Aw don’t say that. What do I need to do?”

“Besides get this manuscript typed?”

“I don’t want to have it typed.”

“Oh, my gosh.”

Tuesday Discussion – Anything is Possible – Short Story

March 17, 2015March 17, 2015 ~ John W. Howell ~ 9 Comments

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. I’m not doing shamrocks or green beer. Today’s discussion is on a new series for writers called Channillo. I have a once a week feature called Four Hundred Words or Less. Each Wednesday I post a story that is four hundred words or less. I have often said that what I do to relax or when I’ve reached a roadblock on something is write short stories. So now I have an outlet to do just that. Here is the debut story. Hope you like it.

Gerry wakes up from a wild dream. It was only a minute ago, but the memory of it is fading already. How hard it is to deal with irrational dreams when the only real thing left after you wake up is the cold fear, he thinks. Wiping his face with his hand brings away more sweat than he thought is there. Reaching for the clock on the bedside table he sees it is four o’clock in the morning.

It is the fourth morning in a row in which a dream wakes him. Funny thing too it is always four o’clock. There are at least two more hours until he has to get up, so Gerry puts the alarm back and pulls the covers up and turns on his side.

A quick flash of the dream jerks him as if he is falling. He looks up and sees the cargo door of the airplane slowly rising up into the sky. His brain is telling him to look down but as the airplane gets smaller he is afraid of what he might see. His stomach feels like he is on a fast-moving elevator that is going down rapidly. The wind is rushing in his ears and is causing pain as the pressure of air begins to exercise his eardrums. Rolling slightly to his left, he can look below him. His heart begins beating out of control at the sight. The green Earth is rushing up at him spreading out so he no longer can see the horizon. Reaching across his chest looking for a handle in hopes this is a skydiving exercise in which he blacked out or something.

There is no handle, and now it occurs to him that this is the dream he has been having for the last four nights. He needs to control his breathing and try to concentrate on his heart rate since he is sure he will be waking up.

“So what do you think happened?” says the Police Officer.

“I can’t tell,” says the EMT. “Heart attack I would guess officially. To look at his face though I would say he was scared to death.”