Charlie ("The Glacier") recently made a deal with Archway Publishing for my third book "Esmeralda".

 For the past six months I've been trying to "clear the decks" so I can concentrate on finishing this book. Not so easy :-( I have too many cars (10), I'm old (84 next July), etc etc etc.  

The book will have three  parts. The first part is basically done and consists of the story of Brian, a Jewish kid from Philadelphia, a music major goes on a class field trip to Mexico where he meets and falls in love with Angela. The complicated blending of families fills the air as they get married and their daughter, Esmeralda is conceived on their journey to Galveston Texas (where I currently live) to take Brians first real job as a professor in the music department at Galveston College. The second part of the book is about Esmeralda's growing up in Galveston. Nothing has been written of this part, but a lot has been taking shape in my mind.  The third and final part is about the young woman joining the U.S. Airforce as a fighter pilot and she and her Maya soul/companion, a Tigrillo, save the world from a diabolical spoiled brat Colombian drug kingpin, who is working with an Islamic terrorist group who has a deadly diabolical plan to terrorize the world by lacing the drugs with a hi-tech item that will make the infected persons head explode when they hear a certain frequency phrase upon answering their telephone. About half of this has been written. If you're interested you can read here, about Esmeralda's and El Tigrillo's encounter with Don Calixto, the drug king pin.  The story shows "All things work together to the good of those who love the Lord."(Romans 8:28), by charting the destiny of Esmeralda wherein the diabolic principle is defeated by a whim on the part of a humble, Mayan female. And the truth of this victory will be hidden from EVERYBODY, except for those who choose to read "Esmerslda" (or maybe "Esmeralda y El Tigrillo."

FINALLY!    an ex-girlfriend once told me I moved like a GLACIER :-)  My second book "Track Lessons" is now available. 

 You can check it out on Amazon at:

Track Lessons: Seymour, Charlie: 9781665733441: Amazon.com: Books

Right now I'm very busy trying to figure out how to use the Lone Star Motorcycle Rally (here in Galveston Nov 2-5) to sell  "Track Lessons".  God told me to get on it and get it out there, so here I go.  I was never much good at selling anything. Part of being such an introvert I guess.

Archway editing service for "Track Lessons"

 I got great ideas for improvements to "Track Lessons"  from my five "friends and family" editors, and I decided to invest approx $1500 in Archway Editing Services to clarify my writing style in general and, more specifically to make this book as good as possible.

The Archway editing service offers three editing processes, the first, "Developmental Edit" is a complete reading by an anonymous published author for a high level, comprehensive overview/critique of the book.  I am VERY happy with the results of this edit that Archway has forwarded to me.  The editor did a thorough job and made about ten constructive suggestions that I am still digesting. The next two edits will focus more on detail writing techniques and conventions.  I think the process will provide a LARGE step up the learning curve for me, and will speed up my other writing projects.  This process has added about six months to my publishing schedule for "Track Lessons"...but then...why hurry?

BTW, I highly recommend the Archway editing services for new writers, you can learn more about this service at Archway's web site.

Yahoooooo!!! Jeff Heino has given me his permission to use this great photo on the cover of "Track Lessons" - - PERFECT!

 

Jeff Heino #23 racing his Harley Davidson Sportster at Daytona in the early 90's.   Synchronicity ?  "Track Lessons" protagonist, George's race # has been #23 from day one!

This week I sent all "Track Lessons" items (manuscript, author photo, about the book, about the author, draft & notes for cover, etc.) to Archway Publishing.  I was VERY happy about all their work putting "Walt" together and I'm looking forward to how they do everything for "Track Lessons".  Hoping to have the book on the market for Christmas.

Three cheers for "Grammarly"

 The friendly efforts of my wonderful editors encouraged me to sharpen my writing.  Mainly to be more precise and clear, to ease the burden on my readers.  For now this means learning more about punctuation and grammar.  And to be more consistent and simpler in general.  More careful, less "sloppy".

With this in mind, I signed up for one year of "Grammarly - Premium" ($75/year "special price') and worked my entire novel ("Track Lessons") through Grammarly.  I spent about 30 hours doing this (30,000 words) and found it enjoyable and very productive and educational for me.

I use Apache "Open Office" for WP, so I did this entirely on the Grammarly web based system but will probably start using MS Office for WP in the future to have Grammarly checking everything as I write. I liked Apache because of the stable nature of their system (very few little unsolicited changes).  I have a 30 year old hammer that works just fine. :-)

So, I highly recommend Grammarly!  Try it for free on-line!

 

Great editors! All four of my wonderful "friendly" editors completed their work by July 4...GREAT work!

I sent my manuscript to my editors June 1, and asked them to get back to me by July 4, which they all did.  Two of them beat me up on grammar and punctuation sending me back to the books on these two subjects.  And it urged me to think more about my personal style of using and presenting DIALOG for telling stories.  Think about it, sharpen my tools. A VERY constructive, unanticipated side trip for me.

So now, I'm hoping to work on these things for a few more weeks, and have the upgraded manuscript ready for the publisher by the end of July.

Also checking online sources for Harley Davidson race photos for the cover.

So, BIG thanks to Barbara, Skip, Maisha and John for pushing me up the author learning curve.  Somehow your combined work has encouraged me and led me to work in totally new ways to find my personal writing voice.  Wish I could describe how this synergy happened and what a grand blessing it is for me, but I can't.   THANKS to y'all, and, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow."

About ready to send "Track Lessons" to the publisher

Rules, lessons, generalizations, CoronaVirus, statistics, probabilities, and soft eyes.  Generalizations are helpful but come from a poor place, often from laziness, or just the newness of a situation, or no time to study,  "Times up! Fight or Flight".   "Track Lessons" shows how rules become lessons as the generalizations are refined. For example Lesson 6 is "Some lies are OK".

Altogether 10 chapters, several started out as stand alone short stories, but now they all have to come together, same font & size.  Character's names, dates and whereabouts have to be consistant, all in one novel, one Word document.

I start with 10 separate documents, one for each chapter. I edit each document using Grammarly for punctuation, spelling and small improvements, and note inconsistancies (For example, George's sponsor is "Lancaster Harley Davidson" in Chapter 3, but is "Dexter's HD" in chapter 7) into my "edit notes".  Next I will join all ten documents into one, carefully following Archway's guidelines.  Then re-edit this new document using my "edit notes".  Then I will send this out to my 6 "Friendly editors".

In the month that this editing process is going on I'll work on cover design. (HELP!  Any graphic artists out there, interested in a three motorcycle kurfunkle scene for the cover?

Never cross racing lines at other than racing speed

One more chapter to go for "Track Lessons"!  In this chapter we're dealing with lessons, rules and depth of knowledge.  It's one thing to "know" a rule because the teacher told you, and quite another to "Know" it because you understand why it is taught and a bit more if you had some memorable experience with it.  So that's the point of chapter 7.

When my son John was a teenager we had some father/son clashes and one thing that helped a lot when we were trying to communicate was our mutual love of motorcycles and motorcycle racing.  So a lot of our important conversations were in terms of issues on the track, "track lessons".  The various metaphors we used usually came from the track, we sharpened our values by discussing heroes, villains, and events from the race track.  It is noteworthy how theses same lessons show up in school, on the job, in relationships, and , yes, in church.

Some things are easy to "know" but there's usually a lot more to know about them.  For example, the area of a circle,

A

=

π

r

2

not hard to know or remember, but nor really "intuitively obvious".

Rules and lessons.

LAVIDGE Publicity press release

Check out the press release here https://bit.ly/38356TQ.

Got a little bump on my web site (this site) and several interesting inquiries already

Press release for "Walt"

As I mentioned previously, I am working with Archway to learn about selling my books, and to fan the flames on sales.  Today we launched a press release for "Walt".

The press release was developed by LAVIDGE Publicity and they distributed it to thousands of outlets and other interested parties they selected.  LAVIDGE will also take initial inquiries that result from the press release and teach me how to manage them.

I have been very pleased with Archway Publishing (they published "Walt"), and I wasn't surprised to be equally impressed and pleased by their chosen publicity company, LAVIDGE.

I'll report results here in a few weeks.

I recently contracted with Archway Publishing and LAVIDGE Publicity to publicize "Walt"...

...and I am looking forward to working with these professionals to learn this aspect of being an author.  First step will be to develop a "press release".  Next will be the distribution of the press release.  And then, how to handle the inquiries.  Should be fun!

We have ebook Winner! Contest ended.

FREE ebook version of "Walt"

FREE ebook version of "Walt" to first person who emails a request to me.  I'll email instructions to the winner.

As part of my efforts to market my writing, Archway Publishing will be showing "Walt, a Story of Fathers, Sons, and Road Trips" next weekend (Nov. 22-24) at the Miami Book Fair

Unfortunately I won't be able to attend this year but it's on my list for next year.

If you have been to this fair or have used similar events to promote your writing, I would love to hear your comments.

Art contest for cover has ENDED

Sorry to say, but I received no appropriate entries for the cover of "Track Lessons" :-(  Made some great contacts via the contest but sadly, no art work.  Plan B?  What plan B?

Off on my summer wander, first stop Maine.

God bless all ya'

HELP!... I need some art work for the cover of "Track Lessons", ART CONTEST! Prize money $$$

My novel "Track Lessons" is just about finished and I need some unique and dynamic art work for the cover.  The book is about life lessons learned from motorcycle racing, and focuses on one national championship series of races on Harley Davidson motorcycles.  The cover art will show the last turn of the last race which decides the entire championship.  Very dramatic moment showing the speed, risk, daring, and different styles the three main characters.  Gravel flying, bikes sliding, dramatic action shot in style of your choice.  Realistic or abstract, but it should be clear to anyone that it is three motorcycle racers, at a very important moment.

I will post, on this blog, the pages from the book describing this moment in the race, and a few other hints & clues. click here to see these items

Deadline for the art work will be July 1, 2019 and the winner will be announced July 15,2019.  The prize will be $250 plus $0.10 per book sold.  I'm planning to sell a million books, but only time will tell :-)

So, please come collaborate with me to make this book something special and beautiful.

Please post any questions on this blog.

THANKS for your interest.

Chapter 5 - When the green flag drops...

Finished up Chapter 5 of Track Lessons.  This chapter is about George's championship season race at Bryar Motorsports Park (now New Hampshire International Speedway).

The structure of this novel STARTS with George's "golden years" (see "Yep" on this blog), and then each chapter is the story of one of his races from twenty years earlier.

The introduction to Chapter 5;

There does seem to be a certain class of moments, that stand out from most others. It is clear that these moments are prelude to something very important, something with big risks and big rewards. Like arriving at a fork in the road...left or right?...get it right!...HURRY! Or when you arrive at check-in with Saint Peter at the pearly gates, or when “the fat lady sings”, or when “the rubber meets the road”. At moments of this class, all fears and desires, all wishes and denials, cease to exist and you simply MUST perform. Also characteristic of these moments is the complex collection of things that prepared you for the moment. Some intended by you, others not intended by you.

In motorcycle racing, the actual start of the race is clearly such a moment: “When the green flag drops the bullshit stops”. The bikes line up on the starting grid, and a short ritual is performed to start the race. The last act of the starting ritual is when the starter dramatically and suddenly waves the green flag, and all the motorcycles roar off for 20 minutes of ferocious battle to see who will be the first to pass the waving checkered flag that signals the end of the race.

Grandpa and the boys were about half way back to Lancaster, pretty much on schedule to get Grandpa George back to the nursing home by midnight. Eating up miles and bench racing.

“Did you see how that jerk on the Kawi blocked me at the finish? I should have won that race!”

“Yep. We've got to learn more about that blocking business. Grandpa, teach us something about blocking.”

George took the bait, “OK. Yep, that's an important trick, I taught Ed Slossser that one at Bryar”.

--------end of intro------

Still hoping to finish this book and get it published in early 2019.

Thanks for your interest.

Chapter 4 - Road Atlanta "Target Fixation"

This week, while working on Chapter 4 of my novel "Track Lessons" I did some research and thinking about Target Fixation,
In Chapter 4 I write:
 All motorcyclists know about “Target Fixation”, the natural, instinctive, tendency to focus on the hazard. This paralyzed focus makes the collision more likely, even inevitable. You go where you look.

BUT, wait a minute, you CAN choose where you look! Right? Right

So motorcyclists are warned to:

Look where you WANT to go

Look AHEAD of you, (vs in front of you)

Look THROUGH the corner

Continually scan

Relax

Talk to yourself (“Look where you want to go”, “don't fixate”)

The same issues arise in other areas of life. For example, martial artists speak of “soft eyes”. Author Parker Palmer, in his book THE COURAGE TO TEACH: EXPLORING THE INNER LANDSCAPE OF A TEACHER'S LIFE, writes:

"In the Japanese art of Aikido there is a practice called "soft eyes" - it means to widen one's periphery to take in more of the world. If a stimulus is introduced to an unprepared person, his eyes narrow and filight/fight response takes over. If the same unexpected stimulus comes to someone with "soft eyes" the natural reflex is transcended and a more authentic response takes its place - such as thinking a new thought.

...I want to make a conscious effort to help myself and my students develop softer eyes when confronted with something new. I believe it will allow all of us to have more authentic responses and "think" more "new" thoughts."

and, some but not me would say, coincidentally, my Pastor preached a sermon last Sunday on 2 Kings Chapter 6 about Elisha praying for his servants "vision" to be cleared up (softened), AND my daughter, Katie joked with me that research has shown that women have much better peripheral vision than men and that is why women can catch men eyeing other women, much more often than men can catch women looking at men.  LOL.

Chapter 3 - Daytona, "Nothing is Everything"

Just finished writing Chapter 3 of  my novel "Track Lessons".  Protagonist and middle-aged roadracer, George, invites Jeri's 17 year old son,  JJ, to join him for the season-opening Harley race in Daytona. In addition to Georges exciting 10-lap race, their Daytona adventure includes some subtle fatherly advice from George to JJ.  After an intense 5 day adventure, JJ has become frustrated in his efforts to extract the secret-of-life from George, who was more focused on his 30 minutes on the track.  So, finally, on the 1000 mile drive home from the race, when JJ was trying to fathom Georges reaction to his second place race finish, George said to him "Winning isn't everything", JJ totally lost it, and a bit loudly, "OK! So WINNING is not everything, and you told me on our drive down that MONEY isn't everything, and at the restaurant with our beautiful waitress that BEAUTY isn't everything, and you're always telling me that!  So, GEORGE, what IS everything?".  George pauses to let JJ catch his breath and get ready for the answer, and then calmly answers "Nothing".  Silence.  And then finally JJ summarizes, "OK, so Nothing is Everything?".  "Yep". They had to pull the truck over to the side of the road, they both jumped out of the truck hopping around like crazy people and laughing like wild children.

2018 Summer Wander

My summer wander got all mixed up when my grandson, William, decided to get married in Santa Fe, NM.  So the Wander turned into one week in Santa Fe, one week in the Navajo Nation and a week visiting friends in Tucson, AZ.  And hopes for a Fall trip to the east coast.

My new dog "Giggy" turned out to be a champion wanderer which is a great blessing.

Interesting writing the Track Lessons chapter dealing with protagonist "George" midlife love affair.  I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to write about my take on romance but, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't write the sex scenes.  Too private ?  I'm a prude? I give up :-)  But finally got the chapter written and I'm happy with it.  Six chapters to go, and they are all single, specific motorcycle races, so they should be easy writing, no great challenges.  I'll probably go back to Archway for publishing this book.