Ch - Ch - changes

Walt Michaels: on sale now

I've made some changes. Or at least I will soon, once I do some meditations on a book I've been reading. I'll get to that a little later.

I've changed my marketing techniques for my Walt Michaels is a Weenie Book. Right now it's on sale for 99 cents and will be for a couple days. I'm doing what is called a countdown sale.  In close to three days, the price will go up to 1.99, and in another three days it will go up to the original price. 

I don't know if I should have done this or not, but I took the chance. I sent a Facebook message to about 50 of my friends. I didn't ask them to buy my book, but I did want to tell them that is was on sale for 99 cents. I told them that if they did buy it or if they just wanted to, I would appreciate it if they passed the word about it. I'm never going to make my royalties threshold if things don't change soon.

I hope that by the first week or two of December, I will also have Deliver Us from Evil self-published. I have about 100 pages of that to look overs. As I'm reading it, I'm thinking how atrocious my dialogue is.  I have really been slicing it up and trying to add some more interesting stuff.

I have been reading a book by Linda Seeger called Spiritual Steps on the Road to Success, and it has really made me think about what's left of my life, where I've been, where I am, and where I'm going.  Linda is an expert script consultant who also happens to be a strong Christian. She leans to the left like me, and when I read her stuff, she speaks to me on a deep spiritual level.

This is one of those books I will have to return to time and time again as it has caused me to think I need to change my whole way of doing things.  Well, that's about it from me. Later.

Stuff that dreams are made of

If the dreams you have at night are a window into your soul, then I am in serious trouble. The last year or so, I have been a frequent nightmare sufferer. Several times my wife has had to wake me up because I was dangerously close to becoming violent in my sleep. One time, I was actually even punching her in the back before she woke up and got me awake.

The other night I had a doozy. I dreamed I was killing myself. Now, even though I have suffered from bipolar disorder for years, I have never tried to kill myself; nor would I ever. (Which doesn't mean there weren't times when I thought I would be better off dead, but that's not quite the same thing.) Now, in my nightmare I didn't commit suicide -- at least I don't think I did.

I was in an old house that I have dreamed about in the past. Places frequently repeat themselves in my dream, and this particular place has always been a little creepy whenever I dream about it, always involving ghosts, weird noises, evil spirits and the like. For whatever reason, I was in the basement floor of this house, but it wasn't like a typical basement. It was more like a long, wide corridor with rooms on each side of the corridor. I was looking for a place where I could take a shower. This might be an important piece of the dream.

At any rate, an evil spirit appeared and tried to attack me. I fought back and began choking it.  The entire time I choked it, I was calling on the name of Jesus to send it back to the hell it came out of. (I was talking aloud in my sleep because my words were garbled. Because of my cpap machine if I talk in my sleep while I'm dreaming, the words in my dream are garbled.) As I choked this evil creature, I noticed something odd and unnerving.

It looked exactly like a teenaged version of myself.  At about that time, my wife awoke me.

I don't know quite what to make of this dream. I know where some of it might come from. I've been reading a YA novel that I wrote because I've been thinking about revising and self publishing it. It is a Christian horror novel dealing with Satanism. That might be where it came from.

But I wonder what Freud would think or Jung. Was this just some dream or was it some indication -- some prophecy or message or truth I should know about myself. I believe that dreams can and do reveal what is going on with a person. I also believe that sometimes dreams are just dreams and they're stupid.  But this one has me puzzled.

Am I trying to hide something in my past -- metaphorically kill it so to speak? Am I trying to move on or change from something and the only way to do that is to turn my back on my past? Does this dream signal that I am going to take some new track in my life or perhaps that I'm realizing my mortality and my younger self is dying? Maybe there's something inside me that I wish were dead. Or is it just a stupid dream?

I'm not sure really. My life has undergone a lot of changes over the last six months. I retired from teaching, moved to a different part of the state, and got a new grandbaby. I'm also teaching classes for a new college in a completely new way through ITV. Maybe my brain is just unsettled and all the pieces float around a little until I sleep and then they fall into some random patterns. Who knows? I will just continue to take things one day at a time.

When I finish revising my YA Christian horror novel, I will put it on Amazon so you can purchase it for you Kindle. It's a pretty good book that has been published once, but it needs work. I will warn you that it's not your grandmother's Christian book. I believe that there is a spirit world and that sometimes those spirits, whether they be good or bad, interfere with the human world. I also believe that humans are perfectly capable of being good or bad without the help of spirits.

In the meantime, my funny, fluffy, and completely family-friendly book, Walt Michaels Is a Weenie is still available on Amazon. Sales are not tearing up the charts, so I would be grateful for your support.

Click to purchase or preview Walt Michaels book

politics

I have refused to talk politics over the last several months. My vote is private and no matter what anyone says to me, they will not change what I feel in my heart is the best thing to do. I have seen this charade wipe out any semblance of unity our country once had, and it scares the hell out of me to see what might be coming next. How does the rest of the world look at the good old US of A now?Down on us, most likely. Our lack of leadership and our unwillingness to work together for the common good will destroy us. May God have mercy on our souls.

Just Rattling

Sometimes, I think my life as a wannabe author was much easier when I wrote dark, depressing poetry that even my wife wouldn't read. I was a Debbie Downer. I also fooled around with some short stories and some articles with limited success. Like many other people, I was maimed in the shark-infested waters of publishing and fell for some schemes that wound up costing me money and leaving me with books that were "published" but which no one ever wanted to read and which no one really bought either. However, my writing life turned around a little when I wrote my first plays. I had been "drafted" by my school to be the drama instructor.

I had a hard time finding plays which I believed I was capable of directing because I was an English teacher first and definitely not a drama director, so I began experimenting with writing some of my own plays. One day I got a play catalogue, and I wondered if the publisher accepted freelance play submissions. To make a long story short, it did, and since that time seven of my plays have been published. There are some years when they do well, and I make some decent royalties, and I've had at least one year when no one produced them, and I didn't earn a dime.

I am proud of having these plays published, and I get very excited when I look at the reports each year and find that some school somewhere in the country is performing one. So far, this year a school in Idaho is performing my most popular play Haunted Hamlet. Lately though, I haven't really had many plays published because I've been aiming for bigger literary triumps. However,  I did recently finish a one act and sent it to my old publisher. I'm anxious to see if they want to publish it. I've decided that if they accept it for publication that I'll write something full length. Otherwise, I don't know if I'll do much more playwriting, especially since I've retired from teaching.

I have the first inklings of an idea for a screenplay, but I have to let the idea incubate in my mind for a while before I start writing.  Writing screenplays and selling them are tough, especially for someone who doesn't have any credits and who lives in Missouri.  However, I enjoy the form. I've done well in some contests, which have encouraged me a little, but I'm not so naive as to believe that one day I will be in Hollywood pitching my screenplays to Steven Speilberg. If nothing becomes of the screenplay, I can always expand it into a YA novel. My idea fits into that genre.

In the meantime, I'm experimenting with some other ideas. Self publishing is one. I've self published Walt Michaels is a Weenie because I know it's good. It was published once before, but it didn't sell very well because my publisher didn't really market it. I also know that it's good because the screenplay I wrote on it finished in the top 100 of a contest, which if you don't know anything about screenwriting contests, is very good. It has a lot of clean humor, and it's a book that anyone, regardless of age can relate to.

I would really like to see two main things happen with Walt Michaels is a Weenie. I'd like for a few people to buy it and start giving me some reviews on Amazon. If the reviews are good and I think they will be, I can start using the comments in my ad campaigns for the book.  I would also like to see Intermediate schools(4th, 5th, 6th grades) classrooms buy class sets of the book and have their students read it as an accelerated reader book. I have a teacher friend who is developing a test and discussion questions for it.  If a teacher had 30 students in class, every kid could have his or her own ebook version for under $100 total. In this age of high-priced textbooks, that's a bargain. I would also be interested in visiting schools who use the book just to talk to the kids about writing.  These two are my immediate goals for my book.

I am not averse to self publishing further books either. I have some that are hard to pinhole into a marketable category.  For instance, I have written a book that is a Young adult Christian horror book. I've also thought about republishing Fall of Knight, the revised version, and its sequel.  Fall of Knight had about 36 reviews on Amazon, and my overall score was 4.6 out of 5. I think the second book is better than the first.  I have ideas.

Of course I could just be manic, and all of these brilliant ideas will come crashing in on my head tomorrow. With bipolar disorder, such crashes come with the turf.

Walt Michaels book: click here

Blog for the night

I probably get a lot more personal on here than people like, but that's okay, I don't think anybody reads this anyway. Maybe the ones who do will do one of two things: buy my book or realize they aren't alone in the world.

I had a new kind of doctor's experience yesterday, but it wasn't a bad one at all. My psychiatrist lives in Brazil, and we visited over Skype. This was my first time seeing her because of our recent move, and being a little bit crazy, change always stresses me out, but Dr. Miller set me at ease.  The most important thing to me was that she spent an entire hour talking to me, and she actually listened to all that I had to say. I felt a little like I was being set on an assembly line with my other doctor. He wasn't bad by any means, but he just didn't have the time to fully answer my questions. Because of that, I think he missed some things.

I can't tell you how relieved I was the first time I was diagnosed as being bipolar. I know. That sounds crazy. Well, I am crazy. The reason why I was relieved was that I now knew what was wrong with me.  Before being diagnosed, I didn't know. I just knew I wasn't quite right. Knowing I had an illness that could be successfully treated helped me considerably. Just listen to this statistic. In the ten years or so before I was diagnosed, I had three different teaching jobs and three other jobs. After I was diagnosed and started getting treatment, I stayed in teaching.  I won't say my mood swings have been easy, but they have been manageable.

Any way, that relief I felt when I was first diagnosed came back yesterday because I've had some issues for a few years. In the fall and winter, I get unusually restless and have more bouts of depression. My doctor immediately began treatment to help me cope during this time of year.  I told her I also felt as if I were ADD to a certain extent.  She asked me a series of several questions and that too looks like it will be highly possible.  But the thing is she doesn't want to change up everything all at once. She's going to make changes gradually so that my mind and body can adjust as I go along with the treatment.

Bipolar is one mental illness that can be treated very successfully, but if you don't get treatment for you, it can destroy your life in myriad ways. I remember reading somewhere a long time ago, and I realize this statistic might have changed, that untreated bipolars are more likely to commit suicide than those with any other mental illness. Anyway, getting medication preserved my life. I taught for over 30 years, and I'm now retired. I have been married for 34 years, and now my wife and I are loving our first grand daughter. Don't let depression destroy you. With mental illness there is NO pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps.

I am interested in seeing what happens if and when my doctor starts treating my ADD. I have terrible trouble concentrating on things, and I'm wondering if treatment will help me with my writing and some of my other pursuits.

Today, I've tried grading papers, but I've had computer struggles. I decided to update my computer, but I didn't know at the time that it was going to take an hour, so I tried grading papers on my iPad -- not recommended.  I did manage to get some finished.

I'm going to do two more things before I sign off for the night. Several years ago, I started making up crossbytes for the seniors in my classes. These are little nuggets of wisdom that I put up on the board in an attempt to inspire them. I'm going to end this entry with the one I wrote today.

I also want to tell you a little bit about where Walt Michaels Is a Weenie came from.  I relied on escapism to deal with a lot of the bullying I endured when I was a kid. One of my favorite stories has always been "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" so it was easy for me to incorporate the daydreaming into a humorous novel. Secondly, baseball was my first love, and I was a decent player. I even harbored dreams of becoming a major league player until I realized I couldn't run well, couldn't hit fast pitching, and couldn't field very well. However, I was the greatest when it came to "pick-em-up" games. I was also, like Walt Michaels (Get it, Walt Mitty) extremely shy and bashful, but trouble seemed to find me.

So if you want to buy Walt Michaels is a  Weenie, click below.

Check out Walt Michaels, a really fun read.

And here's that crossbyte:

Intelligence and good looks untempered by compassion are simply another form of arrogance. #crossbytes

Asking for opinions, also a new link to my book.

Try me: Walt Michaels is a Weenie


I think the link to purchase my book has changed. Any way, you can get to it through the above link. I have been thinking about doing some more self publishing, and I'd hoped to get a little feedback from people who know me.

The stuff I write does not fit neatly into any one category so that is one reason why I have lately considered turning to self publishing some of the weirder things I have written. I once published a book called Dark Woods, which is basically a faith-based horror story.  I know; sounds like an oxymoron. I also wrote a screenplay for it which was almost -- when I say almost, I mean came down to where we were negotiating price -- produced. I had a director and everything, but the man was from Canada and he felt like he was being called into another ministry.  This has been the story of my life.

If you have ever read anything by Frank Peretti, you would get a clue as to what Dark Woods would resemble. In the story, a teenager uses his own faith and the support of a very strong Christian girl to defeat a group of Satanists. My question is do you think there is a market out there somewhere for YA horror novels with a Christian slant?

I would appreciate any feedback you cared to give me. Email me at thecrosses@hotmail.com or message me on facebook or twitter.

Thanks.