Get "Lost" for FREE!

Brrrr! Just dipped a toe back into this blogwater, and it's cold enough for a polar bear.

But I'm back, after two months off, to share some important news. Lost in the Ivy, my book and the reason for this blog, is now available for free as an e-book exclusively through the Chicago Underground Library (CUL). The link to the catalogued entry for my book at the CUL is here. You will find the link to download the book at the bottom of the page.  Note that the PDF is watermarked and encrypted so it is only printable at lo-resolution for reference and it cannot be changed or have any text copied from it.

You might ask, "Why would I do this?" There are a number of reasons. The main one being that I'd just like the book to be more readily available and widely read. I've had some success getting it into local libraries (about a dozen Chicagoland libraries) but it's in only a couple of libraries outside of Chicagoland. The Internet provides the ability to be sort of the world's library, but as you all know, it is also a place filled with lots of potential landmines. I'm also doing this because I think it is the way of the future. I'm curious to see where it goes, if anywhere. The CUL came up with this ambitious project to start an online library, and it's one that I support. My book just happens to be the first that they've released in this fashion. It is their hope and goal, however, that others will follow. I'd note that other authors have found success by releasing their published books as free e-books. Finally, since the book has been out now for 1 1/2 years, sales have slowed to a trickle. I've got little to lose and everything to gain. I think. Things could always change. My book could be picked up by a major movie studio and be turned into a best-seller, but that seems like a pipe dream.

So check out my book at the Chicago Underground Library. You don't even have to return it. Just read it and pass on the link to the e-book to others. It's that simple.

While I'm here, a couple other short news items:

• A slimmed down version of my kid essay, "Pickles and Hiccups", won an Honorable Mention in the December 2006 / January 2007 "America's Funniest Humor!"(TM) Writing Contest & Book Publishing Project! " sponsored by HumorPress.com. You can see it in the online Humor Showcase. Also, it will be published soon in a humor anthology from HumorPress.
• My short, short parenting story "Breast Stroke" was chosen for the March 2007 Motherwise Mug Shot Contest. Vote for my story here. I don't drink coffee but the competitor in me still wants to win that mug.
• At least one of my kid essays, possibly two, will be published in the April issue of Minders' Keepers, an anthology of parenting stories from Motherwise.
• I'm quoted in this March 1, 2007 Chicago Tribune article, "Writers find praise - and pointers - for their prose," by Trine Tsouderos.

That's all, folks. Now back to that novel-in-progress.
 

Update on Friday, March 30, 2007 at 09:50PM by Randy Richardson

Hey, check out author-blogger and fellow Chicago Writers Association (CWA) member Cheryl Hagedorn's interview with me over at Murder.Booklocker.Com about the ebook.

Update on Wednesday, April 25, 2007 at 01:29PM by Randy Richardson

Another kid essay, "From Crib to Cubicle", won an Honorable Mention in the February / March 2007  "America's Funniest Humor!"(TM) Writing Contest & Book Publishing Project! " sponsored by HumorPress.com. You can see it in the online Humor Showcase. Like my previous winning entry, it will be published soon in a humor anthology from HumorPress.

Climbing out of the blogwater

So is this where I confess that I'm not a blogophile?  As I whip out this first entry, I can't help but feel self-conscious and more than a little inadequate, like I'm not properly equipped for the job.   I rarely dive into the blogosphere.  This isn't because I don't want to; it's because I get overwhelmed easily.  There just seem to be too many blogs out there and not enough time to read them all.  Now I'm getting ready to cannonball into the blogwater.  So why do I feel like I'm standing atop the board without any trunks on? 

That was my first blog entry, written two years ago to this date.

A few statistics...

• Last month, there were 11,318 hits on this site, 2,366 of which were unique visitors. It was the busiest month in the two-year history of this blog.
• Last year, there were 102,202 raw hits on this site. Not bad for someone who just two years ago jumped into the blogosphere with absolutely no idea what he was doing.

So it may seem like an odd time to climb out of the blogwater and to put those trunks back on. But that's exactly what I'm doing.

Many, many good things have come from blogging. But there are also many, many reasons for me to take a break from it right now.

Thank you to all of those who have read and commented on this blog. I truly appreciate it. 

A few last words...

I'm not necessarily closing the door for good. I wrote only that I need a break from blogging, and I do. But that door is still open just a crack. Just in case I get that itch again, and feel the urge to drop those trunks and dive back in.

Finding success as a writer

Three keys to finding success as a writer:

One: Believe in your writing.

Two: Take chances.

Three: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

If you've written something and you think it's good enough to be published some place, find that place. It's out there, you just have to look.

Once you find that place, submit it.

If it comes back, don't give up. Rejection is inevitable. Maybe it wasn't the right place. Maybe it was the right place but it wasn't the right time. Don't get discouraged, start over and find another place.

If they ask you to change it, change it. If they want more, give 'em more. If they want it cut, cut it. Sometimes a few changes or additions or cuts can make the difference between getting published and not getting published. A little extra work can pay dividends.

A few months ago, I wrote a piece on this blog titled "Putting a Cork in the Whine." I let it sit for awhile, but at the back of my mind there was the thought that it could be published some place. One day I stumbled upon a place that I thought it might fit. I took a chance and submitted. A couple weeks later I got a response. They liked it but wanted a little more. So I beefed it up a bit and resubmitted it.

The pay-off for putting in a little extra work? See for yourself in the current issue of Absolute Write.

Chew Chew: the Train Wreck Express

All aboard the Train Wreck Express, a trip that begins with the twinkle in a three-year-old boys' eyes. If you're a parent, you've surely rode this runaway train before.

Chew Chew: the Train Wreck ExpressUsually the object that has enchanted the child is a toy. He wants it more than anything in the world. That is until the next toy comes along and grabs his attention.

Sometimes you tell him no, he cannot have it. You don't want to spoil him and he's already got too many toys. But more often than you like to admit, you cave in. You buy the toy, because, well, it's just hard to say no to a child. Because it's only ten or twenty or thirty bucks, and what price is not worth keeping that child from pitching a fit and turning you, the parent, into a toy-depriving monster.

Even as you're taking that toy off the shelf, you see the disaster that will ensue. Either you will find your child melting down while you cut your path through the labyrinth of wires that strap the toy in. Or you will spend hours late into the night mumbling profanities into the air while piecing together hundreds of little parts. All so that your child can play with the toy that will keep his attention for maybe a day or a week or a month before it is cast aside into the overpopulated Island of Unwanted Toys that is the child's closet.

This time, however, the twinkle in the three-year-old boys' eyes was due not to a toy but to a gingerbread train. More precisely, it was the picture of a gingerbread train on a box. A box that contained a kit to build a two-car gingerbread train.

Upon seeing that gleam in his boys' eyes, Daddy made a deal that he will forever live to regret. The boy could have the gingerbread train but it would mean that he would not get the toy promised him.

"You understand, right?" Daddy asked, bending down on one knee to look his boy in those eyes.

The boy nods.

Daddy wants more of an assurance. A three-year-olds' promise means less than that of a used-car dealer.

"If we get you this, you don't get a toy? You're okay with that?"

Again, the boy nods.

Warily, Daddy pulls the gingerbread train kit off the store shelf and puts it into the cart. Even as he does this, he expects the deal to blow up in his face when they get to the toy section and the boy realizes what he has done. To Daddy's surprise, the deal sticks.

Now there are unspoken house rules. I'm sure the arrangements are slightly different in all houses but that they exist in some form or another in just about all households.

In our house, the unspoken rule is that Daddy doesn't do craft projects. This is in the best interests of the child. Because you don't want to see a craft project turn ugly, and you don't want to expose a child to the words that might make their way out of Daddy's mouth when it inevitably does turn ugly.

So when Daddy put that gingerbread train kit in the cart, he did so thinking two things: (1) it was a craft project; and (2) house rules apply.

That house rule derailed because Mommy had to cook - and the boy wanted his gingerbread train.

Surely you can see the train wreck developing here. You also surely know that any box that has the words "easy assembly" or "build it in minutes" on it is a box that you will wish you'd never opened.

After a quick review of the directions, however, I had actually deluded myself into thinking that this might just be a project that I could do without letting loose an unguided F-bomb within earshot of my three-year-old. The gingerbread was pre-baked. There was an "E-Z Build Tray for quick assembly." The rest would just be icing on, well, the gingerbread.

However, from the first simple instruction where I cut off way more of the icing pack tip than prescribed, I knew that I'd bitten off way more than I could chew. The boy who wanted nothing more than to help his Daddy did nothing more than make his Daddy jittery. The more the boy leaned on Daddy the more mistakes Daddy made.

Sensing the looming disaster, the boy cries, "Mommy, help Daddy."

Just as the gingerbread train is about to runaway and its conductor is about to lose it, it somehow magically finds its way back onto that "E-Z Build Tray."

Finally, the boy gets to join in the fun. Little candies spill all over the floor. Some make their way into the boy's mouth. A few even find their way to the proper places, on the gingerbread train.

When it's all done, Daddy looks at the picture on the box and then at what he and his son have created. The two bear only a passing resemblance. After giving the train a look over, Mommy comes to its rescue and gives it a few finishing touches.

The Train Wreck Express is by no means of work of art. But it has its charms. Its days, of course, are numbered. Because not long from now, it will disappear with the chant of "Chew! Chew!"

Blade Runner

The intro to my ChicagoWrites.org interview with Chicago author Marcus Sakey...

This is a story about one of those rarest of feats, an aspiring writer who not only beat the odds and hit the jackpot, but did it on his first try.

How he did it makes it all the more surprising.

The beginnings of the story are chronicled in the blog of Chicago author J.A. Konrath. It was a little over a year ago that Konrath introduced the world to  "Cinderella Boy" (aka Marcus Sakey), who at the time Konrath first met him was a master's writing student at Chicago's Columbia College. Sakey approached Konrath seeking guidance. He wanted what most aspiring writers want: the key to writing and selling a book.

Konrath, who teaches classes at College of DuPage when he's not writing and selling his own books, gave it to him straight, telling Sakey that if he really wanted to write and sell a book, he should dump the books and write a book. 

Sakey, an advertising writer, took Konrath's against-the-grain advice and ran with it. He quit school and turned his focus to completing the novel that he'd begun in one of his MFA classes. 

About a year later, he had his book. Not just any book, but a good one. A ''really'' good one. So good, in fact, that a bidding war erupted over it.

Now that book, The Blade Itself (St. Martin's Minotaur), a crime thriller set in Chicago, hits bookstores everywhere Jan. 9. 

And early signs suggest that Sakey might just breakthrough and make it big. His book is getting the kind of pre-publication hype to which all authors aspire. Publisher’s Weekly calls The Blade Itself, “brilliant...a must read”, and Library Journal wrote, “What a thrilling ride Sakey has concocted.” In January, Entertainment Weekly is set to chip in. Lee Child, George Pelecanos and T. Jefferson Parker have already sung the book's praises.

Sakey's quick rise to success is a story in itself, and it's one that any aspiring writer could learn from and find hope in.

Read the interview at chicagowrites.org.