Writing, Movies, Pets, and more.
I first used Grammarly in the summer of 2017. It became my first-pass editor, pointing out grammatical errors, passive verbs and lots of other things.
Each time I write a chapter, I run it through the software to see what gets flagged. Often a chapter goes through several times before it’s finished.
I guess those words add up. Grammarly sent me a notice of a milestone.
I had passed the one million words mark. Who knew?
My story, Bats, has been published by Madness Muse Press. The anthology is called Narwhal’s Lament and features poetry and prose with an environmental theme.
The inspiration for the story came from my longtime friend, Tim Reed.
He saw a video I shared on social media, of two bats circling my backyard in the twilight. I wrote, “My yard has a pair of bats who dance in the night sky every evening at dusk.”
Tim replied, “Sounds like a good opening line to a short story.”
Challenge accepted.
The idea remained in stasis while I finished the final revisions of my novel. As soon as that wrapped, I started writing Bats the next morning. Progress on it moved quickly. After a few revisions, I submitted it and was fortunate to have the story accepted by Madness Muse.
If you are interested in buying a copy of the anthology, it’s available at Amazon HERE.
With the publication date locked, I need to get a finished cover design. Without it, all the promotional material is stalled: social media posts, pictures, ads, the book trailer, everything.
My novel is about two people separated by time. She lives in California, near the Giant Sequoia forest in 1989. He’s across the river from New York City in 2019.
Over the last couple of months, I’ve worked on the cover. I’m not a graphic designer, but I’ve done a few professional jobs and know my way around Photoshop. I tried several different designs with no luck, but the image I came up with that clicked for me, was a composite of two photographs. The first by a fantastic photographer, Zetong Li, of a majestic forest of Sequoias.
The second was a striking image by another brilliant photographer, Burst, looking straight up at a cluster of skyscrapers vanishing into fog. I manipulated the images, accentuating the height, and intensifying the colors.
I next started experimenting with different fonts trying to find one that worked for the title. My design PC has over 10,000 fonts available. But you can’t install that many, or the poor thing couldn’t run. Still, with about 200 to choose from, I failed to find anything that popped.
I realized the smart thing to do would be to hire a professional for the job. So I did.
Zenon Slawinski is a graphic designer from Virginia with a long list of credits, including many book cover designs. You can check out his amazing portfolio HERE.
My concern about the cover is I want it to appeal to both male and female readers. I didn’t want a font style that might repel one or the other. Zenon set to work and within two days I had about a dozen proofs to look through.
On Friday I put out the call to my friends, family, folks on my mailing list, and my beta readers, to ask for help narrowing down the many options Zenon has provided me. The feedback already has been tremendous.
I will be meeting with him again on Monday and narrowing the choices down to just a couple variations. I’ll have an official cover reveal when it’s finalized. If you’re curious to see the variations or to participate in the process, please sign up for the newsletter with the form above. Your contact information will never be shared with anyone.
My debut novel, A Different Time, will publish July 2, 2019.
I’m simultaneously thrilled and petrified.
So, how did it happen?
The process began October 23, 2014 (my Dad’s birthday).
My daughter had produced a year-long photography project taking a different photo every day. When it was finished she showed it to me. It was so cool looking through the images, making connections between the locations and the people. That was when the idea popped.
But because I wanted the main characters to be able to interact with each other, I changed the medium from photography to videotape.
I jotted down some quick notes and scanned them into my files. I’m a digital pack-rat when it comes to my writing. I save everything.
It was an interesting idea, but I was busy running The Gamers Box and I wasn’t writing regularly. So it remained in my IDEA FOLDER on Evernote, for almost two years.
In the summer of 2016, after working on several non-fiction projects, I participated in the inaugural creativity sprint Write Like You’re Alive, hosted by Zoetic Press. It was a month-long challenge to try and create something new every day for 31 days. Halfway through the event, I was running out of ideas. So I blew the digital dust off my original note from 2014, and turned it into a short story called, “What Time Is It?”
By the end of the month, I’d created 21 new pieces, including stories, poems, and photographs. The editors from Zoetic Press selected “What Time Is It?” to include in their anthology.
It can be downloaded for free. HERE
The process of creative writing for a solid month was invigorating. I decided to collect the best material written during that period and published it in May of 2017 as Anansi and Beyond: Short Stories, Magic, & Nightmares.
In November of 2017, I signed up for National Novel Writing Month. After spending some time considering what story I wanted to tell, I decided to expand “What Time Is It?” into novel-length. I wrote the first draft of the manuscript from November 1 to December 6, 2017.
The revisions began January 2, 2018 and finished March 11, 2018.
Then I handed it off to my brilliant editor, Dave Taylor, from ThEditors, to work his magic. He turned in his notes on May 14th.
On June 13, 2018, I had my final draft.
Then began the long process of pitching the book to agents and publishers. Nine months later and now the light at the end of this long process is finally visible.
Over the next eight weeks or so, I’ll post the work happening behind the scenes and keep you in the loop as we countdown the launch. Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm. It means everything.
I enjoy writing, photography, cinema, craft beers, and my family.
I’ve worked in film and television production for over twenty-five years.
My experience includes broadcast engineering, producing, directing, writing, editing, and mastering.
I’ve created content for ESPN, ESPN International, ABC Sports, CBS News, CBS Eye On People, A&E, and many others.
From 1988 to 1993, I worked as a writer, performer, director, and occasional video editor, for the syndicated sketch comedy program, Tonight @ 11:30. At its peak, T@11:30 was seen weekly in Boston, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
I started doing photography and graphic design work in the 1990’s, creating album covers, posters, and promotional material.
My first published article was a profile piece sold to a British specialty magazine in April of 1999. I’ve continued to write reviews, articles, humor pieces, and others, for dozens of online services, and in print for The Hartford Advocate, The Litchfield Voice, Backstreet Entertainment Guide, and others.
In 1998 I collaborated with a group of friends to form Chimborazo Pictures. We produced Coventry, a black & white film about love and repression.
Coventry was recently added to the New York Public Library’s permanent film collection.
We followed that up in 2000 with another feature film, A Little Bit of Lipstick, a romantic comedy starring Mia Tyler and Soupy Sales.
Following the cancellation of Tonight @ 11:30, I moved the comedy production apparatus online. Making new content, while reinterpreting some of the old material, into what we called, Tonight on the Web.
Starting in 2005, I produced a number of different podcasts, including Tonight on the Radio, The Screening Room, and Rit & Mike’s Comedy Funhouse.
In 2008 I designed and created The Gamers Box, the first mobile video gaming service in Connecticut. It featured multiple gaming systems from Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo, with high-definition video displays, and customized gaming chairs. We operated from 2008-2017, serving thousands of gamers all over New England.
I’ve been at this writing thing for a long time. And yes, I designed that cover too. Blue triangles in the corners were so hot in ’77.
In 1989 she spoke to the love of her life. In 2019 he answered.
Keith Nolan falls in love with a remarkable young woman from the past, talking to him on a home video she recorded in 1989. To keep their conversation going, he must find more of her tapes, while forces work against them both, and time is running out.
The Kindle edition is available for pre-order now.
Print edition COMING SOON!
————————————————————————————————————-
My short story collection is available now in print and ebook.
Magical creatures, guardian angels, monsters under the bed, soul collectors, artificial intelligence, lovers lost in time, and a giant spider who is the keeper of all tales, are waiting to make your acquaintance.
Welcome to the latest version of the website.
I wanted to build something more streamlined and decided to remove all the old comedy stuff. If you’re looking for clips from Tonight @ 11:30 or Rit & Mike’s Comedy Funhouse, sadly they are gone, faded away into the ether of cyberspace.
This new site will focus more on my writing and publishing, all the activities with The Movie Bunker, and our houseful of rescued pets.
Welcome!
For the last three years, the great folks at Zoetic Press have hosted a creativity sprint for writers, poets, and photographers from around the world, called Write Like You’re Alive.
Over a one-month period, daily creative output is requested. When it’s over, editors select work to be published in an anthology.
I’ve participated in each one and have had my work included in each edition. They can be downloaded for free. HERE
I’m proud to be featured as the current interview (episode #27) on Arthur Macabe’s Interviews From The Void. It’s an ongoing project where he speaks to writers about their origins, inspirations, and work habits.
You can read the article HERE
