I self-published my one-and-only novel The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy about a year ago, and the most favorable comments I get are about the cover. That makes sense. Even people who don’t read the book will see the cover. Even people who didn’t care for the book too much said positive stuff about the cover.
Don’t get me wrong. A lot of people have made positive comments about the content of my book as well, but I know The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy isn’t for everyone. In fact, it can actually be a little polarizing.
After I was finished writing and revising and revising, I had no idea what I wanted in the cover because all I was interested in was trying to write a decent novel when I’m not a novelist. As far as the cover was concerned, I just wanted something that might stand out a little bit. I figured I’d look at iconic covers and see if there was something I could rip-off from one of them. For a few weeks, I scoured book sites and stared at hundreds of famous book covers, but the cover of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, a novel that I had sitting on my book shelf, stood out to me the most.
The dancing outline, I thought. I could rip-off the dancing outline.
In fact, I could have two outlines, a hot chick outline dancing crazy and dude outline watching her. I’m not sure my hand drawn outline comes across as an attractive woman, though. I’m not an artist. Even some professional artists can’t draw attractive women very well, so I don’t feel bad about my artwork. I still consider my older brother the artist in the family.
Actually, my uncle is “the” artist in my family, but that’s for another blog post.
I also threw in some editing marks in the title since the main character is an English teacher. I was pretty sure the editing marks would be distracting and confusing, but this was a rough draft cover, and I always include some bad ideas in my rough drafts.
I went to the website 99Designs and sent in my artwork (or whatever that is) to a designer named Setz who always responded within 24 hours (that’s a big deal to me. I don’t expect an immediate response; 24 hours is good). This was the first cover design.
This was the right track, I thought. The editing marks definitely didn’t work, so I asked to see just a normal title.
Much better. But I wondered if the dancing female looked more 1950s or 1960s than 1990s, so I asked for an “updated” version.
Yes! Then I asked for a lower case ‘s’ in ‘1990s’ so that the ‘s’ didn’t look like a 5. And I asked for the color to be filled in a little more. I might have been getting nitpicky at that point, but Setz still came through within 24 hours.
This was it! I was happy.
Oh yeah! I can’t forget the back and front cover spread.
Of course, you can find The Sunset Rises, A 1990s Romantic Comedy here on Amazon!!
Or you can buy it below from the ‘trunk of my car.’
The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy
Get a signed copy of my one and only novel, The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy. Free delivery in the United States!
$10.00
And for more about The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy…
The Main Character Of My Novel Is Not A Simp!
At Least I Know That My Book Doesn’t Suck!
Why Did I Write A Romantic Comedy When I Don’t Read or Watch Romantic Comedies?
Yeah, even I have to admit that this ending is a bit anti-climactic.
That’s it! No full-cast goodbye cartoon. No explanation of what happened to Captain Calloway. The last we see of Captain Calloway in this episode, we don’t even see him. In fact, we haven’t actually seen Captain Calloway since Episode 21. What a rip-off! Even Charlie Brown was treated better than this. Poor Captain Calloway.
Anyway, my older brother left our hometown and moved to the East Coast in the middle of 1979 for a new job that didn’t work out for very long, and he never continued Calloway the Castaway. He didn’t stop cartooning, though. And I’ll get to his next phase of cartooning next week.
Long live Calloway the Castaway!
For more Calloway the Castaway, back when he was treated with respect, start at The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 1!
Not sure what’s going on? Read the current storyline with Captain Calloway’s final physical appearance from the beginning below.
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 20 .
And come back next week for the first episode of… Dummo Mouse!?!?
I have a disagreement with Artificial Intelligence. It started when I typed the question “Is ‘crap’ a bad word?” into a search engine, and the following response came up at the top of the page:
My first thought was, “I disagree. You suck, A.I.”
My second thought was, “How can ‘crap’ be a bad word when “it essentially means ‘nonsense’ or ‘rubbish'”?
Most bad words have to do with bodily functions, sexual references/body parts, or outright curses/slurs. ‘Crap’ refers to garbage. Its only connection to other bad words is that ‘crap’ has four letters in it, so people think of it as one of the four-letter words.
Even ‘crap’s etymology shows that centuries ago ‘crappe’ meant garbage. It’s not the same thing as the word ‘sh*t.’ (I don’t know why I still self-censor stuff on my own blog when everybody knows what I mean). Even worse, the A.I. answer was incomplete because it leaves out an explanation of the necessary components of a bad word. This is Incomplete Artificial Intelligence, otherwise known as I.A.I.
Another problem with the A.I.’s answer is that it makes people’s opinions part of the equation. ‘Crap’ is a bad word because people say it’s a bad word. That’s the type of gibberish that leads to fluff philosophical beliefs like “perception is reality” when, in reality, reality is reality, and individual perceptions by themselves are wrong most of the time.
To be fair to A.I. (I don’t know if I have to be fair to a computer program), it did state that ‘crap’ is “considered a mild swear word or vulgar slang.” It did NOT outright say that ‘crap’ was a bad word. So now we have A.I. hedging its beliefs. This is just getting worse. I didn’t ask if ‘crap’ was considered a bad word. I asked if it actually is. Artificial Intelligence. Pffft.
I grew up believing that ‘crap’ was a bad word and that it meant ‘waste or feces,’ but when I looked up the etymology of ‘crap’ in a dictionary years ago, I realized that I had been wrong all that time. And I was glad that I was wrong. I like saying ‘crap.’ And since more people will trust A.I than will trust me, I want A.I. to agree with me.
Unfortunately, A.I. sucks. But at least A.I. knows that it sucks.
Here’s the blog post that inspired my question to A.I.:
*****
A.I. did not write my ONE novel! I wrote it all by myself, and you can find it here on Amazon!!
Or you can buy it below from the ‘trunk of my car.’
The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy
Get a signed copy of my one and only novel, The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy. Free delivery in the United States!
$10.00
More related blog posts:
Don’t Change the Meaning of Literally
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton might be the BEST YA NOVEL EVER!!! When The Outsiders was published in 1967, Young Adult fiction didn’t really exist. Bookstores didn’t have YA sections. All the books that weren’t meant for adults were in a kids’ section. If you were a teenager looking for a ‘good’ book, you wouldn’t find it in the kids’ section. If you wanted the good stuff, you had to read what the adults read.
I’m not saying that The Outsiders changed that, but The Outsiders helped. It’s a good book (that’s my book review). I recommend it (that’s a bonus to my book review). Almost everybody likes The Outsiders.
I even liked teaching The Outsiders with my 8th grade students before I retired. The students generally enjoyed The Outsiders (though they weren’t always wild about the essay assignments that came with it), and the book has enough literary weight to justify it being in the curriculum. I appreciated the literary references, and I had fun explaining why Pony Boy read Great Expectations while Johnny liked Gone With The Wind and Darry read The Carpetbaggers. Haha. The Carpetbaggers. Haha. You ought to see what I think about The Carpetbaggers .
S.E. Hinton wrote a bunch of books as an adult, and none of them that I’ve read come anywhere close to the depth and details that The Outsiders had. I’m not going to go into those details too much because it would be wasted effort. Hardly anybody would read all of it, and anybody who has read S.E. Hinton books probably knows what I’m talking about. Plus, I don’t care enough to make that kind of effort. I’m just wondering.
I’m treating this like I treated the argument about who was more important to the creation of Marvel Comics in the 1960s, Stan Lee or Jack Kirby. I just looked at what Jack Kirby created by himself and what Stan Lee created by himself, and I had my answer. With S.E., we can look at The Outsiders, which she allegedly (I’m kidding) wrote when she was around 16, and then look at all the novels she wrote as an adult, and we can see the difference.
I’m not saying that S.E. Hinton DIDN’T write The Outsiders. I just wonder if maybe somebody possibly helped her out and wasn’t credited. Maybe it was Truman Capote (that’s a To Kill A Mockingbird joke). Maybe it was someone else in the book publishing business. I don’t know who it was. And if she had help, that person should get some credit. Then again, that might damage the ‘story’ that a 16 year-old girl wrote this, and the publishing world can’t have that. It’s a good ‘story.’
Even if S.E. Hinton didn’t write The Outsiders by herself, I wouldn’t think of SE Hinton as ‘fake’ like some people think Helen Keller was ‘fake’ or the the moon landing was ‘fake.’ Even if Helen Keller didn’t really accomplish everything she was said to have accomplished (it WAS in a movie, and movies never embellish the truth), it still makes a cool story. Even if the U.S. never put men on the moon, it was a cool story, and it gave the U.S. a win when it needed one. In some situations, you don’t mess with a good ‘story.’
I’m not trying to bash S.E. Hinton or outright make accusations. I know what happens to people who go against the ‘story.’ They’re called ‘crazy.’ They ‘commit suicide.’ Even worse, the algorithm shuts them down. And 50 years later, people(sometimes, not always) look back and think ‘maybe that loon had a point.’
And remember, asking a question is not the same thing as making an accusation. I’m not accusing S.E. Hinton of secretly having help writing The Outsiders. I’m just curious about the disparity in quality between the The Outsiders and the novels she wrote as an adult. I’m just asking the question. I’m just wondering.
I SAID I’M NOT ACCUSING HER OF ANYTHING!!!
Here’s my ONE novel! I wrote it all by myself (you know what I mean), and you can find it here on Amazon!!
Or you can buy it below from the ‘trunk of my car.’
The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy
Get a signed copy of my one and only novel, The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy. Free delivery in the United States!
$10.00
I get the feeling that my older brother doesn’t really like these comic strips that he drew for our local weekly newspaper back in 1979. For years, he thought he had lost these until he accidentally found them stuffed in some old boxes stored in his garage, but he didn’t seem very excited to have been reunited with them.
The newspaper clippings that he’d taped together were yellowed from age and exposure to extreme temperatures. The originals had been folded in a disorganized pile and tossed into a box. Several originals (like today’s episode) were lost altogether. He definitely had not handled them with care.
Then again, these might have been packed by his ex-wife.
For more “Calloway the Castaway,” start at The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 1!
Not sure what’s going on? Read the current storyline from the beginning below!
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 20
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 21
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 22
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway The Castaway” Episode 23
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway The Castaway” Episode 24
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 25
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 26
And come back next week for The Last Adventure of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 28.
This probably isn’t the best pair of books to read at the same time.
Both Shogun by James Clavell and The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough are historical epic novels from decades ago. Shogun was published in 1975 at 1210 paperback pages. The First Man In Rome was published in 1990 at 935 paperback pages. The First Man in Rome also has 140 pages of glossary that I didn’t include in my page count. Shogun has no glossary. Shogun paralleled 1970s fascination with East Asian culture. The First Man in Rome paralleled Western culture’s general fascination with the Roman Empire.
Shogun is easy for me to read. It’s more like an adventure novel than a historical drama. I read Shogun almost 50 years ago when I was in eighth grade, just before the NBC mini-series began. The First Man in Rome is a slog (for me). I’ve attempted it three times and have never finished it. I started it a few months ago, and I’m stuck on page 627. I’m much more interested in the Roman Empire than I am in Japanese culture before the influence of the West, so I should be enjoying The First Man In Rome more. I probably should have already finished it by now. I’m only a few hundred pages off.
Shogun is primarily a Westerner’s perspective of feudal Japan’s culture, with doses of the Japanese characters’ thoughts and motivations. The First Man in Rome is almost like an insider’s look at ancient Roman life. Even though most of the characters are historical figures, the details of specific locations and everyday items is… kind of boring to a guy like me. Fans of The First Man in Rome are fascinated by the McCullough’s thoroughness, so I can’t complain about it. I know I should appreciate the details, but I get impatient for the author to get to the story.
When you’re done reading Shogun, that’s it. There’s not a sequel. You can watch two TV versions, one from last year on Amazon and one made for network television in 1980. Clavell has some other great novels like Taipan, King Rat, and Noble House, but none of these are directly related to Shogun (as far as I know).
When you’re done reading The First Man in Rome, you have several more books in the series, including The Grass Crown, Fortune’s Favorites, Caesar’s Women, and maybe a couple others that I probably won’t get to. And if that’s not enough, the series Rome on HBO reminds some readers of McCullough’s Rome novels, but I haven’t read enough of her books to know if that comparison is really a comparison. The Rome series is good, though the second season was kind of rushed.
To me, the characters in Shogun are much more interesting. Each character is motivated by fear to some extent, knowing that decapitation or torture is one wrong move or wrong word away. The characters in The First Man in Rome are bland, motivated by their desires for greatness or belief in their destinies. There’s little tension in most scenes. Some of the details are interesting, but (to me) the scenes aren’t riveting. Even characters who suffer brutal deaths show little if any fear of what’s about to happen. Maybe the Romans were made of sterner stuff. Sterner than pre-Western Japanese culture? I doubt that.
I’m a little biased against The First Man in Rome because I want to see the Romans lose, but that’s not The First Man in Rome’s fault. Most readers don’t share my feelings.
I might not have enough time in my life to read a lot of books the size of Shogun or The First Man in Rome series, so I have to be picky. I’ll probably end up finishing both, but my preference so far is Shogun by James Clavell. The First Man in Rome is definitely high quality and worth reading, but the perspectives and pacing in Shogun make it more interesting to me.
What do you think? Which do you prefer? A high quality book that’s thoroughly detailed and historically accurate? Or a high quality book that moves quickly with lots of tension and action and drama?
And to read a book that is NOT a historical epic, get a copy of my ONE novel here on Amazon!!
Or you can get a signed copy from ‘the trunk of my car’ below.
The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy
Get a signed copy of my one and only novel, The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy. Free delivery in the United States!
$10.00
And for more LIterary Combat…
Dr. Seuss vs. Stephen King! The Battle of the Self-Banned Books
Harry The Dirty Dog vs. Dirty, The Hairy Dog
Unfortunately, “Calloway the Castaway” had several factors working against it back in 1979. The comic strip appeared in a small suburban weekly newspaper with few readers. The small weekly newspaper didn’t pay my older brother anything for his weekly cartoon. And my older brother was 21 and broke. When he suddenly had the opportunity to move to the East Coast to pursue other endeavors (including a woman), he took it.
What was a 21 year-old guy supposed to do? Stay in a small suburb and continue cartooning for free? Or move to the East Coast chasing a woman?
Looking back, he probably should have sta… aw, never mind.
For more “Calloway the Castaway,” start at The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 1!
Not sure what’s going on? Read the current storyline from the beginning below!
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 20
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 21
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 22
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway The Castaway” Episode 23
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway The Castaway” Episode 24
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 25
And come back next week for The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 27 .
Years ago, when I wrote blog serials for Dysfunctional Literacy, Awkward Moments in Dating was the only blog serial series where I wrote multiple sets of stories. It’s not because there was such a demand for more Awkward Moments in Dating stories. It’s more like I just had a lot of them to write about.
Back in the early 1990s, I was an average (on a good day) looking guy with occasional moments of charisma. I had some success in the dating world, but I had to put effort into it. Unfortunately, when things went wrong on a date, they really went wrong.
It’s a good thing that I’ve been married and have aged out of the dating market because I don’t want to go through any of these awkward situations again. It’s bad enough remembering them. Of course, there might come a time when I WON’T remember any of these moments, but I try not to think about that too much.
Each story below is the first episode of its own Awkward Moments in Dating series (with links to the next episode). Dating disasters aren’t fun to experience, but they’re great when they happen to somebody else.
Awkward Moments in Dating: The Coworker
Awkward Moments in Dating: The Ex-Boyfriend
Awkward Moments in Dating: Just Friends
Awkward Moments in Dating: Prom
Awkward Moments in Dating: The Poetry Professor and My Ex-Girlfriend
And to read the ultimate Awkward Moment in Dating story, get a copy of my ONE novel here on Amazon!!
Or you can get a signed copy from ‘the trunk of my car.’
The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy
Get a signed copy of my one and only novel, The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy. Free delivery in the United States!
$10.00
Is the correct word ‘blither’ or ‘blather’? I always thought it was ‘blather, but I just found out I was semi-wrong. Several online dictionaries have both ‘blither’ and ‘blather’ with the meaning as ‘long-winded.’ I then thought maybe one could be a verb and one would be a noun, but no, evidently both ‘blither’ and ‘blather’ can be used as either nouns or verbs.
Even my 1973 Random House College Dictionary lists both ‘blither’ and ‘blather’ as words. The internet might be wrong, but Random House wouldn’t be, at least not back in 1973.
Enough blither (or blather) about these words! Here’s the 25th episode of my older brother’s comic strip “Calloway the Castaway,” published in our local weekly newspaper back in 1979.
For more “Calloway the Castaway,” start at The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 1!
Not sure what’s going on? Read the current storyline from the beginning below!
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 20
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 21
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 22
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway The Castaway” Episode 23
The Lost Adventures of “Calloway The Castaway” Episode 24
And come back next week for The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 26 .
When I first saw the cover of James: A Novel by Percival Everett, I thought, ‘What a lazy title. Who the hell is James, and why would I want to read a novel about him?’
Then when I read about the premise of the book, I thought, ‘I’ve already read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. If I’m going to read The Adventure of James, I want to read Mark Twain’s version.’
Except Mark Twain didn’t write a novel about Jim.
A part of me thinks it’s cool that somebody is writing pastiche fiction about Mark Twain characters. I’m not usually a fan of pastiche fiction, but at least the author chose a character that doesn’t have his/her own book yet.
I don’t, however, normally read pastiche fiction. Any Conan the Barbarian story written by somebody other than Robert E. Howard is just a story about another barbarian who happens to be named Conan. Any James Bond story written by an author other than Ian Fleming is just a story about a random spy who happens to be named James Bond. Any Sherlock Holmes story written by somebody other than…. You get the idea.
Out of curiosity, I started reading James: A Novel. It was okay. It’s easier to read than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I kind of rolled my eyes when James and the slaves started speaking in perfect English when nobody else was around. That kind of thing works for a high school skit (depending on the high school, I guess), but it’s an eye roll for a serious novel.
Maybe Percival Everrett just didn’t want to write dialect (I have no proof to back that up). Dialect is a pain to write, and people don’t like reading it. Readers probably appreciate how straight forward the writing in James: A Novel is. And maybe they like the idea of slaves speaking perfect grammar when nobody else is around.
Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe slaves did speak perfect English when their owners weren’t around. I admit that I have astonishing gaps in my knowledge. Maybe I’m the only person who doesn’t know about this historical tidbit.
What’s more likely? Percival Everett didn’t want to write dialect? Or that slaves spoke perfect English when nobody else was around? I’m not qualified to answer that question.
I’ll also admit that I’m not the best judge of what works and what doesn’t work for serious novels (literary fiction). I hardly ever read serious novels. I like to read stuff that’s actually good (by ‘good,’ I mean ‘entertaining’).
Is James: A Novel worth reading? That depends. Do you think James: A Novel is a lazy title? Are you glad that the author didn’t use a lot of dialect in the narration and dialogue? Do you mind reading about a Mark Twain character in a book that’s not written by Mark Twain? If you answered “yes” and “no” to some of the previous questions, you might enjoy James: A Novel.
*****
My ONE novel might not be considered serious fiction, but at least it doesn’t have a lazy title. I worked hard on that title.
*****
A grammar-obsessed English teacher falls in ‘luuuvvv’ but discovers how chaotic and dangerous ‘luuuvvv’ can be.
The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy
Get a signed copy of my one and only novel, The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy. My handwriting is actually legible, but I’m left-handed, so I might smudge my signature sometimes. Free delivery in the United States!
$10.00
Or you can buy a copy here on Amazon!
Here’s more Literary Glance!
Literary Glance: The Murder House by James Patterson
Literary Glance: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Literary Glance: It by Stephen King
Dysfunctional Literacy 