Writing

General posts about writing (sometimes my own, but not always)

The book is HERE

April 18, 2009 2 Comments

After having a really bad day, yesterday I came home to a nice surprise. A box with my copies of A Year of Hitchcock. It was just the kind of boost I needed after a terrible day. I can’t tell you how happy I am with the production quality of this book. The folks at Scarecrow Press and their parent company, Rowman & Littlefield, did a spectacular job. This is top work by any measure. Thumbing through it and seeing my words presented so nicely … well, I felt very proud. This whole project, which my co-author Jim and I have lived with for over three years now, now feels real. Real in a very tangible way. And that makes all the work we did,…
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Works by Eric, Writing

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On writing, and failing

April 17, 2009 0 Comments

“Someday I’d like to write a book,” they say, as if it’s akin to taking a stroll or, at worst, a difficult five-mile hike. But it’s closer to scaling a mountain. Scaling a mountain with dozens of rest stops along the way, each with a sign that reads, “Sorry, mountain unclimbable. Turn around and go home.” Those with the notion that writing is some haven of ease and comfort, that it’s not a constant daily struggle of epic proportions, just. Don’t. Know. Of course, then you get those aspiring writers who are, to put it charitably, a bit delusional. They think their every word is gold, refuse to learn the business side of writing, and feel a sense of entitlement. They’re entitled to praise, they’re…
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Writing

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Will I get a copy of the book next week?

April 15, 2009 1 Comment

A Year of Hitchcock

On April 28, A Year of Hitchcock: 52 Weeks with the Master of Suspense, the book I co-authored with Jim McDevitt, comes out. I have not yet seen a copy of it (though apparently it has been in the hands of at least one reviewer). Will I get a copy of it next week, prior to publication? I do not know. I also ordered a copy from Amazon – yes, I ordered a copy of my own book. Wouldn’t you? I’d like to get my copy so I can stick it on the shelf and pretend it serves as some degree of closure or something. It’s been very hard to throw myself fully into new projects when there remain niggling little things to do on…
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Works by Eric, Writing

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The really BORING part of having a book published

April 8, 2009 0 Comments

Counting down the weeks to the released of the book I co-authored with Jim McDevitt, A Year of Hitchcock, you’d think I’d be giddy with excitement. I mean, it’s just three weeks or so away, right? Any day now I might get my comp copy in the mail. How exciting! But the truth is, as I mention in How I Got Published, your obligation to your work does not end when the writing is over. When not working on other projects (such as my comic anthology), I’ve spent the better part of my personal working time the last week or so drafting and mailing letters to local libraries and book stores, calling to get the proper contact information, working on press releases, and other painfully…
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Alfred Hitchcock, Works by Eric, Writing

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Rejection letters ain’t so bad

March 11, 2009 3 Comments

Rejection letters. If you’re a writer, aspiring writer, wannabe writer, whatever writer, you’re going to deal with them. I don’t care how good you think you are, you will. That’s just reality. But here’s the thing: They need not be painful. Not even a little. Rejection letters are many things, chief among them something no writer likes to get, but they are more than a necessary evil. They are a sign that you’re an active writer. Proof that you’re actually writing, not just talking about writing. I mean, let’s face it, how many so-called “writers” do you know who never actually write? For every person who puts pens to paper or fingers to keyboard, there are a dozen of these talkers, people who like the…
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Random Musings, Writing

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