Musings from the basement...

FICTION: The Girl and the Gold Watch

This short piece sprang from a title an online acquaintance threw at me, one I thought he had made up. The title was so evocative, I immediately got a vision in my head of a little girl and … well, you can read it below. The problem? He hadn’t made it up. That was a poor assumption on my part. The title was The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything, and it belongs to a book I did not know existed. Regardless, it inspired this short piece of fiction that will maybe one day turn into a full-blown book. With a new title, of course… The Girl and the Gold Watch By Eric San Juan “You know I haven’t the money for that, Sissy. Put…
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Happy birthday to the mostest awesomest editor

Stephen Segal is awesome. I can vouch for this. He’s not awesome for being an award-winning editor, nor even for being the guy who guided me during the writing of Stuff Every Husband Should Know, Geek Wisdom, and Whispers of the Old Hag, my piece for the legendary Weird Tales Magazine. He’s awesome because he’s awesome. He’s not just a colleague in the publishing industry, nor my supervisor for several projects, nor even a good fellow. He’s a great guy, a tremendous talent, and a friend. Today is his birthday. Happy birthday, buddy. Hope to see you soon.

A Year of Hitchcock is on Kindle

I’ll be the first to admit that A Year of Hitchcock is not a cheap book. The (gorgeous) hardcover runs $40 to $50. Yeah, I’d love for you to buy one, but it’s not a small investment so I understand if you don’t. However, good news. Kindle version. And Nook version. And… It’s just $9.99. Yep, ten clams. That’s cheap. The book rocks. You should get it.

Why I chose to self-publish

When I decided to take Lakehurst: Barrens, Blimps & Barons and publish it on my own, I did not take the decision lightly. After all, I had been on a modest roll, with three traditionally published books I authored or coauthored hitting shelves in three years. Advocates of self-publishing are often driven by a “screw the man! Don’t let corporations decide what deserves to be published!” attitude, which is in and of itself not a bad thing … they just forget to tell you how much work self-publishing is, and shrug away any explanation of what traditional publishers do for authors. I’ve been happy with traditional publishers. My first three books — Stuff Every Husband Should Know, and coauthor on A Year of Hitchcock and…
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Writing is like acting

Sometimes, two seemingly unrelated worlds have more in common than you realize. Consider the worlds of writing fiction and acting. To some extent, writing fiction is a lot like acting. When you’re writing fiction you’re also playing a role, or rather, many roles. Part of your job as a writer is to immerse yourself in these characters. To know them with a great degree of intimacy and, most importantly, to guide their actions in a way that feels natural and believable. You’re trying to convince your audience that these are real people facing real obstacles, not pawn’s in the author’s plot. So part of being good at writing convincing characters is the ability to be a good actor. You can’t just write yourself. You can’t…
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