I Think My Publisher Is Ripping Me Off

"I have not read your novel ALL OR NOTHING yet, but I have ordered it on Amazon. It sounds intriguing. I have a question about a poetry contest I entered a few weeks ago. The company has emailed to say that I am a semi-finalist and that my poem will be published in their poetry anthology. They want me to purchase a copy of the anthology . . ."

Enough. I know where this is going. Yes, it sounds like a scam. There are many poetry "contests" in which all of the contestants win or are semi-finalists and are published in the company's anthology. The winner is then encouraged to purchase copies of the over-priced anthology to give to family and friends.

This is not a contest, emailer, because everybody who enters wins. My daughter won when she was in third grade. Think about it. These people make money by having you and every other entrant purchase the anthology. They are in the business of selling anthologies, not judging contests.

Please check out the following website, Predators and Editors, before you submit your work to a company that you think is shady. http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/

There are many poets and writers eager to get published and there are quite a few shady companies out there who will pretend to legitimacy in order to steal their money.

Thanks,

Preston

Which Is Harder to Write, Poetry or Stories?

"I don't know what else to ask. Which, in your opinion is harder to write, poetry or fiction? Thanks. Budding Writer."

Okay, budding writer, I'll bite at this trick question.

First, let's rephrase the question: which is harder to write well, poetry or fiction?

If you ask this question, you are probably thinking that you have some poetic talent, but that short stories and novels seem so long and therefore must take so long to write. If you are a poet and you want to write stories, just go ahead and learn to write them. Stop focusing on length.

I know, I know, I know, dear poet, you are used to beginning a project in the morning and seeing the finished project in the evening. Get over it. If you want to write stories and novels, prose fiction, you are going to have to stop being intimidated by major investments of time.

Now to get back to the question. Which is harder to write well, poetry or stories?

I'm going to surprise you. I think novels are easier to write well, short stories are the next easiest, and poetry is probably the hardest of the three to write well. With the emphasis on well.

Think about it like this:

A novel can have a few bad chapters and still be considered a great novel. As novelist E.M. Forster put it: "A novel is a loose, baggy monster."

A short story is harder. If it has a bad chapter--the thing fails. Think about it--a short story sometimes is the length of a novel chapter. But a short story can have a few bad sentences, maybe even a bad paragraph, and still be considered great.

A poem can't even have a bad line or a poorly chosen word. It is a denser work. Every word must be carefully chosen. Every word counts.

I hope that helps.

Thanks for the question, Budding Writer.

Preston

These Are the Things That Drive a Gambler Mad

So . . .

Last night I was playing Parchesi with my kids. I was winning. Yippieee! I got two of my pawns home and had the last two in the zone waiting to be sent home. Unfortunately, they were occupying the same spot and they both needed a "7," a difficult roll, to get home. In other words, I needed to roll a "7" twice in order to win.

My lead quickly dwindled as I waited to roll a "7." I was rolling everything, it seemed, but a "7." Eventually, my son and daughter got their pawns into positon. They looked like they were positioned to overtake me while I was waiting for that stingy "7," and I needed two of them!

Then suddenly, I rolled a "7."

Yippieee!

Now all I needed was one more "7" to win.

When my turn came again, I rolled a "7." Game over. Papa wins!!!!

My daughter said, "Well, you got your lucky "7."

So the next day, as I was going to check the winning numbers in the Cash-3, my daughter said, "I hope you played 7s because you won with them last night in Parchesi."

What a strange thing for the child to say.

When I checked the winning numbers, my jaw dropped.

777.

The 7s had played.

Now granted, I do not gamble anymore, but good googly moogly if I had had the slightest inkling that the 7s were going to play, I would have racked up.

And not just one 7, but three of them.

These are the things that drive gamblers mad.

Sad Preston tonight

Sad, sad Preston tonight

How can I get my work published?

"Preston,

Loved ALL OR NOTHING. P is so frustrating. One minute he is sweet, the next he is doing something sneaky and disgusting so that he can gamble. He is so real. It is hard to put down the book. I'm glad you have this blog up. It's like a fan page. Are you on Myspace?

I deliver pizzas and as a female in pizza delivery, I have some stories to tell. I have written three of them as essays, and my professor at SMU said that I should try to get some of them published and I have enough of them in my head to write a book. Do you have any tips in trying to get short stories published? Do I need an agent?

Pizza-girl"

Thanks, for the email, Pizza-girl. I delivered pizza when I was in college, so I think I know some of what you are going through. Do they still pay you one half the minimum wage and you make up the rest in tips? Do you still have to use your own car and they pay you nothing for wear and tear? Do they still take five percent of your tips to pay the pizza-maker? What an adventure. There is a novel in that. There are probably many novels in that. I plan to write one one day. Good luck with yours.

Yes, I am on Myspace, but I haven't done much to build up my page yet. On Myspace, I am PLAR. One day I will fix up my Myspace page--but I love blogging! Keep those emails coming.

Some tips on publishing short stories.

First of all, you do not need an agent for short stories unless you are going to publish them as a collection.

Tips:

Use the WRITER'S MARKET to locate the names and addresses of magazines to submit to. Then submit. The WRITER'S MARKET can be purchased in a bookstore or accessed online. I'm sure SMU's campus bookstore has a copy.

Submit to writing contests. Writing contests, in addition to paying cash prizes or awards and trophies, will often publish your story if you win. Writing contests often give you feedback on your stories even if you do not win. You can also be relatively sure that your story was read if you submitted it to a writing contest. Sometimes magazines reject your story without reading it because they are under tremendous time constraints.

Simultaneous submissions. Do not simultaneously submit your manuscript if your target magazines say "No simultaneous submissions" as part of their requirements. On the other hand, you might try submitting to several magazines at the same time that say "simultaneous submissions OK" as part of their requirements.

Do not write an overly long cover letter or longwinded bio in your email (if you submit online). The cover letter is not what is going to get you read; the story itself will get you read. So make your story compelling and make your cover letter brief and professional.

Finally, does your college have a student literary magazine? Submit to that. It will get you exposure and also bring you into contact with the students on campus who are into writing. Many of them have publishing contacts among the professors and in the larger writing world. Join the campus literary magazine. Help them put it together and see how much work that takes and keep making contacts. Contacts will help you get published.

Good luck,

Preston

Have You Ever Hit It Big Gambling?

"In reading your novel, ALL OR NOTHING, I was really into the scenes in which P was playing the slots at the casino. Those were great!! My adrenaline was pumping when he hit it big. That was well written. You seem to know that feeling. Have you ever hit it big like that at a casino? A fan."

Thanks for the question, fan. Thanks for being a fan. We all need more fans!

I was at an Indian casino back in . . . 1992, yes, Hurricane Andrew. I was there with a serious gambler. I was bored watching him play poker. So I turned to the slot machine behind his table and put in a $5 I think, and I played it for a quarter because I am a cheapskate. Then I got brave and raised my bet to 50 cents and bang! The machine started pinging. Ping-ping-ping-ping-ping-ping.

I tapped my companion (a kinsman who wants his identity withheld) on the shoulder and told him, "Look, I just won a hundred dollars!"

He twisted his neck to glance at the machine and frowned. "You did not win a hundred dollars, you knucklehead. You just won ten thousand dollars."

Holy sh . . . ten grand!!!

They weren't kidding either. They came around and asked me if I wanted it in cash or check. Check, I said, of course. I was not a gambler. I did not know what to do with a large sum of money like that. . . well, I did have a wedding coming up.

Later, after I had become a gambler and before GA, I hit other, larger sums--but mostly I learned to write scenes like that from watching other gamblers who won; and from wishing it were me.

I watched an older man, a Canadian tourist, a stranger to the Indian casino, fumbling around with the controls, grumbling, and muttering, "How do you get this dang thing off zero? Is zero the only number it plays?"

The guy had all zeroes on all four screens.

"And how do you lower the dang bet?"

The guy had the maximum $10 bet on all four screens. Forty bucks would be lost if he hit PLAY.

I was laughing to myself playing my own machine. I'm a nice guy. I was thinking that if no floor help came to them (his wife was there fumbling around, too) that I would show them how to work the controls on the machine.

The next thing I knew, their machine was singing, ping-ping-ping-ping-ping like crazy. The old man, or maybe his wife, had accidentally touched the PLAY button and the incredible number 0-0-0-0-0-0 had come tumbling out. They had just hit all zeroes on all four screens for the max bet on all four screens: i.e., $50,000 x 4= $200,000.

Holy sh . . .

Witnessing things like that helped me to write those casino scenes. Wishing things like that would happen to me helped me to write those casino scenes.

Thanks,

Preston

People Can Be As Interesting As Spaceships

"I haven't finished reading your novel All OR Nothing yet, but I like it very much. I am curious, what novelists did you read that inspired you to write? A reader."

Thanks for the question, reader.

I will say that I have always been a voracious reader, even as a child, and I read many novels growing up. Nevertheless, it wasn't until I read the novel BOYS AND GIRLS TOGETHER by William Goldman that I seriously considered writing a novel. I was about 15, I think. Yes, 15. I was in ninth grade. After reading that book, I thought, hmmmm, maybe I can do this novel thing.

Why not? I had already written a "novel", sort of, back in seventh grade. It was like 300 hundred pages long, and it involved space ships, sword fights, laser blasters, trolls, dragons, and it was completely episodic and completely derived from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Even I knew that it was awful. I had written it for kicks, I told myself.

That was okay because back then I was writing short stories, which I considered my serious work. As a kid, I loved short story collections, the kind that you could read straight through--this meant science fiction anthologies and sci-fi short story collections (The Martian Chronicles, I Robot, R Is for Rocket, S Is for Space, the Nebula Awards)--my friend Richard and I would call each other and read our favorite stories or the best parts of stories out loud to each other over the phone. My cousin Marcia and I would swap anthologies and then argue over which stories we liked best and why. At night, after homework and Bible study, I would write these ironic-ending short stories and read them to my buddies at lunch the next day. If they laughed at the slapstick or got tricked by the surprising twists or got grossed out by the slick, sickening violence, then I knew I had done a good job. So while I loved reading novels, I had dreams of being a short story writer, not a novelist, back then.

But after Goldman's book, I took out one of the short stories I had completed, Tigger Yum-Yum, erased the childish surprise-ending, added some depth to the characters, and saw in my head how this short story of a post apocalypse boy and his doomed grandfather could grow up to be a novel.

You see, Goldman's book, which I bought at a used bookstore for 50 cents, taught me something.

People, real people, can be as interesting as spaceships.

Problems, real problems, can hold the reader's attention as firmly as the promise of a trick ending.

This is not to say that any of the hundreds of novels I had read prior to Goldman's book had lacked character development or empathy; it is just that when I read that book, I was ready, finally, to notice that it was these elements that I had been reading for all along, beginning with the first "good read" I had had, Charlotte's Web.

Real people, Real problems: this is what I had been reading for even in the science fiction stories I loved, no matter how well disguised they were by the gadgetry, space opera, and pat, ironic endings.

Now, reader, before I get any further off track, let me tell you that the writers who have most influenced me, and perhaps my style, were and still are short story writers beginning with John Cheever, whom I first read during freshman year in college.

Here is a list of other writers who have inspired me and whose collections I usually read straight through and the presence of whose names in the table of contents of anthologies will cause me to purchase said anthology.

T. C. Boyle
John Barth
Ray Bradbury
Alice Munro
Gonzalo Barr (Read him! New on the scene. Excellent!)
Ernest Hemingway
Isaac Asimov
Junot Diaz
Richard Russo
Ray Carver
Leonard Nash (Read him! New on the scene. Excellent!)
Harlan Ellison
J. California Cooper
Joyce Carol Oates
Rick Bass
Laura valeri (Read her! New on the scene. Excellent!)
Ursula K. LeGuin
John Dufresne
Richard Ford
Denis Johnson
Stephen King
Maggie Estep
Lewis Nordan
Tim O’Brien
William Faulkner
Lynne Barrett
Preston L. Allen (Read me! I'm no slouch either!)
Louis Erdrich
Flannery O’Connor
Susan Minot
Sherman Alexie
John Cheever (I just had to say his name twice)
(there are others, I am sure, but my memory is foggy on this, the first day of 2008, so forgive me. I'll add more names to this list when I get the fireflies out of my head. Happy New Year.)


Preston

Writer's Block

"Preston L. Allen, I loved your book, All or Nothing, I have been a fan of yours since I read Hoochie Mama. I have been thinking about writing a book on a similar subject, horse racing which I know alot about, but every time I sit down to write, the ideas just don't come. You have written several books, do you ever have writer's block? What do you do for writer's block. A reader."

Dear Reader, it is new Years Eve and this is my last post for the year. I am going to cheat. A response I wrote to this same question has been circulating the internet for a few years now, so I will just cut and paste it here as my answer so that I can go and celebrate the holiday.

Writer's Block?

The question of writer's block comes up every time I teach a creative writing class, so I'm going to answer it for once and for all.

If you ever get writer's block, do what I do.

Go swing a golf club. Or go watch a movie. Or read a book. Or talk with a friend. Do something. Eat a pizza.

Do anything.

Just don't worry about writer's block. It goes away eventually, especially since it does not exist in the first place.

Here's the deal. If I commissioned you to write a play about a group of friends united by their love of fried conch, you'd go out and do it because, one, it's a job, and, two, you can write. Piece of cake. Your biggest problem would be doing the research on conch, but the actual writing would be a cinch.

On the other hand, if I commissioned you to go sit down and write a great play and I gave you no further directions, you'd sit on your butt and ponder suicide.

That sitting on your butt and pondering self immolation is what the layman calls writer's block. What do I write? What the heck do I write? My god, I have nothing to write about. My god, nothing is coming out of me. I'm blocked.

No you're not blocked. Are you deaf? Can you not hear what your inner writer is really saying? I HAVE nothing to write about.

Again, there is no such thing as writer's block, but there is such a thing as no assignment.

Writing is a job. Sometimes you have a boss. Sometimes you're self-employed. Either way, you've got lots of work to do.

The writer with the boss (journalist, script doctor, ad person, jinglist, jingoist) never has writer's block. Heck, the writer with the boss has too much writing to do.

The self-employed writer, on the other hand, is her own boss, and now I think you see the problem. The self-employed writer has to do TWO jobs: write AND come up with the assignments. When she can't find an assignment, she says she has writer's block. The big lie. That's like a teacher saying he has teacher's block because it's summer and he can't find any kids to teach.

Follow the pen, my brothers and sisters. Follow the pen. What the self-employed writer has to do, when he can't find an assignment is pick up the pen and write. Just write. It's your job, buddy. So write. Write anything. "I can't find anything to write about. There is absolutely nothing to write about. The only interesting thing is that story about the dog and the necktie I was putting off to work on over the summer. Actually, that story is pretty good. It kind of reminds me of the way I used to write when . . . ."

And voila! Writer's block is gone, because it never existed.

The other thing you have to remember is that as a self-employed writer, you are not restricted to writing plays--you can write anything. So start following the pen, and maybe it will become an essay, a poem, a page in the journal, some crappy ten pages of ramblings about a mutt and a necktie, a play, a great play, whatever. It doesn't matter because you are your own boss, and thus, the only standard you set for yourself is that you find TRUTH in everything you write.

So . . . if you want to write more and feel less of that thing called writer's block that we both agree does not exist, then you must go out and get yourself a job as a writer (see list above in paragraph 7).

Or give yourself more structure as a self-employed writer. "I am going to write two pages of dialogue in my new play every day for a month. Then I am going to write a page of synopsis of a future project every night." Then follow your rules. This rigor will work to trick the mind into thinking that you are answering to some boss who requires two pages of this or that each day or she will withhold your paycheck.

There are other techniques like that, which you can find in every beginning creative writing textbook.

But, come on, it's all smoke and mirrors, really.

You don't need that stuff. Structure. Groannn. Yuck.

That's why you're self-employed in the first place! You hate structure. You want the freedom of writing only when it is fresh and original and novel . . . I think the word I'm searching for here is "inspired." You want the freedom to write only when you're inspired. INSPIRATION is your boss. INSPIRATION tells you what assignments to work on.

But sometimes when you sit around waiting for inspiration, you kinda feel like nothing will ever come. You kinda feel like you have writer's block. Here we go again.

Your problem is you want to have your cake and eat it, too.

You want brilliant inspiration to flow from your pen, but you're too lazy to treat writing like a job and do it every day so that you get better at it and better at it until every time you pick up your pen the muses obey YOUR commands.

You want to spend months away from writing while you PLAY AT being a writer, in your smoking jacket, at those chic gatherings, where all the cool writers who, like you, have mastered the "writer's look" hang out--and then, finally, when all the parties have ended, you, with your writing muscles flabby from disuse, expect to just sit down and demand brilliance to flow. Then when, surprise, surprise, it does not come, you claim writer's block.

That's not the way it's done, my brothers and sisters. If you want to be a writer, you'd better pick up that pen.

Every day.

And enjoy the pizza.

Thanks,

Preston L. Allen

Happy New Year!

Why did you cut that great scene?

"Professor Allen,

I read your novel, All or Nothing. IT WAS AMAZING!!

It seems to be a very realistic view of gamblers and their addictions. I know that this novel is fiction, but I can't help but think that you got some of these ideas from your own personal experience . . . Were you ever sucked into the gambling world?

. . . one thing is that reading the passage of How I killed My Beloved Son on your website really helped me understand what was going on in the novel. I don't know why the publishers would make you take that out!! That was such a good chapter!!!

All in all it was a very great book. It only took me two days to read it, which hardly ever happens. I would love to read some more of your books! Which ones would you recommend that have that harsh reality tone? Keep up the great writing!

A. F. "

Thanks for the email, A. F., and for the great semester. It was fun having you in my freshman rhetoric class.

One of the first rules we learn in creative writing classes is "kill your darlings"; i.e., cut those sections, no matter how beautiful they are, that are preventing the work from being as strong as it can be.

Yeah, that happens sometimes. We have to cut things--things that we love--when we edit. It is hard for me to explain (now) why that particular section or any other was cut, but I do know that as we were working on the book, that part of it felt "wrong," either to me or to my wonderful editor Katie Blount, and so it had to go. There were other sections like that, well written passages that slowed the work as a whole, or great scenes that did not fit the overall feel of the book. I think the cuts worked--I like the feel of the book now.

[Check out my blog on Editors on my other blog site (Ing and Bling) at http://www.prestonlallen.blogspot.com/ December 8, What's It Like Working with an Editor?].

Ironically, A.F., some of those cut scenes (3 of them) have been published as stand-alone short stories, and some of them are the basis for the sequel (in progress), which may or may not be called "Son of a P." Yes, sadly, P's beloved son grows up to be a worse degenerate even than his father.

The other book of mine that you might check out that comes close to having that "harsh reality tone" that you speak of is HOOCHIE MAMA--it is gritty and harsh, but as a thriller it deals with a "less real" kind of reality than we encounter in ALL OR NOTHING.

Thanks A.F.,

Prof. Allen

I Don't Read All That Much

"I have completed the first draft of a novel that my friends and family who have read it say is very good. It is kind of science fiction/kind of psychological horror, but for juveniles (ages 12-18). All who have read my book say it is better than the Harry Potter series, which I have not read because, to be honest, I am not much of a reader. I have always been a good writer (got all A's in high school and college), but I have only read the books that my teachers assigned because I don't really like reading all that much. I have to admit that I enjoy watching movies. So shoot me. I would like you to take a look at my manuscript to tell me if I am on the right track. I would also like to talk to you about how I might go about getting the book published. Thanks. Emailer."

Wow. Is this a prank sent to me by one of my friends? Come on, guys. Cut it out. An aspiring writer who does not like to read "all that much?"

Okay. Whatever. I'll play your little game.

Okay, Emailer, let me try to answer this as diplomatically as I can, because you said something in your email that . . . greatly offends the writerly spirit in me. You admitted that you do not read.

First, go out and read some books not assigned to you by your teachers. Read the Harry Potter series especially because it is your competition and you have to be aware of what your competition is doing.

Second, join a writers group in your area and share your work with a few objective readers who are not numbered among your family and friends.

Third, revise, revise, revise, revise.

Fourth, read some more books, say, five hundred or maybe a thousand.

Fifth, call me in two or three years when you have been reborn.

Look, emailer, I know that there is always an exception to the rule; but the rule yet remains etched in stone: Those Who Will Write Must First Read.

A novelist's best writing teacher is a novel.

We learn to speak because we first listened; we learn to write because we first read.

On the other hand, I have suspected that over the past decade or so a number of books that have made it onto the bookstore shelves were written by people who had little experience with reading themselves . . . and yet they want to be novelists . . . are novelists . . .

I don't want to say anymore about this because I believe the email is a prank anyway.

Thanks,

Preston

What Are Your Favorite Games?

"What are your favorite games at the casino? I notice that in your novel, P played the Build-your-own Lotto a great deal and Texas Hold'em. A reader."

My favorite games are Omaha hi-low, as far as cards are concerned and Wheel of Fortune, as far as slots are concerned.

In the book, P played Texas Hold'em because it is a game America is hooked on, though I personally believe that Omaha is a much more exciting game. P also played the lotto machines because numbers (rather than fruit) hold greater symbolic possibilities.

Thanks,

Preston

Should I Copyright my manuscript?

"I have written a new novel that I think has a great chance for commmercial success that I would like you to look at. I am also sending it out to many agents and publishers. Before I do that, should I have it copyrighted?"

Yes, have it copyrighted.

A few years ago I would have told you not to worry about that; I would have told you that no one is likely to steal your manuscript in this business; I would have told you to use the poor man's copyright; i.e., send a copy of the manuscrip to yourself via the U.S. Post Office and do not break the seal until you need to prove your case in court.

These days, now that I have seen what looks like versions of my work and my friends' works in film and what not, I am now advising that all writers copyright their work.

Do it.

Thanks,

Preston

I have a manuscript I would like you to edit

"I loved your book! P is insane! I have a manuscript about gambling that I would like you to look at. I heard from one of your colleagues that you also edit manuscripts. My book is set in Europe. I am in the Air Force. A writer."

You loved the book? Thanks!

At this time, I pretty much have all of the manuscripts that I can handle and the new semester begins next week at the college. But contact me at the end of January, the beginning of February, and we'll see if we can't set something up. I've never edited a gambling manuscript. It might be fun.

Thanks,

Preston

Are You P?

"Are you P? Your first name is Preston and the hero of your book is P. A reader."

Am I P? No, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no.

That one is hard to answer. I'll save it up until I get on Oprah. Well, of course I had to be acquainted with gambling to be able to write this book . . . and the story does begin in Miami, where I live . . . let me put it to you like this, there but by the Grace of God go I.

Because of what I have lived through, I do not judge gamblers. I do not judge P. I only try to tell their stories.

Thanks for the question,

Preston

I Have a Friend Who May Be a Gambler

"I have a friend who reminds me of the character THE PROFESSOR in your book. He may be a gambler. How do you know if someone you love has a gambling problem? What are the signs? A reader."

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on this. I'll give you something I found on a website called Caringchurches.com. It is pretty similar to what I feel, though it is stated a little bit different from the way the recognized authroities state it (go to http://www.helpguide.org/mental/gambling_addiction.htm#symptoms_gambling_addiction to see what the recognized authorities say).
_____________________________
. . . From Caring Churches.com . . .

STAGE ONE: The gambler develops a dependence on gambling.

-- Negative changes take place within the gambler.
-- These changes are not yet obvious to others.
-- The gambler has a new sense of competence, power, and control.
-- The gambler feels a sense of euphoria and exhilaration.
-- The gambler views gambling as harmless entertainment or as a release.

STAGE TWO: A gambling problem becomes obvious to those closest to the gambler.

-- The gambler's whole lifestyle is affected by gambling.
-- Relationships with others are negatively affected (arguing with family and friends, conflict with coworkers).
-- The gambling problem becomes obvious to those closest to the gambler.
-- The gambler's productivity decreases (irresponsibility, procrastination).
-- The gambler becomes more consumed with gambling.
-- Lies and deception become a regular part of the gambler's life.
-- The gambler begins stealing money and using other dishonest means to gamble.

STAGE THREE: The gambler loses all control. Gambling becomes his or her master.

-- The euphoria from gambling is gone but the gambler keeps gambling anyway.
-- Gambling addiction dominates every facet of the gambler's life.
-- The gambler becomes totally enslaved to gambling.
-- The gambler's social world consists mostly of other gamblers.
-- The gambler's most important relationships become severely damaged or destroyed.
-- Most of the gambler's awake hours are spent gambling or taking steps to gamble.
-- Chaos and complete loss of control characterize the gambler's life.
-- Legal problems mount (the gambler may be arrested for stealing or embezzling).
-- The gambler files for bankruptcy.
-- The gambler begins contemplating suicide.
-- The gambler attempts suicide.

_________________________

It's pretty grim the way caringchurches.com states it, but I have known gamblers in every stage listed above, so I agree with them.

Thanks for your question,

Preston

Tell Me About Your Book

"Tell me about your book. I think I'd like to purhchase it. And what is your favorite part of the book? A reader."

Thanks. Go ahead and purchase it right away! Don't let me stop you. Hahaha.

But believe it or not, for many writers this is a rather difficult thing to do--describe their book. I have known writers to spend days trying to come up with a 100-word blurb. For me, it is easier to say what my book is about after I have listened to readers describe how they felt when they were reading it. My readers say that the book is about a man who hits it big and learns that winning is not everything. My readers say that the book is a cautionary tale about how addiction destroys us. My readers say that the book is not really about gambling--but about addictions of all kinds. My readers say that the book is clever and humorous. My readers say that the book is hard to put down because P's voice is so different from anything else that they have read and yet so compelling.

I like what my readers are saying about the book.

When I wrote the book I was kind of in a zone--the protagonist, P, I felt, was speaking through me and I wasn't always prepared for what he was going to say. I wasn't always in control, I felt, until the editing stage. When I started writing the thing, I thought that I was P, but no--P was somebody else. P was himself.

My favorite part of the book . . . the whole book . . . well my favorite scene, maybe, is when P's girlfriend C.L. is caught cheating at blackjack--when she gets arrested, a lot of important things about their relationship come out--I like how that chapter reads. I also love the scene with P's father, the macho, old school gambler. And I love every scene when P is in a casino, his true love.

Thanks for your question,

Preston