Okay. I got so caught up in getting the taxes ready, then my wife and I went through the lost-box-of-checks disaster Monday night, and Murderati completely slipped my mind.
The good news — for me at least — is that I had to pay enough taxes to make me feel like a real writer. The bad news is that the Random Chatter banner above means I have nothing prepared for this week’s entry, so I’ll just throw a bunch of stuff out there and hope something sticks.
And my apologies to my fellow Murderati bloggers if I duplicate anything you’ve posted about lately.
CASTING YOUR BOOK
Marshal Zeringue is always doing interesting experiments with blogs and websites. Over the last couple of years he has been doing The Page 69 Test, which I participated in last year. The idea is for authors to post page 69 of their book and give a little back story on it.
Now Marshal has My Book, The Movie, which invites authors to come up with a dream cast for the movie version of their books. It’s actually a pretty great idea, especially for promotion, and I whole-heartedly agreed to participate.
The problem is, I have no idea who should play the lead in my book. I love movies and can think of a lot of great actors out there who would do the part justice, but somehow NONE of them really seem to work for me. Or maybe ALL of them do.
So while I struggle to come up with my own cast, I invite you to cast your book in the comments section — although I don’t want to step on Marshal’s toes, so if you have any plans of posting on his blog, don’t spoil it here.
RADIO ADS
Yesterday, I was looking into radio ads and discovered that I could hit 20 cities on a fairly popular radio talk show for about $600 for a week. I’d get one 30 second spot per show, with a few extras thrown in.
Coming up with an audio spot would be no problem, since I have a background in production. And since the paperback of KISS HER GOODBYE is coming out this month (shameless plug: April 29), I thought it might be a good idea to run one the first week of May.
The question however is this: do radio spots work? I’ve spoken to some who think they don’t unless you’re James Patterson or Michael Connelly. What do you guys think?
THE THRILL OF A NEW BABY
Not the flesh and blood kind. The new baby is WHISPER IN THE DARK, which is being released next month by Macmillan in the UK (the US version comes out in January 2009).
Anyway, a nice hardcover and trade version arrived in the mail yesterday and I have to say it’s a wonderful thing. A beautiful baby.
So I thought I’d show it off here.
I’ve been doing this for over two years now, but when I open the package and see that wonderful thing with my name on it, I have to say the thrill is as big as it ever was. I’ve achieved the dream. And I’m living proof that it’s never too late to try.
But as I said, this is the UK version. The U.S. cover will be completely different in color and style, but just as beautiful (I’ve seen it and love it, too!) — and I’ll, of course, be anxious to show it off when the time comes…
I’m rambling. I will leave you now with promises for something much better next time.