Book Reading & Signing @Milkie's On Elmwood This Sunday With Diane Meholick & Justin Karcher!

     My Fall/Winter slate of book readings and signings kicks of this Sunday at Milkie’s On Elmwood from 4-8 p.m.  Admission is free and I’ll be offering discounts on bundled book purchases!  I thought it would be fun to team up with some other local artists and musicians this year, so I’ll be doing a Round-Around-Robin with science fiction author Diane Meholick (Buffalo Stories, Painting Katherine, A Switch In Time) as well as young upstart Justin Karcher (Tailgating At The Gates Of Hell).  I’m firming up some other readings in November, December and beyond, but this one should be a real blast!  A poet, an essayist and a science fiction writer walk into a bar…there’s a good joke in there somewhere.  We’ll get ot the bottom of it this Sunday!

We hope to see you there!

Tom

2015 Reading & Signing Announced April 12th @Milkie's On Elmwood!

     In the midst of implementing my overall plan for 2015, I've spent a few weeks working with Ed Becher, the booking agent for Milkie's On Elmwood.  After a volley of emails and phone calls, we finally scheduled, booked and confirmed a date and time for my first reading and signing of the year.  Here are the details: 

Book Reading & Signing w/local humor author Tom Waters 

Sunday, April 12th 2 p.m.-4 p.m. 

Milkie's On Elmwood 522 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo 

(716)882-5881 Admission is free.  

Signed first edition books available from $15.  

     

     I've been hearing a lot of great things about Milkie's lately.  It's refreshing to discover so many new businesses in the city who are open to 'out of the box' promotions as well as supporting local artists.  This is an event that I'm really looking forward to.  With a four month lead time, I hope you all have time to join me! 

     As far as Icarus On The Mend: Memoirs Of A Manic Depressive goes, I am over the tipping point on the limited print run of special edition hardcovers sold.  There are now less than 25 copies available for sale.  Hopefully I will still have some copies on hand for the Milkie's reading.  If you are interested in a signed hardcover and would like one beforehand, I can be reached at: 

bigwordsmailbag@yahoo.com 

     

     That's all for today.  I'm sure I'll be booking some other readings this year, but Milkie's may be the only reading I commit to before autumn arrives.

Travesty Back On Track, Icarus In A Holding Pattern

It's astonishing how much effort goes into maintaining an existing bibliography.

Even if I never wrote another word, there's still always work to do.  Updating bios, links & the book list itself, porting galleys over to new devices, selling from my current inventory when I'm not even expecting it and overhauling or editing from my database of essays.  It's not a full time job, but to do it properly it probably could be.
Last week I said that it would only be a matter of time before I started writing again.  Well, that time has come.  I dusted off the current manuscript for Travesty (the follow up book for Mockery) and started quietly adding to it.  Working on any project (like the new video show) sparks a certain momentum in the creative part of my brain, so everything else is falling into place.  A third of the Travesty  book is already complete, which leaves roughly a hundred more pages.  Piece of cake.
It occurred to me a few days ago that I've had a book published (under the Doubt It Publishing imprint or through other publishers) every other year for the past twelve years.  That doesn't even seem real to me.  I just plug along and write one essay at a time.  They pile up into a book, the book gets put together, proof read, designed and packaged, released and then promoted.
Icarus On The Mend: Memoirs Of A Manic Depressive was a much different project than anything I'd worked on up to that point (2010-2012).  It took a lot out of me, and I wanted to take a break after writing it.  Due to personal problems, the limited print run hardcover was never effectively promoted in clubs, stores or libraries.  I'm not done with it yet, but I'm certainly not going to promote it at present.
The idea for Travesty was largely inspired by working with Mark McElligott on publishing and promoting his book, Random Thoughts From A Broken Mind.  He reminded me that essays (rants, whatever you'd like to call them in this day and age) don't HAVE to be sixteen pages long and that often, they're funnier and punchier when they're short.  I went back to basics when I started writing Travesty.  When I first started writing consistently for a deadline (for the Clarence High School Advocate, which I was also the Editor In Chief on), I punched out essays on a Brother electric typewriter and wrote each one in one sitting.  Essays (at heart) are designed by nature to be written (or read) in one sitting.  They shouldn't be an ordeal that's digested piecemeal.  There's a real joy in returning to the roots of how I got started in this messy business to begin with.
If time (and routine, and my track record) is any indicator, Travesty will be in readers' hands by the fall of 2015.  I have no timetable for the mass market two volume trade paperback launch of Icarus On The Mend.  When all 50 copies of the limited run hardcovers have found a home, Icarus will fly again, so to speak.
And I've been mulling over sharing some of the new writing on my official web site: Big Words I Know By Heart.  I don't want to give the entire book away, but I'll drop a morsel this Friday just to give you a taste of what's going into the pot.  This Friday I'll post 'Your Great American Novel', an essay about the aggravations of being approached when people find out that you're a writer.  After seven days online, it's going back into the vault.  Sound fair?

See you all in three days time,
Tom Waters    

Early Concept Art for Icarus On The Mend by Derek Patrick Evoy

Elston Takes The Gold, Mockery Sells Through, Random Thoughts Busts Out Of The Gate & A Few Surprise Releases...

            The ArtVoice 2011 Best Of Buffalo Awards came and went and Jon Elston (the resident playwright for the Road Less Travelled Theater Company) won for Best Writer.  To be honest, there's no one I'd rather lose to.  Jon's a talented and prolific writer in addition to being a great guy and we've known each other too long to let something as petty as an awards show get in the way of our friendship.  Congratulations are long overdue for Jon and his accolades are well deserved.  I suppose I'll just have to campaign harder and start earlier next year when it comes to AV's poll process. 

On to more pressing business and the importance of timing, though.  A funny thing happened on the way to the Caz Coffee reading: I checked my inventory and somehow I've gotten down to two remaining copies of Mockery.  The book has performed so well for the initial slate of launch events that my first payload is depleted.  The book is doing very well and it's selling a lot faster than I expected, surpassing the break even mark (recouping production and design costs) and far exceeding it.  More copies are on order and they'll be in stock in time for the Talking Leaves Main reading next Thursday (7 p.m.) as well as the reading and signing at Stockman's Tavern with Mark McElligott on the 21st (7 p.m.).  If you want or need a copy before then, you can pick one up at either Talking Leaves location or order direct from my distributor at http://www.lulu.com.

As far as book releases go, I've always tried to release no more than one of my own books for year.  That policy is changing.  With the amount of people who have voiced their interest in the autobiography (Icarus On The Mend), there's another side project that's been scooted front and center in order for me to release an Icarus limited-run numbered hardcover in the fall of 2012 (50 copies) followed by a two volume trade paperback launch in 2013.  The manuscript for the memoirs is massive, and it'll take no less than six months to proof, edit and revise.  After promoting Mockery and doing some light piggyback promotions in the fall with Mark McElligott, I'll be blocking out some time to dig my heels in and get the work done. 

This week I finalized the structure and the basic manuscript for Poke The Scorpion With A Sharp Stick, my third book of poems.  Unlike Breathing Room Volume I and II, it's a step in a different direction: an original one.  While both Breathing Rooms were an homage to the people who inspired me to write poetry (Charles Bukowski, e.e. cummings, Rosemary Koethe and Tracy Zullo, respectively), Scorpion shows evidence of an emerging, original voice.  Like any writer (and much in the same manner in which I started out writing essays), I aped my favorites.

The wake of that process has a momentum of its own, and the result is an amalgamation of some standard tricks along with quite a few new ones.  The Breathing Room  books were never blockbusters in terms of sales, but the content was important to me, and they've sold slowly and steadily enough to warrant a third collection.  The response I've gotten from those of you who enjoy poetry as well as those of you brave enough to try something new has been overwhelmingly positive encouraging.

The only speed bump in working on the layout was dealing with comments from many of you that Volume I: Free Verse was the best book I've ever written.  How in the hell do you top a comment like that?  With hard work, frequent revisions and a liberal dose of elbow grease.  Much like the pre-production on Mockery, I've gone out of my way to creative a cohesive, seamless book that can be read in one sitting.  Anything that didn't feel right got tossed and anything written after the initial draft that felt like it belonged alongside the source material was added.  I hope that you'll be pleased with the results.  Poke The Scorpion With A Sharp Stick is slated for a September release this year.  I've already got an artist working on the cover art (mixed media) and Brian Platter from Six Shot Studios will be working on the interior design and cover layout.  More details as we get closer to the launch.

Meanwhile Mr. Mark McElligott is doing quite well with his Random Thoughts From A Broken Mind.  His debut collection of rants broke even the week it came out (within two days of sales) and the word of mouth on how funny the book is has been generating a lot of referral sales.  While my humor leans towards the universal, sarcastic and psychotic, his headspace is a lot more user friendly.  Mark's manuscript won me over with his unique voice, his left-field observations and his bravery in the face of self-deprecation.  It's paying off.  Doubt It Publishing's first release from a single author is a hit.  The book will continue to reach new heights (and sales records) once we actually begin promoting it next Saturday at Stockman's. 

And finally, I'd like to work a plug in for an old friend and comrade.  JR Finlayson (whom you may remember from the Monsters Of Verse) has released Multiples Of Eleven, his first full-length collection of poems for the clever price of $11.11.  To buy a copy of the book, click on over to:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/multiples-of-eleven/15597052?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1

           

With one new poetry book out and another one on the way could there be a Monsters Of Verse revival?

I certainly wouldn't rule it out.

Have a great week and I'll keep you posted,

Tom Waters