Smashwords Sitewide Sale Starts July 1st

Now is your best chance to find my entire ebook collection for a promotional price at @Smashwords as part of their Annual Summer/Winter Sale! Find my books and many more at https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos all month! #SWSale2023 #Smashwords

Here's my book page at Smashwords. Prices will reflect the sale (all free) July 1st.

Happy Juneteenth!

Happy Juneteenth!

Happy Father's Day (a day late) to those who deserve to be honored. It's not Bad Dads Day, so the rotten sperm donors just stand over in the corner and shut up.

If even a single person is not free, nobody is truly free. Celebrate Emancipation Day, even though it took Texas until June 19th, 1865 to be informed they were on the losing side of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. That's why Juneteenth is celebrated, although the Amendment was not ratified until December of that year. I'm showing my home state of Oregon's celebratory logo for the now official Federal Holiday. 

Nothing celebrates freedom as much as the fantastic Jon Batiste's Grammy Award Winning video, FREEDOM!

The Real Little Eddie

 I wrote "Tales of a Texas Boy" for my father. The main reason is that I discovered he had some stories to tell and, even though he was in his 80's, I'd never heard them before. Typical strong, silent type. In any case, I thought the stories had merit and it'd be a nice thing to do for my father. With that in mind, I published the book on my own since publishers wouldn't have anything to do with a shortish book of vignette-type stories about a young boy's simple adventures coming of age in West Texas in the Depression Era. I published the book in Large Print specifically for my father since he was losing his sight to macular degeneration.

The book is fun and has actually been pretty popular, especially for folks who grew up many decades ago in a rural environment. They can relate to the sometimes humorous things that can happen on a farm. Or at a carnival or in a rocky draw (look it up, city slicker).

Once, I managed to record my father telling a story about a road trip he and his best friend went on. It's not included in the book since I end the book at high school and the trip came just after. Nothing much happened either, but if you hear Eddie the old man telling the story, you just might hear the voice of Eddie the boy in the book. Details for purchase follow the sound file.

Tales of a Texas Boy is available in ebook, print, and audio formats. Side note: this book in large print is a popular Father's Day gift for those who may have lived through the Great Depression themselves or simply grew up in a rural area. They'll feel right at home.

Large Print at Amazon - Perfect Dad's Day gift. $9.44

Hardcover Print at Amazon - An even more perfect Dad's Day gift. $12.98

Ebook at Amazon Free KindleUnlimited subscribers and Kindle Owners Lending Library (Prime users benefit) 99 cents to buy.

Audio Book at Audible Often discounted if you buy the ebook from Amazon along with the ebook. $5.07 on Amazon.

Perfect for Father's Day

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TALES OF A TEXAS BOY

You've heard the phrase "A Legend in His Own Time." That's when somebody does something so extraordinary they create a legend around themselves. As time moves on, the legendary aspect grows and morphs into something bigger and, well, more legendary. That legend is helped along by authors writing about the person. Some people have reputations built on very little reality.  19th Century writers hungry for audience share exaggerated the feats of such legendary characters as Kit Carson, Billy the Kid, Calamity Jane, Buffalo Bill Cody. These mostly untrue stories made good press for the city folks back east.

Then there's another type of legend. It's when an author bases a book on a real person nobody has ever heard about, but exaggerates the person's feats to make for good reading; the writer creates the legend. Can you think of a case where this has occurred? I imagine there are many, considering possible biographers who hero-worship their subject past the point of reality.

Then I come to my own mini-legendary person: Little Eddie from Tales of a Texas Boy. The stories in this collection are mostly based on some brief vignettes passed to me by my father. Those of you who have read the print edition might have slowed down enough to peruse the Foreword where I lay out that Eddie is my father and some additional background on his life. Nothing too exciting there. He just happened to have a few incidents in his life that I could turn from a passing comment into a short story.

I made my father a legend. The stories I wrote about his experiences are so enhanced that they have become legends. Yes, a tiny part of the population know the stories. However, how long will the Tales books be out in the world? I published the first edition in June 2007. Coming up on the 15th anniversary next month. In fifteen years, more than 5000 people have had possession of the book in some form. They may have even read it. If I keep the book in print, how many people will get to know Eddie in ten years? I should mention that 1000 of those potential readers picked up the book in the last year.

What's my point here? Not sure other than to state my realization that even not-so-famous people can become legendary to some extent from some author deciding to write about them.

Tales of a Texas Boy is available in ebook, print, and audio formats. Side note: this book in large print is a popular Father's Day gift for those who may have lived through the Great Depression themselves or simply grew up in a rural area. They'll feel right at home.

Large Print at Amazon - Perfect Dad's Day gift. $9.44

Hardcover Print at Amazon - An even more perfect Dad's Day gift. $12.98

Ebook at Amazon Free KindleUnlimited subscribers and Kindle Owners Lending Library (Prime users benefit) 99 cents to buy.

Audio Book at Audible Often discounted if you buy the ebook from Amazon along with the ebook. $5.07 on Amazon.

WARNING: BUY PRINT BOOKS BEFORE JUNE 20TH. THE PRICE GOES UP THEN. AMAZON'S RAISING THE COST, NOT THE AUTHOR.

Happy Substitute Dads Day

For All the Adopting, Step, and Volunteer Dads - You deserve to be wished 

a Happy Fathers Day too.

Tales of a Texas Boy is a series of related short stories loosely based on my father's stories about his boyhood in West Texas during the Depression.

It all started with a cattle drive. Yeah, right, pop. Nobody had cattle drives in the 1930's. Well, yeah, they did. My father, Eddie in the stories, got to ride herd when he was only eleven years old. That was sure the highlight of that year.

His father, Louis (my grandfather), had been a veterinarian with Blackjack Pershing's American Expeditionary Forces. That's what they called the army during WWI. In the service, he became friends with an interesting old guy who happened to have a bear. When Dad Boles brought Sophie to the annual fair, Eddie loved to sit by the campfire listening to some dandy whoppers.

Eddie had a pretty busy life for a boy who lived miles away from the nearest neighbors. He managed to find plenty of trouble to get into, but had a big heart to soften his bad-boy image. No matter that he loved to aggravate his sister, he took care of her when she and her pony were almost swept away by a flood.

The boy cared about the rattlesnakes, the jackrabbits, the jackasses, and even old Cage McNatt's prize sow. He went fishing with a special borrowed float, then proceeded to lose it, find it, then give it away.

These are simple tales without any big events, unless you consider the despair of the Great Depression hanging over everybody's lives.

Yes, I made up some aspects of the stories, and I even made up a few completely, but most of the book is as true as a Texas Tall Tale can be.

If these kinds of stories appeal to your father, your mother, uncle, aunt, or even yourself, I think you'll be glad to read my father's stories. Since he died last August, I'm proud and relieved to have gotten around to writing the stories, having several published separately, then putting all of them together in one book. I decided to feature Large Print since my father's eyesight was failing.

Tales of a Texas Boy is available in Large Print on Amazon for $9.94

Hard Cover for $12.98 

Standard trade paperback for $7.99 

And the audio book is available as additional links on the Amazon pages for $6.04 

and at Audible.com (free if you subscribe to Audible)

It's also in epub and MOBI format on Smashwords where you set your own price. 

Bad Prologues vs Good Prologues (Writing Advice)

I posted this guy's advice on dialogue writing a couple of days ago. Since it's good advice and entertaining since illustrated by movie clips, I thought I'd just steal his stuff again. Good. I don't have to make stuff up myself.

Bad Dialogue vs Good Dialogue ROUND 3 (Writing Advice)

I found this while browsing YouTube. Since I know some writers read this blog, I thought it worth posting. It's got pretty good advice on dialogue. The author uses movie clips to illustrate his various points. That makes it entertaining as well.