Complete audio and Merriest of Holiday Wishes!

More info on the release is here!

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Super Kwanza, and let's have a dynamite New Year's Eve! In the process can right now is a Kindle experiment with A Long Way from Disney. Here's what it is:

Publishing Experiment 1: If we know anything for sure about publishing right now, it’s that it is changing. Authors, I believe, must become the scientists running experiments with new technology, new publicity strategies, marketing, you name it. There’s just too much money involved for the big (and some small) presses to carry out the kind of testing and idea-trying that needs to be done. That leaves us independent authors to try things out on our own.

Get your hands on these a free sample of 12 Great Books!

I'm really happy to be a part of this great promotion of holiday books for gift-giving. This is a stellar lineup of your favorite and some of the web's biggest authors! What if the bookstore could come to you?

That’s the idea behind this In the Nick of Time! holiday sampler PDF. Inside are excerpts from a dozen new novels and nonfiction books by these New York Times bestselling authors, successful entrepreneurs, and wickedly talented storytellers:

Seth Godin - Tribes / Linchpin

Laurell K. Hamilton - Divine Misdemeanors

Joseph Finder - Vanished

Cory Doctorow - Makers

Chris Brogan & Julien Smith - Trust Agents

Robert J. Sawyer - Wake

Mitch Joel - Six Pixels of Separation

Cherie Priest - Boneshaker

Sott Sigler - The Rookie

Tara Hunt - The Whuffle Factor  AND J.C. Hutchins - 7th Son: Descent!

What a lineup!

Click here to listen!

Yeah, I've got a LOT to cover this week in a quick chunk of info for your ears. I'm here to talk about three things:

1) my Jack Palms Crime Macbook: "The Podcast Pro™" is now on sale over at eBay. It's true. This beast of a machine and crucial part of Harwoodian history is now going to the highest bidder. What else can I say? It's actually just a really good computer that'll be good to you for a long time. Big HD and Ram. Badass. I will sign, tailor files left on it for you, even set it up to help you see how to podcast using my examples.

2) My winter class at Stanford's Online Writing Studio is now open for registration. Click here for description and more info. Duration: 10 weeks. Starts: Jan. 11. Cost: $750

3) The Big News: I'm setting up for a new Amazon Rush! We're going to call this one the Disney Kindle Commando Sunday! Call it December 27th when we go after the Amazon Kindle store to rush my two collections of A Long Way from Disney right up those Kindle charts! Yes, we're going after that. Inspired by JA Konrath, Chris Brogan, Boyd Morrison, April Hamilton and a host of others, I'm going after the Kindle universe this month. Each collection will be listed at $.99 and our goal is get as many folks as we can to buy them both on Dec. 27th. You with me?

Sunday Dec. 27 is Disney Kindle Commando Sunday! You with me? Yes. We rock this. More info.

It is with great pleasure I bring forth and introduce you to The Gift of Lit, a collective effort by many of the fine authors from Podiobooks. Together, we would like to share with you our diverse works and invite you to take a look at the nice selection of books we have spent hours, days, months, or years writing.

The Gift of Lit: Holiday 2009 is now here. If you are looking for a great gift this holiday season, whether it be for a family member, friend…or for yourself, take a look at the list below and give one, some, or all of these books your consideration. There are books to suit your needs this holiday season. Here, you will find fantasy, sci-fi, crime, speculative fiction, techno thrillers, and much more. Help support these authors and spread the joys of literature. Give spark to imagination.

Below, take a look at all of the different titles offered and follow the links to purchase your own copy for yourself or to give that special someone this holiday. The Gift of Lit will be sure to please all readers.   Click Here to Read More...

The DIY Author Returneth (Again)

Pat Holt, who is now my favorite reviewer, bar none, has just written up the third post in her series about DIY authorship and my own road in particular. This post also includes mentions of JA Konrath, JC Hutchins and newbie Erin O'Briant.

Pat's main point here is that things are changing, but she also talks about how it still comes back to the writing, its quality. That's where this piece gets special for me. Here's what Pat has to say about JACK WAKES UP:

“Jack Wakes Up,” which begins a series of books (Seth’s already written three), is both a refreshing crime novel and a witty look at 21st century existential angst through its title character, a charming wiseacre/former actor/reluctant sleuth named Jack Palms.

True, everything about this original paperback looks like a flashy postmodern Chandler spinoff that fans of paperback detective fiction might pick up for a good airplane read, something fun and quick.

But that’s just the page-turner part.     (READ MORE...)

stanRegistration is now open for my Winter term (1/11-3/19) online creative writing class. You can get more info and register here now.

The Essential Art: Making Movies in Your Reader's Mind

Fiction and nonfiction are at their best when the sense of reading falls away, when we find ourselves immersed in the book’s action, as if we were watching a movie, our heart tied to the narrator’s struggle, swooning with vertigo from the top of a tall building or wincing from a cutting remark. Such writing seems effortless, but is in fact a learnable—and essential— skill. Such will be our focus: to find the balance of description, imagery, and exciting prose that not only pulls in readers, but also forces them to co-create the story, interacting and engaging with the text.

As we develop these skills, we will also spend a few weeks focusing on the publishing landscape and the business side of getting published. Using a few simple tools and easy-to-follow steps (including how to create a recording of yourself reading your work), students will work on growing their online author presence and attracting readers.

That's right: the podcast known by no other name than The Awful Show, came through last month to interview me about CrimeWAV, Jack Palms Crime, and all the rest of the good things. Thanks to Nerraux for having me on! For those who haven't listened to their podcast yet, head on over to http://awfulshow.com and you'll find some great comedy and talk/interview content. These guys rock!

Click here to listen! Check out this interview to fill up your ear-pieces for a bit. I'll be back next week with a new story!

For more info on my online creative writing class for the winter quarter: The Essential Art: Making Movies in Your Reader's Mind, go here. For info on the Detective Fiction class at CCSF, email me!

So, we're on the Bukowksi track this week after the post below. I've been thinking about his poem featured there and now I'm offering an audio track of him reading one of his most depressing and downtrodden poems you can imagine. Trust me, he's got some WAY brighter poems. "Bluebird" especially. 

And yet, this is the track that our boy DOOM (the original all caps) chose to title his latest album AND put on the attached track. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN.

And we'll continue the conversation started below: Bukowski--blow hard animal or actual inspiration? Or both? Enjoy.

Whoa! Matter of fact, here's a Youtube with Big B's reading of "Bluebird" in audio.

I used to have this Bukowksi poem up on the wall by my desk. Lately I've been thinking about it as I push myself back into the JP2 revisions. I'm not sure how I feel about the poem anymore, but it's always stuck with me. Either because it's bullshit bravado or because I believe in it. What do you think?

air and light and time and space
 
"–you know, I’ve either had a family, a job,
something has always been in the
way
but now
I’ve sold my house, I’ve found this
place, a large studio, you should see the space and
the light.
for the first time in my life I’m going to have
a place and the time to
create."
 
no baby, if you’re going to create
you’re going to create whether you work
16 hours a day in a coal mine
or
you’re going to create in a small room with 3 children
while you’re on
welfare,
you’re going to create with part of your mind and your body blown
away,
you’re going to create blind
crippled
demented,
you’re going to create with a cat crawling up your
back while
the whole city trembles in earthquake, bombardment,
flood and fire.
 
baby, air and light and time and space
have nothing to do with it
and don’t create anything
except maybe a longer life to find
new excuses
for.
 
© Charles Bukowski, Black Sparrow Press