garyclites

Seneca Wood was officially certified this week as the winner of Best Thriller Novel of 2009 in the Preditors and Editors National Readers Poll. I want to thank everyone who voted and who helped spread the word. I was amazed at how passionate so many people are about the book. I really appreciate it.

 Thanks to everyone who voted for Seneca Wood for Best Thriller Novel of 2009 in the Preditors and Editors National Readers Poll. As of the close of voting, the book is the unofficial winner in the category. Voting must be certified and the official announcement made, but it appears the book is a winner in the only national competition that allows readers to vote. 

For me, the amazing thing about the competition was how passionate those who've read the book were about the voting. Once we got the word out, I was flooded with messages from people who said they loved the book, and they were working to get their spouse, parents, Bridge club, you name it, to vote for the book. I really appreciate everyone's commitment and help. I truly could not have done it without you.

And, if all the voting has made you want to read the book, now is a great time to buy it and do a good deed at the same time. From Sunday, January 17 to Sunday, January 24, my publisher, Casperian Books, will donate their profit for any books purchased (at a discount price) directly from their website to Doctors Without Borders in support of the Haitian relief effort. I will donate my royalty as well. to buy a copy of Seneca Wood go to Casperian Books website.

Visit my website at http://www.garyclites.com

The end of the year brings the season of awards of all types, including awards for first novels. Seneca Wood is nominated in several awards, including one you can vote for. 

My novel, Seneca Wood, has been nominated in the Preditors and Editors Poll for best thriller novel of 2009. You can vote for it. You have to go to the site. Submit a vote. Then they send you an e-mail with a link to confirm the vote. You have to click on the link to finalize your vote. Still, it will only take a minute.

To vote, go to http://www.critters.org/predpoll/novelthrill.shtml. Click on the button for my novel, Seneca Wood. Then fill in your name and e-mail address at the bottom of the page (don't worry - I've voted in the poll before - they won't spam you or sell your address) and type in the security words and click to submit.

Later, they'll send you an e-mail link. Click on it and it will take you to a web page which will confirm your vote. They do this so people can't set up their computer to send in false votes.

Anyway, if you liked my book, I will definitely appreciate a vote. Votes must be recorded by Thursday, January 14.

Feel free to forward this information to anyone else who might be interested.

 Last weekend, I was invited to speak at the Frostburg State University Center for Creative Writing's Small Publisher Fair in Cumberland, Maryland. It was a great pleasure spending the day meeting and speaking to people who were so interested in telling stories. The youngest was a fifteen year old completely committed to writing, and the oldest were retired people in their sixties and seventies with stories they need to tell.

As soon as you have a book published, everyone you meet wants to talk about the book they want to write. That's a good thing. I really do believe that everyone has a story to tell. It's a shame that so few of us ever get around to actually putting those stories down on paper. One of the sessions I was involved in last weekend was Getting Published 101. Everyone there was interested in the process of getting your book from the laptop to the printed page. 

The truth is that getting your work published is a tough, uphill slog for anyone. For me, it was a process that went on for years. There were times when I thought about giving up on Seneca Wood, and moving on to write something a little more traditional. I couldn't. The thing is that, after years working on the book, I was totally committed to the work. The story mattered to me; the themes came from my heart; and the characters were so real to me that it felt like giving up on the book would have been akin to killing them.

I came amazingly close to getting an agent (the key to big money publishing contracts). I went through several who were considering me. One of the biggest agencies in New York took in three books with the intention of agenting one. We did rewrites and went through a vetting process. In the end, I was told my book came in second. They loved the book, loved the writing, but the deciding factor was that my novel was set in the mountains of West Virginia. Apparently, people prefer their thrillers be set in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, DC and Miami. The decision was based on marketing issues. I cannot blame them.

I did not, however, give up. Without an agent, the big publishers - Random House, Scribners, St. Martins, etc. were out of the game. They, simply, do not consider unagented manuscripts. That determined, I turned to smaller presses. The first one I contacted, Casperian Books in California, signed the book. What followed was rewrites, publication and a lot of fun.

The point is, the challenges facing new writers are incredible. It will seem like everything in the business is designed to block you from achieving your dream. The only way to succeed is to fight on no matter how difficult things seem. Commit. Do something every day to move your book forward. And, no matter what gets in your way, remember that giving up on your work is the equivalent of killing off your characters and your themes. 

Nothing is worth that.

Visit Gary's website at: http://www.garyclites.com

First time novels from small publishers almost never receive any press. There are literally thousands of books published in the US every year and the press tends only to cover the superstars - the Stephen Kings, James Pattersons, Dan Browns, etc. Yes, the press occasionally picks out a new writer being promoted by a big publisher and anoints them as the next big thing. But books from small presses simply don't qualify.

Since Seneca Wood was released by Casperian Books in the middle of June, we've worked continuously to garner coverage. We managed a number of very good reviews; articles in a number of newspapers (visit my website for links to many of them); and regional coverage in a number of states on National Public Radio.

Today, I found out that we made the Entertainment Weekly Must List for August 30, 2009 (click on the link to see it). For a first time author, this is huge. How did it happen? The book's readers helped me by writing recommendations for the book on the magazine's website. Thanks to all of you who've read the book; told me how much you liked it; written online reviews on sites like Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com; and who recommended the book to Entertainment Weekly. You're terrific.

Small books sometimes find a national audience. It happens incrementally. You get a little attention, then a little more, then a little more. Making the Must List is a terrific incremental victory.

Thanks to all those who've read the book. I appreciate your support more than you can know.

Visit my website at http://www.garyclites.com.

 Anyone who knows me knows that music is an important part of my life, and one of my favorite things is going to concerts. Friday night I stood in the rain at the Calvert Marine Museum for a terrific show by the Steve Miller Band. Wet and happy under the lights, the evening made me think back to the hundreds of bands I've seen over the years. 

When I was a kid, my family vacationed every year at Ocean City, New Jersey. Atlantic City is only about ten miles away, and one rainy day we headed to the Steel Pier. Yes, I saw the diving horse. Moreover, the price of admission included entry to the concert hall where Glen Campbell was playing. No, I was never really a Glen Campbell fan, but Campbell had a popular TV show at the time and was one of the biggest stars in music. My family and our friends crowded into the back of the theatre (it was a standing room only concert). The show was less than an hour long, but I loved it... being there with thousands of people listening to live music, it was great.

The show over, my family moved on to play games, ride rides, and have fun. Not me. When the hall cleared, I saw that a few kids had walked down to the front of the stage and were sitting cross-legged on the floor. There was another show in two hours and they were going to have the best spots, chests pressed against the stage. I told my parents where I would be and joined them, and I have never really left that group of rabid concert -goers since.

The best concerts I experienced were the HFStivals which were a fixture in the DC area through the nineties and into the 2000's. WHFS was the greatest radio station in the history of the world. It was an alternative rock station dedicated to two things: Playing new music from new bands and promoting great live shows in the DC-Baltimore region. I was at all the real HFStivals except one when my thoughtless wife scheduled her cancer surgery the day of the show. An annual day-long event with three stages, the shows always attracted the best bands and the greatest crowds. I saw so many bands there before they made it big, including Green Day, the Barenaked Ladies, Modest Mouse, to name just a few. Those were some of the best days of my life.

My favorite memory of an HFStival involved a miracle hat. It was the early nineties. My wife could not go to the concert that year, so I went with two female friends. We were standing close to the stage on the field at RFK Stadium in D.C., and a great band was playing. At the festivals, people were always bouncing beach balls and throwing other things around the crowd. I was wearing a WVU baseball hat, and suddenly, someone in the surging crowd grabbed the hat off my head. I looked around as my hat was tossed to the crowd. It flew from person to person all across the field, then it was launched into the stands. The hat flew from hand to hand all the way around the lower sections of the stadium. Then, someone tossed it to the crowd in the upper decks, and again, I watched as it flew hand-to-hand all around RFK. The band onstage launched into a new song, and I turned back to watch the show. About two minutes later, my friend Beth suddenly slapped the hat back on my head. I pulled it off, turned to her and stared. "It came back," she said. Amazing.

The next year, I was deep in the mosh pit in front of the stage listening to another band and, yes, wearing the same WVU miracle hat. Amazingly, another member of the crowd snatched the hat off my head and tossed it into the air. Again, I watched as it flew around the infield, into the stands, into the upper decks, and then dropped into the crowd never to be seen again. I despaired that the miracle hat was lost forever. Suddenly, the crowd surged away from me, and I looked down. On the ground at my feet was a twenty dollar bill. I bent down, picked it up, and said, "damn." Accepting karma, I immediately pushed my way through the crowd and up onto the concourse. I found a t-shirt stand, and, for twenty dollars, bought a new WHFS hat. I put it on my head and moved fearlessly back into the crowd, certain that no matter what, I would never leave an HFStival hatless.

Another memory of the HFStivals concerns a peculiarity in my wife, Robin's, apparent karma. The thing is that every time she ever attended an HFStival with me, someone threw up on her. I am really not kidding. The first year, we had spent a lot of time down on the field watching bands in the heat. Needing a break, we went up in the lower stands to sit for one band. Suddenly, a drunken Maryland student behind us became ill and hit her. It seemed like colossal bad luck. But the incident was repeated year after year. My favorite such event happened the year Ravens Stadium opened in Baltimore. The HFStival was the first major show there. We arrived in the morning smiling and happy, walked up to the ticket-takers, checked in and walked through the entrance of the brand new venue. We stood in the concourse, looked around at the shiny new stadium, and a drunken college kid stumbled toward us and immediately threw up on my wife's shoes. What a way to christen the new stadium. Give Robin credit, no matter how many times this happened, she never gave up on going to the shows, and never allowed me to take her home early. She just started bringing a change of clothes.

My friend Bob Hood has spent his career working concerts. For decades, he was a pyrotechnician, blowing stuff up behind some of the biggest bands on tour. Currently he's out with Britney Spears as stage manager. Two years ago, I spent two days with him at the Madonna tour stop in Philadelphia with my friend Doyle. Backstage during the afternoon run-through, I was amazed at how absolutely tiny Madonna is. The show featured a small cadre of muscular male dancers. I was standing just behind the stage as the dancers jumped and flipped all over the stage. Suddenly, one of them came flipping off the back and landed near me. The thing is, despite being very in-shape, he also was, well, very short. Huh? Shortly after, another dancer landed near me, then another, then another... all of them, um, diminutive. I thought this was odd. The next time I saw Bob, I asked him about it. "Yeah, Gary," he said, "Nobody's bigger than the boss." The illusions of the stage.

Several observations about concerts:
• At big shows, at least half the people are watching the giant screens. You've paid a hundred dollars to see a show. Why are you there watching the live show in front of you on television?
• Singing along with the band is part of the fun. Talking, cell-phoning, and randomly yelling at the crowd is not. We came to hear the music. See above regarding what we paid to be there.
• Who are these people who go to a ten hour concert waiting for the headline band, only to leave halfway through their show to beat the traffic out of the parking lot? If you don't know, the encore is always the best part of the concert. I saw Elvis Costello and the Sugarcanes in the Spring. They did a solid hour and a half show and walked off stage. About a fifth of the crowd got up and headed for the parking lot. I am certain they made it onto the Beltway spectacularly quickly. After a little applause, Elvis came back onstage and played for more than an hour, doing some of the best material I've ever heard. It was amazing. But those people did make it home in record time.

Final thought: The best thing about concerts happens when you are at the front of the crowd, near the stage in front of the giant speakers with a great band like the Ramones, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, or Green Day. (I got a concussion at a Green Day show once. The mosh pit threw a person at me.) The music is loud. Not loud in any traditional sense - nuclear warfare loud. The thing is, when you're there in the right spot with the right band, you can feel the music in your heart. The pounding rhythm of the song actually vibrates your heart and you can feel it there moving in your own chest. Like most of the things that happen at a great show, the feeling is ecstasy.

I have tickets for U2 in September.

See a list of the bands I've seen at: http://www.garyclites.com/Music.html
Visit my website at http://www.garyclites.com.

Anyone living here in Maryland this week might think that promotion on the book is spectacular - and I admit that good things are happening.  We got a big article in the local Calvert Independent (July 28) that actually filled two pages of the paper and included three big photos of me (I could do without those, and I can't post a link online because the Calvert Independent - though a fine paper - is one of the last without a web presence). We got a nice mention with a big photo of the cover of Seneca Wood in the Baltimore Sun's book blog,  Read Street (http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/). We have a signing at Constellation Books in Reisterstown (http://www.constellationbooks.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp) on Saturday, August 1st from 3 to 5 p.m. And - this week the book went up for sale on Target.com at http://www.target.com/Seneca-Wood-Clites-Gary/dp/1934081183. All very cool things.

But marketing a new book by a first time writer from a small, but fine, publisher like Casperian Books is very difficult. The big publishers have a lock on the big corporate bookstores, and the national media is interested mostly in promoting the books of established writers like James Patterson and Stephen King (both great writers who deserve everything they get). New authors face an uphill battle to get attention.

How can you help? Several ways.

If you've read the book - and liked it - you can help me become an Entertainment Weekly Must Pick. That would be huge.
Go to http://ew.com/mustlist. Click on the most recent Must List.
Scroll down to "ADD YOUR COMMENT."
Type your name in the "YOUR NAME" box.
In the "YOUR COMMENT" box, type "READER'S CHOICE BOOKS: Seneca Wood by Gary Clites".
Then write one or two sentences explaining why the book is good. The cleverer the better.
Click "POST COMMENT."
That's it. With luck, the book might make it onto Entertainment Weekly's Must List. Very Cool.

You could also write a reader review on the book sales sites:

For Amazon:
Go to: http://www.amazon.com/Seneca-Wood-Gary-Clites/dp/1934081183/.
Scroll down to "Customer Reviews". 
Click on "Create Your Own Review". 
Write what you think.

For BarnesandNoble.com
Go to: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Seneca-Wood/Gary-Clites/e/9781934081181/.
Scroll down to "Customer Reviews". 
Click on "Write a Review".
Write what you think.

For Target.com
Go to: http://www.target.com/dp/1934081183/.
Click on "Reviews".
Click on "Be the first to write a review" or "Write a review".
Write what you think.

On all of these sites, you might need to create an account - and on Amazon, you may need to have bought something from them in the past, but I will really appreciate any support.

What if I am a Gary friend, but haven't actually read the book? Should I still write a review?
NO. We here at Book Central are fundamentally honest people. Please read the book and then write what you honestly think. We are trying to market the book nationally, but we want to do well honestly. Read the book then tell what you really think.

Getting national attention for the book is very hard. I appreciate the support of all of you more than you can know.

-Gary

Visit my website at http://www.garyclites.com

 There's been some interest online and in person in the story of how I came up with the ideas in my novel, Seneca Wood. Let me first say that, while the book was influenced by things I have encountered in life, it is completely fictional. If you've read it, you'll join me in saying - thank God.

First, know that when I was a student at WVU, my friends and I spent as much time as we could hanging at Cheat Lake, just outside of town. From April to September, we hung on the rocks, swimming and drinking beer. Most evenings you could find us there relaxing and loving the lake. These are some of my fondest memories of college and college friends.

On a backwater of the lake, down a road to nowhere, there was an ancient bridge that ran to an island where bikers had some sort of camp where they partied and did who knows what. My friends and I would sometimes drive back there to look across and wonder what was going on. There were always rumors of various skullduggery there - of things bring dumped off the old bridge, etc. By the way, this was the remains of a very old bridge - it was the bridge before the bridge that was replaced by the current superhighway bridge on 68. I assumed it was up to 100 years old at the time. By the time we were visiting - all of the bridge had been replaced except the short structure going to the island.

While I was a student at WVU, I knew a guy who was a member of the scuba team. One day, a member of the team was swimming along in the area near the bridge. He swam up to a dead body on the bottom of the lake and was shocked. I, honestly, don't remember whether it was a suicide, accidental death, or what. What I remember is that the police then dragged the lake in that area. They found a stolen car dumped there and, if I am remembering correctly, another car. They also found some illegal slot machines (there was a big issue at the time of illegal gambling machines being raided in various establishments around West Virginia. [Some Morgantown establishments had poker machines if anyone remembers - I once won a decent amount from one myself.])

For some reason, that incident always stayed with me. It had always been rumored that criminals were using the lake as a dumping ground - and that criminal organizations were using West Virginia as a corridor for moving drugs and money.

When I began to write my West Virginia based novel, Seneca Wood, I started with that incident. Yes, the book is entirely fictional, but it started with the question of what would happen if the mob were using the backwaters of the lake as a dumping ground and their crimes were suddenly discovered. In the book, they try to pin the murders on an ex-reporter living in the Monongahela National Forest whose land they are trying to grab. Pushed into a corner, his friends threatened, he is forced to fight back.

To find out more about me, the book, etc., visit my website at http://www.garyclites.com.

 I love Borders and Barnes and Noble. I won't lie to you, like most people, I enjoy the big box bookstores. It's fun to wander the racks of books and CD's and DVD's. Beyond that, I love Amazon. I am about a 90 percent online shopper these days. Push a button and the stuff arrives on your front porch two days later. But the giant corporate brick and mortar and online bookstores are having terrible consequences on the business of publishing.

For a while, I've been promoting a book signing at the Trover Shop in D.C. The Trover Shop is a legend in the nation's capital. A family owned independent business, for over 50 years they've been the bookstore of Capital Hill. On their lunch hours, everyone who works on Capital Hill wanders down to browse. The biggest names in America have signed there - from Cal Ripken to Hillary Clinton to Newt Gingrich. It was a real honor to be scheduled for a signing there. It just felt cool.

Yesterday, I received a very apologetic call from Steve Shuman, one of the family of owners of the Trover Shop. He informed me that the store is being forced to go out of business due to the current economic downturn. My signing is off, but that is of little consequence. What matters is that another family owned bookstore is being forced out of business. One independent bookstore owner recently told me that between 1990 and now, 90 percent of independent bookstores have closed down. I can believe it.

What does that mean to you? As an new author published by a small publisher, I can tell you that the big box bookstore have, literally, no interest in my book. They don't want to stock it, and they definitely don't want to work with me for signings, readings, etc. The bookstores that have scheduled signings with me have all been indies, outside of the corporate system. Independent bookstores are the places where independent publishers and new authors go to build their careers. They are the soul of the publishing industry.

What can you do? When the time comes to buy your next book, consider going to an indie to pick up a copy. How can you find one? Ask yourself whether there's a bookstore in your area that's not called Borders or Barnes and Noble or Waldenbooks. Visit them, and help save an important publishing institution. Believe it or not, your decision will make a difference.

So, here's to the death of the Trover Shop. I am hurt by their loss and you should be too. Independent bookstores are important to all of us who love books. They really will be missed. Mourn them, but act now to help the indies who remain survive.

Visit my website at http://www.garyclites.com.

 We went to our signing at The Book Center in Cumberland on Saturday. It went very well. According to the staff there, it was the most successful signing they'd ever had. They've held several fairly high profile signings there in recent weeks, and we outsold everyone, so that was pretty good. Beyond that, we met a number of great people there - including old friends, and college friends we hadn't seen in many years. It was a great experience. Thanks to everyone on the staff of The Book Center for a great day.

Beyond that, the experience of doing signings has been interesting. First, I feel like a jerk at signings. You sit behind a big display of books, giant photos of the cover - giant photos of yourself - all of which say I am really important and cooler than you. And - I swear to God - I am not that self involved. Selling the book is my job - but the big press write ups and the idea that my signature is worth something is an alien idea. Believe me, I do not think I am all that cool.

But - I am working to market the book, which I believe in. It has been an interesting experience in recent weeks as people who've read the book come up to me and tell me they love the book. That's the real payoff for writing the book - getting it out to people and getting it read. Knowing that all of the reviews have been good is great, but you are the real readers. I really appreciate all of you who've actually committed to read the book. I hope it's a good experience for you.

And - I want everyone to know I'm a regular guy who wrote a book. I love you all for buying the book and taking the time to read it. Thanks to everyone who's read the book and enjoyed it. Tell your friends. But know that a writer's main joy is just knowing people are reading the work and enjoying it. Your reading the book is my happiness. Thanks for your time and effort.

Visit my website at http://www.garyclites.com.