Join Me For a Bublish/Twitter Chat

What is Bublish? It may sound kind of like a brand of gum, but it's actually a "social book discovery platform" whose president, Kathy Meis, has been tireless in her enthusiasm and support for authors. I feel like I owe her and Bublish a debt, having uploaded two of my books to the site and created four of what they call "book bubbles," all at no cost other than the effort it takes to create them. Anyway, take a look and see what you think. This is what a "bubble" looks like (click to enlarge):

The reason I'm directing your attention their way is that they've asked me to take part in something called a Twitter Chat this Thursday, September 12 at 3:00 pm Eastern Time (Noon Pacific) and I would love it if my friends and those who have enjoyed my writing in any way, shape or form could show up and ask me deeply bizarre or even eminently sensible questions. It might be fun, kind of.

It's an odd coincidence that this is happening on September 12, given the subject matter of Dissolute Kinship, but I suppose it's fortuitous. If by fortuitous I mean weird.

To join the party, go to Twitter and you will need to include @BublishMe in your tweet along with the hashtag #bublish. And then I suppose you'll ask me directly, so my Twitter handle is, fairly unsurprisingly and most unimaginitively, this: @DavidAntrobus

See you on Thursday if you can make it. I'll be on my best behaviour and no jokes from me about nuns or garden gnomes or even yoga pants. You, however, can go wild.

Update: Given today's date, I created a new book bubble at the site, which you can see here. It's a short reflection on the interconnectivity of our species, through the joy and tragedy common to us all. (Also, click on image below.)

Dissolute Kinship Wins Readers' Choice Award

This is really a follow up to the last post. The two-week voting period for Big Al's Books and Pals 2013 Readers' Choice Awards is now over, and Dissolute Kinship: A 9/11 Road Trip was fortunate enough to receive the most votes in the Memoir category, enough to win it, which is a great honour and one for which I am humbly grateful. There? Did that sound like a gracious speech? But seriously, winning this award has been a glimmer of light in a pretty dark few weeks for me personally, so I am very appreciative of everyone who read my book, everyone who voted in the contest, all the other fine and awesome independent authors whose books were nominated and, especially, Big Al Kunz and his team over there. Nice work, everyone.

Dissolute Kinship Nominated For A Readers' Choice Award

So, BigAl's Books and Pals received 1,400 books to review over the twelve months between February 2012 and February 2013. Now, my math is fairly rudimentary but that's over a hundred books a month. Of that number, they selected nearly 300 to review, so about 25 books a month. And of those 300, they have now selected just over 50 for nomination in twelve categories for BigAl's Books and Pals 2012 Readers' Choice Awards.

And my debut, Dissolute Kinship: A 9/11 Road Trip (yes it's on the right sidebar and yes you can buy it from Amazon), was selected along with four others in the Memoir category.

Which makes me happy for one obvious reason—uh, something I wrote got noticed, y'all—but also because Big Al and his crew over there are as honest as the day is lengthwise, with their reputation for not suffering fools very much preceding them.

Anyway, you can go there and vote. It's not altogether straightforward: you must sign in via Facebook or email, they promise not to steal your credit cards or your children, but don't bother trying if you browse the interwebs with Internet Explorer. Use Chrome, Firefox or Safari and you should be good to go. Once you sign in, the categories appear and apparently you can also win stuff, I think (Laurie Boris probably explains this much better here).

Speaking of Laurie, I also want to give a shoutout to a few fellow nominees whose paths I've crossed, including Laurie Boris, Laura Clark, KS "Kat" Brooks, Melinda Clayton, Ed Lorn and Lynn Cantwell—all worthy writers and the type of folks you can safely bring home to meet mother. (There should probably be a "lol" in there, somewhere.)

But I'll end this with a thought: we writers—and boy do those ranks continue to swell—crave recognition and acknowledgement in a crowded marketplace. Some are risking plenty in this pursuit of our need for expression. I see it in my mind's eye as kind of like Covent Garden in London. We're hawking our wares, some of us resorting to extreme measures. Some of us are swallowing live ammunition while answering questions on the likelihood of an asteroid striking a kindhearted three-legged Albanian in a tuxedo, all while juggling smoldering chihuahuas, of course. Well, not many of us are doing that, actually. But it's hard to get the attention of readers, really hard. And of course we love to win things, because winning feels good and people notice our stuff more if it's been approved of by an objective, neutral source, especially one with a reputation as solid as BigAl's. But... and I really mean this. I am reluctant to ask anyone directly to vote for mine, or even to leave it out there as some kind of an assumption. I have no doubt the other books nominated alongside my own have been formed from the precious, living sorrow and joy of existence every bit as intensely and lovingly as my own small offering.

So read as many of these books as you can, and vote for your favourites. That's all. Oh, and you have until Midnight Eastern Time on April 1st.

Two 5 Star Reviews in Two Days

Dissolute Kinship: A 9/11 Road Trip was reviewed twice in two days this week, and both were of the 5 Star variety. They were also genuine, emotional and compassionate.

The first came courtesy of a promising Peruvian writer named Patricia Awapara whose own work is remarkable in that English is not her native tongue. The review is on Amazon, but I'm also going to link to Patricia's own website in an attempt to give her more exposure (although I suspect her blog gets more hits than my own). Anyway, here's her kind review:

From the moment I picked up the book, I was moved by David Antrobus’ words. Beautifully written, this short story starts moments after the world goes into shock about the 9/11 tragedy. The author takes a road trip, from Canada to New York. He describes the city’s emotional state and his reaction to this horrific event with much insight and warmth. His words took me back in time. I felt as though I was there with him, with all those people. I felt their hurt and despair. It made me cried, but his word also carried hope and unity. I recommend it!

I wish I could write Spanish as well as she writes English.

Next up is Linda Rae Blair, another writer I've run into in various social media sites. Again, I am struck by the sheer emotional impact my book has on people. Of course, it was very emotional to write (and to experience), and you always hope you can convey the visceral essence of that, but it's incredibly gratifying all the same when you find you have indeed succeeded. As I said, this is another 5 Star review and is up on Smashwords:

This is a work I knew would be great, knew I would regret if I didn't read, knew would be painful to read—so, what did I do? I put it off, kept it neatly tucked away in my Kindle To Be Reads where it haunted me like a personal ghost. Well, I was yanked from my frozen state into action when someone else's review crossed by screen. "Coward," I called myself and reached for my Kindle. Half an hour later, with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes, a knot in my stomach, I knew I was right to read it. Glad I didn't try sooner, but glad I had finally gotten beyond my own PTS. David has done a tremendous job, putting his own perspective to this painful topic, as well as jarring us into facing our own pain in the memory. Thank you, David. It was beautiful, sad, and oh, so very accurate. And, as a southern neighbor, I am so very glad you took the trip that I have yet to face.

I love the way she provides a short backstory for her process in relation to the book. I imagine it sitting on her (virtual) coffee table ticking quietly like a time bomb for months.

Anyway, it goes without saying that I love and appreciate these reviews, and indeed anyone who takes the time not only to read my strange little book, but to throw some thoughts at the screen afterward.

A Nurturance Deficit

Stand well back, writer about to brag...

"What a beautiful and touching piece. You have a gift for creating vibrant images and feelings. I was swept away by your physical and emotional journey after the devastation of the 9/11 attacks and appreciated your keen observations about the landscape and the feelings of the people around you. We are very excited to offer Dissolute Kinship a Grub Street Reads Endorsement and to add your work to the official Grub Street Reads library."

So writes Jessica Bennett of Grub Street Reads in her ringing endorsement of my book.

Deeming my work meets the standard in the following categories:

✓ Plot

✓ Characters

✓ Pace

✓ Accurcacy

✓ Grammar/Layout

✓ Overall Assessment

Grub Street Reads not only accepted and endorsed it, they added it to their Grub Street Greats category ("the books we couldn't put down"), an honour only afforded five books out of some forty novels they've endorsed so far.

Now, the whole concept of endorsements has come under scrutiny lately, and I even poked fun at it myself, but I can say in all honesty that no money changed hands between myself and the people who run that site, so I will take the praise and try to turn it into more sales. The question still remains, however: are we replacing the old gatekeepers with yet more gatekeepers? Is the new world order of publishing in danger of succumbing to some of the same pitfalls that befell the old model? While we debate this, however, we still need to get our books into the hands of readers, so I will use any legal and ethical means possible in order to do that.

Writers, huh? I swear most of us weren't breastfed or something. So needy are we that our knees go weak whenever someone with an opinion even glances in our direction. Sigh. As long as we're not tempted to part those knees, however, I suppose that's okay.

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David Antrobus also writes for Indies Unlimited and BlergPop. Be sure to check out his work there if you like what you read here.