Ghostwriter Circus: The Paul Eckert Website

We all know and love the people in our life (and everybody has at least one) who send us emails with ridiculous warnings, like "Don't go to WalMart this week because there is a gang initiation scheduled to happen there" or "Don't eat margarine because it is 95% plastic".

But there is only one that has ever affected me. And it's not true, and I know this. But just the thought of it being true scares the crap out of me. Even as a work of fiction, it creeps me out.

Which one is it?

The serial killer that plays recordings of babies crying to lure women out of their houses.

Seriously, what twisted mind came up with this story? Using babies as a ruse to capture women? How bizarre is that. Could the guy not think of anything better? Is it a particular fetish for him?

Now I'm determined to write the biography for this guy. Maybe for every e-mail myth.

It's even creepier now that we have a baby, and we carry his baby monitor outside. Every time he cries and it comes crackling through the cheap monitor speakers, I shudder and my spine goes cold.

If you've never received this email, take a look here:

http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/crybaby.asp

It's the home stretch in my writer's workshop. The workshop ends November 30, and my novel is only maybe 1/2 to 1/3 of the way finished.

There have been a lot of obstacles to getting the novel finished, so I'm actually proud of how far I've made it this year so far. But now that many of those obstacles are gone, even though a precious new one has been added, I can still find the time to write for 30 minutes a day.

I didn't want this year to go to waste, and I really want to get this novel finished in a rough draft form, so I decided the only way this was going to happen was to set some goals.

So I took a cue from a fellow writer and decided that from now until the end of the year, I will write 500 words a day. No excuses. Okay, there will be excuses, but not too many, and not any bad ones.

I'm loving it so far. It keeps me thinking about the story every day. Hard to keep up with, but when I do it, there's a great sense of accomplishment. Writing that way, for me, produces awful writing, but it gets words on the page. Besides, polish is what revision is for.

The best part is that it only takes 30 minutes to an hour of time, and I can usually scrounge that much amount in a day.

If you're writing a book, definitely give it a try. Just write 500 words a day. Slow, fast, whatever, just get the words on the page. It keeps your head in the game and it keeps you writing.

I have two new short stories coming out...in 2010!

"The Magic Wand of the Fabulous Franzoi" will appear in the anthology Side Show 2: Tales of the Big Top and the Bizarre, which is due out in January 2010. You can purchase the Side Show 1 anthology here.

"Shadows at the Door" will appear in Issue #9 of Morpheus Tales, due out in July 2010. I'm currently reading through Issues 1 through 4 of Morpheus Tales, and I can honestly say they've got some great stories. I'm glad to be included in their canon.

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In other news, I have a hardcore addiction to the song "Spanish and Jazz" by The Wild Moccasins. Listen to it here, and by their album. Make them rich. Great music.

My other listening fix is St. Vincent's new album, Actor. Listen and buy it here. Also buy her first album, Marry Me. It is audtiory bliss.

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In other news, the first issue of Sideshow Fables should be available in a month or so.

Stay tuned.

For an author website, I devote relatively little space to talking about myself. I'm not a famous writer, but there may be someone who read one my stories and fell helplessly in love with me and costantly checks this site for updates.

(If you have fallen in love with me because of my writing, please let me know. My wife probably won't share me with anyone, but that piece of information would make a great story-topper at parties. When someone complains about a pervert stalking their MySpace page, I can say, "I had this guy/girl [I'm an equal opportunity employer for secret admirers, by the way] read one of my stories and fall madly in love with me. Now they log on to my website every day to see what I'm doing. I suppose the written word still has its seductive powers.")

The Official Paul Eckert 2009 update:

Currently I'm working on a novel tentatively entitled, Indescribable. I'm uncomfortable sharing too much about the plot because you never know what kind of information-harvesting robots surf the Net. They could capture this information, relay it back to their master who then turns the idea over to a thousand monkeys writing on typewriters, who then complete a final draft before I do. Then the master puts his name on the project, submits it to various publishers, deals with endless rejection slips, and finally, after two or three rewrites, gets picked up by a major/minor publisher. Who knows, it could happen.

Here's a short blurb about Indescribable: A girl is born in a small Texas town, and the town becomes obsessed with her beauty. As she grows older her beauty transforms her and the reactions of the town. She is kept in hiding, but the townspeople will go to extraordinary lengths to find her.

Besides writing the novel, I'll also be writing more short stories and sending them out to literary journals and inevitably collecting more rejections. Such is the writing life.

So stay tuned, fans. Good things are coming in 2009. Believe it.

I may have a website-exclusive story in the works, so check back soon.

Let me preface this blog by saying this: I'm not here to advertise or sell a product. Rather I'm commenting on new technology that has interesting consequences for the writing/publishing industry and readers everywhere.

Maybe you've heard of it, maybe you haven't. If not, I'll catch you up to speed: The Kindle is Amazon.com's new electronic digital reader that uses a special digital "ink"technology to display text. The Kindle has a wireless connection which allows the user to download books, magazines, newspapers, and blogs for relatively cheap. The Kindle itself costs $400.

Quick story on why I now own a Kindle: I was really interested in the Kindle when it first came out. I wondered about the implications for the publishing industry and whether it was really "like reading a book." I found it interesting, but at $400, it's not something I'd buy for myself. Instead, my wife got me one for my birthday, partly in response to me playing nurse for two weeks after her tonsillectomy surgery. I was interested to see what the Kindle was really all about.

I'll break my thoughts into sections in order that my ramblings have a semblance of coherence.

Size and Weight - The Kindle is relatively small, about 7" by 4" and is lightweight. It comes with a leather cover that protects the device and holds it like a book.

The Screen - In my opinion, the Kindle is easy to read. No matter whether you're in direct sunlight, there is never a glare on the screen. The page turns with a click of the button. Some people have complained that the Kindle takes to long to load a new page. Truth told, it takes about one second, which is about the same time it takes to turn a page in a book. If you can't wait one or two seconds to see a new page, then you probably don't have the patience to read an entire book and understand its contents.

I haven't read an entire book on the Kindle yet, but I have read a few short stories, and reading them was as effortless as reading in a book.

The text looks like the typeface from a newspaper or book. Instead of flat digital text that you normally see on a computer, the type looks raised like you would see in a newspaper.

Memory - From what I understand, a straight-from-Amazon Kindle can hold about 40-50 books. You can purchase more memory. Still, saving the space on your bookshelf for 40-50 books means saving a lot of room.

User Interaction - The Kindle is very user friendly. Everything is pretty logical. You navigate through the Kindle with a small wheel that turns. It is placed by your right thumb, so it is never awkward to reach. I would recommend skimming the user guide to learn about all the cool features. 

Various Cool Features - You can do about everything you would do in a book...and a little more. Want to highlight a cool passage? Kindle lets you do it. You can even save whole pages in a spot called "My Clippings" if you want to go back and read just that page. Want to put bookmark where you left off? You can. Want to look up a word in the dictionary? Just highlight the line it appears in, go to "Lookup", and a dictionary pops up with all the words in that line defined. I love this feature because when reading, I often come upon a word I'm not familiar with. Sometimes I'll take the time to lug the five pound dictionary from the top shelf, flip the pages, and look the word up. But all too often I pass up the learning opportunity for the sake of laziness. But Kindle makes it easy.

Another cool Kindle feature is that you can send your own documents to Kindle. I haven't tried this yet, but I know that it does include a small fee to do so. I don't know what the fee is. Still, if you want to read through your manuscript via the Kindle, you can do so.

Downloading - You can purchase books from the Amazon website or from the Kindle itself. Downloading is instantaneous.

Charging - Comes with a wall charger and USB plug-in. Only takes 2 hours to charge. Stays charged for a week if you read with the wireless connection turned off. I've had mine for two weeks, and though I haven't read extensively in it, the charge is still full.  

Price - Obviously, the Kindle is expensive. It's something I wouldn't have bought for myself, but now that I have it, I enjoy it.

The price of books is very reasonable. Most books cost anywhere from $5-$10. Classic literature is usually available for $1-$2. I recently bought a Jack London novel for 99 cents. There are many short stories from new authors available for 49 cents or less. Many people balk at the price for a product that has a seemingly cheap method of distribution. They also argue that you don't actually own the books you buy since you can't upload the book onto your computer or any other format. I'll address these qualms below.

Why would I buy a new book on Kindle when I can't even sell it back when I'm done?  

Valid question. However, if you look at the numbers, you'll see it comes out the same either way. Let's say you buy the new Stephen King book at a bookstore for $20, which is discounted 20% off the publisher's price (assuming a $25 list price). A used bookstore will pay you about six dollars (at most) for a brand-new bestseller. That means you spent a net of $14. If you sell it on the internet at its highest price, you might net about $8-$10. You still spent a net of $10-$12. So even in the best case scenario, you break even with the Kindle. And with the Kindle, you don't have to go through the hassle of selling a book on the internet or at a used book store. 

Why would I buy a Kindle book when I can't store it anywhere? I might even have to delete it to make room for new books.

Another valid claim. It is unfortunate that Amazon doesn't have a way to "save" purchased books on your computer, and maybe they will come up with something in the future that will also keep people from making copies for everyone they know.

The Kindle can hold 40-50 books. I don't know about anyone else, but the majority of books I read I either sell on the internet or at a used book store. I take notes on the most interesting points of a book and save those notes in a Word document. Then I ditch the book. I only keep a book if it's a favorite author or if it's a book I know I'll want to read again. I live in a small apartment, and I have hundreds of books. I have to sell the ones I've read to make room for new ones. The Kindle saves me at least two or three bookshelves of space. And it will probably take a while before I get to the point that I need to delete a book. I read more than most people I know, but even at my proficient rate, I only read about 40 books a year. It's going to take a while before I fill that much space on the Kindle. By the time I need to delete a book, I'll already have taken notes on it that I've saved on my computer. It'll be time for it to go. Books that I know ahead of time that I'll want to stay on my shelf, I'll buy in book form.

Author Royalties - Another cool feature, not so much of the Kindle, but of the Kindle books. Authors get 35% royalties on Kindle books, more than through traditional publishing. And since Amazon is a universal "bookstore", they don't have to leave their house to purchase a copy.

Make Way for New Authors - This is another interesting by-product of the Kindle: a new place for self-published authors to sell their books. Amazon charges you nothing to upload a book to sell on the Kindle website, and you get 35% royalties for what you sell. And right now, people are looking for new stuff to buy for their Kindle, so it is a great opportunity for self-published/unpublished authors to get their work out in the public while side-stepping the seemingly impossible road to being accepted by a respectable publisher. I'm really excited to see how this affects self-publishing success.

The downside right now is that Amazon seems to be having problems uploading material to the site. The "normal" time from creation to the content appearing "live" is about "12 to 72 hours." I've been trying for two weeks to upload a collection of my short stories, and it is still not available. The content is fairly easy to upload to the Kindle site, and a little more difficult to format right (it might take a few times). If you know HTML it might be easier, because it does let you format the content in HTML. But I don't know HTML, so I didn't try it. When (if...) my content goes live, I'll post it on the front page.

Summary:

I think I've covered most bases here. If I think of something else I'll add it on. Here's my basic summary for the Amazon Kindle: Great new device for readers, lots of interesting possibilities for new authors and publishers, but it won't replace books any time soon. Sometimes you just have to revel in that "new book" smell and gaze at a book's cover art. But for anybody that can afford it, the Kindle will save you space, time, and give the act of reading a whole new experience.   

This is one of those moments where I stand on my soapbox and rant to my fellow humans. Believe me, I do this out of love. But this is more than a rant. It's also a great way to accomplish a little bit every day. This goes out to writers, musicians, artists, and every other human that desires to enrich their lives.

Today's rant topic? Time.

Among all the cliches uttered in a single day, this one has to be among the top ten: "I would do it, but I just don't have the time." You probably heard someone say that today. You may have said it yourself today. But really, what are you saying?

More importantly, what is it that you don't have time for? Reading? Writing? Painting? Whatever it is, I guarantee that you do have time.

How do I know? Because no matter how busy you are, you always have at least 5 minutes a day. What can you get done in 5 minutes? More than you think.

I will structure this example for writers since it is the example closest to my life. But this method is easily applied to all pursuits.

The best way to get something done is to do it everyday. Almost every writer will tell you two things to become a better writer: 1) Read, and 2) Write everyday.

So what if you don't have three hours to carve out of every day to write? Just take one hour. If don't have an hour, take half an hour. If you don't have any time, then take 5 minutes. If you don't have 5 minutes to spare, then you should seriously examine your life to see if you are leading a truly fulfilling, enriching life.

Once you find that hour/half hour/five minute slot of free time, start writing. Especially if you only have 5 minutes, you don't have time to waste. Just start writing. Don't overthink what you're writing, just get it on the page. You can always revise, and you will. What you're writing might be the most abominibal crap on Earth, but you will have a chance to make it better. The point is that instead of watching TV, playing video games, or doing useless Internet surfing, you are putting words on the page. I have gotten to the point where I have written almost 200 words in five minutes. And once you get in the groove, you might find yourself going over the time you set aside for yourself. You might be so engrossed that you don't even think about how much time you are spending. That is a truly beautiful point in creativity.

Again, this applies to everyone. Set aside that time, even if it's just 5 minutes, and read, write, learn an instrument, or whatever completes you. Set aside the things that leave you with nothing (i.e. video games, YouTube videos, TV, etc.) and spend time doing something interesting.

I admit, I wholly believe in this method yet I don't always apply it to my own life at all times (at least for writing). But I'm getting better.   

Don't blame your schedule because you haven't accomplished what you want. Blame yourself. Then do something about it.

Do I have to remind you of all those other cliches? That life is short, that time waits for no one, that this is the only life you get, etc.?

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that the stuff life is made of." - Benjamin Franklin

A book I highly recommend on this subject is In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honore. Buy it. Read it. It will make you slow down your life. I know I did. If you're a writer, buy Immediate Fiction by Jerry Cleaver. Hands down the best book on all aspects of being a writer, from story elements to writer's block to time management to the submission process. Buy it. You won't regret it.

The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen is a trip through the mind of an unnamed, "average" guy living in Los Angeles. The title seems to be a riff on the widely known scientific summation of human males: the average male thinks about sex every six seconds. This about sums up our nameless anti-hero in The Average American Male. Sounds sophomoric? It isn't.

The narrator of this novel thinks about sex constantly. He constantly daydreams about sex with strangers, mothers, grandmothers, and the homeless. He is uncaring towards others, has no career goals, and hates pretty much everything except sex, video games, and porn. On the surface, this may sound like an unlikable character. And he is. But an open-minded reader (male or female) will recognize themselves in the pages of his disgusting thoughts. The reader is constantly apalled but also reminded of a time when they may have done the same thing. On top of all this, the book is hilarious with every sentence that drips with over-the-top sarcasm and brutal humor. At every turn, it questions what it really means to be human.

I've skipped on the plot, but you can read a summary at Amazon.

Trust me on this one. Buy the book and read it. See just how much you can handle.

Hurray for Kultgen. Keep your eye on this guy.

Whenever you think of buying a CD, DVD, book, or appliance, where do you go? Best Buy, Borders, Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, etc. Sure, why not? Hell, I've shopped those places before. Cheap prices, readily available products, large parking lots, easily accessible, and mostly incompetent and uncaring customer service.

I don't like to be the guy to tell everyone what to do, so I'll only pose this as a suggestion: buy your products from independent sources.

Sure, there is nothing morally wrong with buying from the big box stores. They do legal business and offer the same products, often at cheaper prices. But don't forget about the little places, those brave souls who, in the face of world corporate dominance, still have the guts to operate their own bookstore, music store, whatever. The importance of independent stores are often overlooked.

Let's look at it from the perspective of books. If you are a self-published author, the big stores will never put your book on their shelf. They've got so many books, they don't have room for yours (or will refuse to make room). Therefore, they contribute nothing to your local scene. Only the big, corporate-backed names get play time.

On the other hand, small, independent bookstores will often hold book readings for local authors. They will put your book on their shelf or display it next to the cash register. They give you the opportunity to start making a name for yourself. And if your book sells well, they may ask you for more.

I write this because I am constantly concerned about independent stores vanishing from our cities. The only reason these stores go under is because they are not making money. They are not making money because people are not buying from them. They would rather go to a store where they can go up elevators and sit in a Starbucks next door.

You don't have to buy everything from independent stores. Sometimes it's hard to avoid the big box stores. But before you complete a transaction on Amazon, call your local bookstore and see if they have the book. If they don't, see if they can order it. It may take two weeks, but at least you'll know that your money is going into the hands of someone who deserves it, someone that supports people like you.

And let me not limit my phrasing to "independent" stores. I will broaden this to anyone that actively supports independent artists of any persuasion, whether a corporate chain or not.

I will list some independent bookstores and other media stores in Houston below. I'll also start a section in the links page for independent stores. If you would like me to add independent stores from your area, use the contact page and give me a list of the stores, what they sell, and in what city.

Books:

Brazos Bookstore

Domy Books

River Oaks Bookstore

Murder By The Book

Music:

Sound Exchange