IntenseDebate - Tancred1949

14 years ago @ Big Hollywood - Blacklisted or Ostraci... · 0 replies · +1 points

LZ: Drop me a line at vsw1949@gmail.com.

14 years ago @ Big Hollywood - Hanoi Jane 'Scared' of... · 0 replies · +1 points

Hey, Jane: BOO!

14 years ago @ Big Hollywood - Blacklisted or Ostraci... · 0 replies · +2 points

I know what you mean. I once had a man come up to me in the supermarket, ask if I was the author of a book I'd written, then when I replied in the affirmative, tell me that it had moved him spiritually in a profound way. For a few seconds all I could do was stare at him, dumbfounded. I'm still grooving along on that one.

14 years ago @ Big Hollywood - Blacklisted or Ostraci... · 2 replies · +2 points

All true, of course. However, the indie world has one large drawback: Traditionally published books at least appear in stores, where they are available to impulse buyers. Indie books only sell if readers are aware that they exist, so self-published authors have to promote their work on their own, an activity that is hugely time-consuming. That puts writers in the position of having to choose between writing and networking via the social media. If you have a regular, eight-hour-a-day/five-day-a-week job, AND you're still writing, something has to take a back seat.

Now, having said that, it is exciting to be part of a quiet cultural revolution, particularly as its target is the liberal, elitist establishment that has dominated publishing for the past couple of decades. In ten years all books will be digital except for those in used book stores. Kind of like vinyl records.

14 years ago @ Big Hollywood - Blacklisted or Ostraci... · 0 replies · +5 points

The first one's out of print but still available on Amazon, while the more recent is in both digital and print form. Email me for instructions: vsw1949@gmail.com

14 years ago @ Big Hollywood - Blacklisted or Ostraci... · 6 replies · +11 points

Continued:

Fastforward to the present: I just recently finished another novel, this one in a currently hot genre and set during our country's recent past; the tone and values depicted therein are patriotic and middle-of-the-road conservative. But despite ongoing efforts on my part, I have yet to interest an agent in representing me or my project (my first agent retired several years ago), so I've gone the indie route and published it myself. Commenters writing on Amazon love it, think it would make a great movie, etc., so I know that it's a good story filled with engaging characters. I have no doubt that the publishing pros to whom I've shown the book won't go near it because its politics are an affront to them, never mind its timeliness.

Punchline: My day job is in academia, where I keep my head down and my mouth shut. And yeah, that snake pit is every bit as bad as you've heard.

14 years ago @ Big Hollywood - Blacklisted or Ostraci... · 3 replies · +9 points

Industry: Publishing
Position: Writer/Author
Status: Frustrated but kind of resigned

I was pretty naive when in 1994 my first novel, an historical based on an often-told story, was published by a major house but never given any publicity at all. Only a tiny handful of reviewers bothered to look at it (and, I might add, critique it with high praise); and although it did garner a small, enthusiastic readership, it pretty much passed beneath the radar of the general public. At some point I came to suspect that the book's lack of performance was due to the fact that I'd chosen to tell the story straight, without any postmodernist blather layered all over it. That was, to say the least, a sobering and disappointing realization: that this well-researched, well-written book was ignored by the literary establishment because it didn't come with an "edgy" [code: liberal] interpretation.
--to be continued:

15 years ago @ Big Hollywood - Vampire Slayer: Buffy ... · 0 replies · +4 points

Buffy has conservative elements in it--good vs. evil being the predominant trope--whatever the writers'/actors' political affiliations. But a new book (not a movie) in the vampire genre that is unabashedly conservative throughout is V-Squad by Pamela Marcantel. It's in digital form and in paper from Lulu.com.

Patriotic vampires out to hunt down their longtime evil nemesis during World War II, with some surprising things to say about immortality, the soul, and what it means to be human.

15 years ago @ Big Hollywood - Trump vs. Obama: Accom... · 0 replies · +6 points

Probably, if like me, no one knows what the heck that means.

15 years ago @ Big Hollywood - 'The Kennedys' Review:... · 1 reply · +2 points

It's already on DVD. During one of the breaks last night there was an ad for it. Go to Reelz.com and you'll see a link to it.

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