'THE STONE MAN' - THE TRAILER! PLEASE SHARE!

Hi folks,

It's been a while since I updated the blog, but I've been preparing to give the entire website an overhaul whilst working feverishly on book promotion, as well as preparing for the PAPERBACK LAUNCH of TSM on November 12th. As a part of that, here's a link to the new trailer for The Stone Man; I'd be very interested to hear from people who have read the book, and get their opinion on whether or not this captures the tone of the book/sells it correctly.

Enjoy:

ONE HAS BEEN JOLLY WELL INTERVIEWED

 "You have nothing interesting to say."

Yep! I've been interviewed by my good friend, Roland Hulme - raconteur, bon-vivant, dashing social media genius and a cad in every way but the bad ones - for his excellent blog over at militantginger.com. It's an always interesting look at a very English (in the good sense) Englishman's perspective on all things American; I recommend it highly. And even more so today, as it features a whole lotta ME! But don't let that put you off. If you're interested in m'thoughts and all things self-publishing and the potential career that is hopefully involved therein (uh...that make sense?) then go check it out HERE.

COVER VERSIONS (THE NON-'CUTE GIRL WITH A UKULELE' KIND)

On a week when I've given all of the existing covers of my books an overhaul, I thought that I'd put up a piece about all of the recent changes involved with my covers, and of the importance of covers in general for the self-publisher.

"But Luke," you may be saying, "hold it right there. If covers are so important, why did you do yours yourself?" Wellll, because it's something I personally enjoy doing a lot, and take as much pride in creating as I do the contents. I love the idea of having a 'uniform' look to my covers, as well as the concept of having a different, bold single colour for each one combined with a central, minimalist figure/image; obviously, there's no reason that I couldn't tell a cover designer to make them that way, but I just really wanted to have a go myself. Perhaps unwise, but I felt strongly about it at the time.

Pictured: minimalism.

HOWEVER, I also appreciate that my covers so far have looked a touch home made; there has also been a major discrepancy in sales numbers for me between the US and UK Amazon sites. So why not try and make something that looks a little more 'published' - but still keeping the same single colour and uniform stylings as before - and see if it affects sales overseas? Especially on a week when I have my first reasonably expensive paid promotion coming up for any of my books (more on that another time.)

And if, after a few months, THAT doesn't work, rhen I might have to look into busting the old coffers a bit more and digging up some money to pay a professional cover designer...and if I was going to do that, I'd give it to the excellent Paddy Green (@padgrn but more on HIM shortly.)

I'm currently reading 'Self Printed' by Catherine Ryan Howard (@cathryanhoward) and it's been giving me a bit of a kick up the arse on a few issues book-wise, several of which should have been kind of obvious. I don't agree with EVERYTHING she says (my readers rather seem to respond well to me  my fairly sweary and 'unprofessional' self, both in my afterwords and online presence, and she advises being otherwise. She's probably right in most cases, but it doesn't seem to be the deal in mine...I think she'd probably despise the state of this blog too, but one step at a time and all that) but the her book has, so far, been very inspiring, and I recommend it highly to anyone considering self publishing. Anyway, she makes some good points regarding covers.

After all, your cover is your shop window. The Stone Man currently has 94 reviews on Amazon UK, which is great, but if the cover lets people know that my book is self published, a lot of people out there simply won't touch a self-published book; why reduce your potential market? The perfect timing of discovering Catherine's book and a tweet from the excellent Paddy Green (later, later) have spurred me into action.

It may be more interesting to look at my own cover development through that of my first book, The Physics Of The Dead, as that is the only one of my books to have four different covers, three of which were all variations of themselves. Here's the very first one, which I imagine the majority of you have never seen:

You may like it, you may hate it. Some did, some didn't. Either way, it's supposed to be in a very minimalist style, which always divides opinion. Or you might just think that it looks amateurish. Later, I changed it to this:

The idea, colour, and central image are all the same, but I prefer the font and the layout of the text. This is something I'd keep throughout all of my books for some time, and even when I overhauled everything, I kept the font and typesetting for my name. This styling then continued in the other covers:

I realised that TPOTD didn't quite fit in with this, plus the white text was hard to read against such a light green when thumbnail-sized on Amazon, so I changed it again:

I have a lot of affection for these covers; but I recently realised that perhaps I've let that blinker me to the fact they do look home produced. So I've tried to do something a little more 'published' looking with their replacements (although, as with these, some people prefer them, some people despise them):

 And, of course, The Physics Of The Dead (the only one that's kept its original colour):

You can hopefully see the new uniform styling (text on the left, artwork on the right) and to me, it looks a lot more professional. You might disagree; I guess we'll see if sales are affected in any way. However, there's also another option...

You see, he excellent Paddy Green (see: earlier) got in touch via twitter to say that he enjoyed TPOTD, and that he'd discovered it as it followed a similar subject matter to his own book, The Old Terra Vitae. It was looking at Paddy's cover (also self-published) and realising how much more professional it looked that my own, that combined with Catherine's book to spur me into action; I half-jokingly asked if he fancied having a crack at re-doing TPOTD. Proving that the 'Excellent' in his name isn't just a clever title, he promptly sent back two conceptual covers for it that even tie in some of the elements of the story (you'll know if you've read it.) And here they are:

Both great, but I particularly like the second one. I would have used it too, if it wouldn't mean redoing all of my other covers to tie them into a similar look. But what do you  think? Do you hate them all, prefer the old ones, prefer the new ones, or even think that you could do better? Why not let me know in the comments section below? :)




You can find more of Catherine's  self-publishing thoughts on her blog, Catherine, Caffeinated and you can follow Paddy Green @padgrn. 

To learn more about MY books (Woo!) visit www.lukesmitherd.com where you can buy them for the Kindle.

ON AMAZON CHANGING THE GAME...AND GETTING IN JUST IN TIME

So, it appears that Amazon's recent rumoured change in content policy (specifically not allowing stories of less than 2,500 words) has at least spread a bit further than that.

The word going around is that because of the success of the Kindle Direct Publishing platform that allows schmucks like me to get their work onto the biggest book-selling site in the world (unsurprising, really, that people would be into that, especially when getting published conventionally is getting harder and harder) the overall quality level of Kindle-only books has dropped. This, again, is unsurprising, because Amazon don't vet each book as it goes up onto the site; anything can get on, as long as it's doesn't auto-flag for certain offensive keywords in its description, and no-one complains about it after it's up.

(Wholesome, unbigoted titles about schooldays are still warmly accepted.)

As a result, more and more shitty books have been bought on a whim by brave punters willing to give a new writer a go (how do you think I get anywhere, eh? A-HA! A-HA! Thought I'd get it in there first) with the end result of those customers feeling burnt by Amazon. Not exactly the way a vast international mega corporation wants people feeling about them, you might say, and so Amazon appear to have done something about it.

The most obvious is the removal of the ability to tag the book with keywords outside of the ones a KDP publisher can add on the book's information page. These means that they stand out less in the marketplace, and far more damaging, it means that the effectiveness of the free listing days (KDP Select publishers get five free listing days per quarter on the proviso that their book is only available on Amazon) that made the KDP Select program such a vital tool for people like me has been massively reduced (that and the fact that an number of available free listing title on any given day has almost doubled.) Before, a free listing meant that thousands of downloads were likely, massively increasing the visibility of your work and hopefully gaining you a great deal of vital customer reviews.

Pictured: the Luke Smitherd unsold inventory.

I did blog previously about my confusion over why The Stone Man, a book with far more reviews at the time that The Physics Of The Dead ever did, barely shifted any free copies in the US than TPOTD did back when it had no reviews at all. I didn't realise about the tag removal at the time, and the similar free listing failure of The Black Room in both the US and UK was also baffling to me (and before you say 'the books were crap' it couldn't have been, because no-one had read them at the time, yet the same was true of TPOTD and it shifted thousands of copies. The books may still be crap, of course, but that's not the reason the free listings failed.) Now it makes sense; TPOTD seems to have gotten in just before the gate closed on the glory days of the free listing.

I hope that this doesn't remain the case, but not just for my sake. That first free listing of TPOTD managed to get me my first batch of reviews, which began a steady trickle of sales than seems to be s-l-o-w-l-y increasing with each release by tiny increments. If it wasn't for that, the only way that people would have discovered my work would have been through sheer chance and my own promotional efforts (hint: sheer chance alone would have had better odds of success.) So this makes me wonder how brand new writers without a supportive social circle or social media skills are going to get anywhere (I have neither either, apart from, in the case of the latter, the new friends I've made via my books, but at least I had KDP Select free listings when they were at full strength) unless Amazon returns the KDP program to it's former tag-heavy glory. Plus, it does rather beg the question: if the big appeal of limiting your book to Amazon was the payoff of being able to have a successful free listing, why would anyone bother opting in to the Select version of KDP when now you only get a lousy few hundred downloads worldwide? My best hope is that Amazon is trying to do something about the increased number of simultaneous free listings, and will figure out an algorithm that can let all the free listings co-exist but be found perhaps by the right customers, rather than just reducing the overall amount that are found full stop. We shall see.

By the way, The Black Room, Part Three: The Other Places is now out on Amazon, which you can buy HERE.

To learn more about MY books (Woo!) visit www.lukesmitherd.com where you can buy them for Kindle.

GETTING STUCK/FEELING LIKE AN ASSHOLE

I've been avoiding the blank page for about a week and a half now, using one excuse after another. All my usual tips for getting started are proving useless. The concept of putting words to paper seems as impossible and preposterous as jumping out of the window and expecting to float.

It makes me feel quite sick, if I'm honest. Self-loathing builds up dramatically, and every day that starts with "Today I'll get so much done" and ends with "I can't believe I got nothing done" makes it even worse. What's amplifying the problem is the fact that I'm at a point in my latest book that I'm kinda stuck with, and having to overcome a difficult obstacle to even start is not good.

So I've decided, simply, to skip it and come back to that part later once my mind is in more of a flow state as opposed to a concrete state. And I'm taking my own advice and writing this blog entry as a way of at least warming up the typing brain cells. I also wanted to let people know - the people that have such a chronic procrastination problem that they often feel utterly helpless, the ones who try all the techniques and still feel like there's no light at the end of the tunnel - that it's not just them. 

Some people think that getting stuck like this means lazing around relaxing; it's the opposite. It'd being unable to relax in any way, tormented by the knowledge that there's STUFF TO BE DONE, and yet you almost seem to be deliberately sabotaging yourself by not just getting up and getting on with it. You feel constantly wired yet utterly brain dead at the same time. Sometimes I find myself literally rubbing my face and tugging at my hair in frustration.

 At lunchtimes, the folders would gang up and intimidate Lewis.

One thing that I find does help (if it doesn't solve the main problem at all) is to get at least ONE tiny, tiny job done so the time isn't a total loss; the smallest, most doable job you can find. That means the next day, maybe you can get two things done, and so on. If you're anything like me, you're a machine once you start; the hours drop off, and it's only until your hands start to shake from hunger or your face gets hot from a lack of fluids that you stop. Then of course, once those problems are dealt with, you have the whole issue of stalled momentum all over again...but at least you had those hours, right?

It's a dark, dark business, and it IS beatable...but some days are harder than others, and some days you're just going to fuckin' well fail. The key to it (and one I haven't mastered) is to be able to accept those days for what they are and prepare to do better on the next one. Let me know how that works out for you.

To learn more about MY books (Woo!) visit www.lukesmitherd.com where you can buy them for Kindle.

THE AUTHOR MARKETING CLUB

Free listings on Amazon for KDP Select publishers like myself, whilst less effective than they used to be (more on that another time) are still a good way of getting your work out there when no-one knows who the hell you are. Like myself. 

But it's ALSO a good idea to get your work submitted to the various sites that promote said free ebook listings (of any type, not just Kindle); they'll not only put your work on their front pages (provided you meet their varying requirements, and that they like you) but often tweet the link to their thousands of followers too. There's an immense market of people that only read free books on their Kindles; whilst, in the long run, you won't make any money off them, a lot of them will give you the vital reviews you need to help you on your way. If you think about it, it's quite a nice two-way relationship; because these people are happy to try out new authors, a lot of them are happy to post a review, more so, in many ways, than your paying customers, many of whom will think that they've paid you your money for the book, so they don't owe you a review (they're right, they don't owe you anything...but it's makes an author extremely grateful when they do.)

Anyway, something I discovered on my free-listing-promotional-insanity-day was the extremely useful Author Marketing Club. It has a load of free ebook 'marketing tools' - nothing new there - but best of all, it has a page where the best of the free ebook marketing link sites all in one place. Even better, the links on that page (the page the above link takes you to) all go directly to those sites' book promotion submission pages. It saves a lot of time, and you can go through the whole list in an hour or two. 

It might only get you another 30 downloads, but hey, if those generate even one new review, that makes it worth it, right?

To learn more about MY books (Woo!) visit www.lukesmitherd.com where you can buy them for Kindle.

'THE STONE MAN' - FREE UNTIL SATURDAY

Just a quickie; The Stone Man has three free listing days that need using up by June, so I'm using 'em. I'll be honest, since Amazon took down the tags on KDP listings, the free days (for me at least) aren't the nuclear promotional option that they once were. Either way, if you fancy sharing the link, that'd be great. It's quite a long book, and it's FREE; whatcha got to lose?

The Stone Man-USA Amazon Link

The Stone Man-UK Amazon Link

THE OL' DARTS BLOG

From early 2010 until about February of last year, I practiced playing darts anywhere from 10 to 20 hours a week, in hopes of one day becoming a professional darts player; I logged nearly 1000 practice hours, and walked around 800 miles back and forth across the oche in the process.

Yes, I'm serious. And I took it VERY seriously.

It was only in 2012 that I kind-of-but-not-officially stopped, and this was because, in a roundabout way, of the whole book writing thing. Obviously, when you set aside four hours a day for practice, it doesn't leave a huge amount of time to get everything else done; and so, after a period of about two weeks during which I'd been laid up with the 'flu, I decided to have a week or two off the practice to get caught up with other things (like getting The Stone Man written.)

Weeks became months, and I haven't done a single hour of home practice since. The weirdest, craziest thing is that I haven't really, apart from a few brief instants, felt any urge to do any either, and this is after a time when the idea of stopping--even when I thought about it--was horrifying, the concept of wasting all those sore-back-and-neck inducing hours being just too much to even think about.

I haven't given up on the idea totally; it's something too close to my heart, and something I'm too proud of to ever dismiss. The blog drew in quite a lot of readers (especially from Belgium, for some reason) and I really need to update it if only so it doesn't seem like I've suddenly stopped caring. I'd hate it if regular readers who'd taken an interest felt like I just didn't give a shit about their support, and they're owed a state-of-the-darts-career address...but that to me would also feel like I've given it an ending, and I don't want to do that yet. Or maybe I just don't want to admit it, who knows; but it's also funny how you can slowly ease in or out of something and not really realise--or again, admit--that you're doing it.

Either way, the blog covers about two years of my life, and is an interesting (and, I'd like to think, funny) account of one man's obsession. There's triumphs and tragedies along the way, visits to a hypnotist, arguments with players at tournaments, purchases of every dumb gadget under the sun, self-doubt, injury and other nonsense. And technically, it's not over yet. Even if you're not interested in darts, it's worth a look. Click the link below.

Straight Shooting Luke Smitherd's Arrows Of Outrageous Fortune

PS The Future Of Darts World Championships (FOD) is a tournament that myself and my friends partake in amongst ourselves; click on the youtube link on lukesmitherd.com to see some of the 'montages'. It gets ugly.

To learn more about MY books (Woo!) visit www.lukesmitherd.com where you can buy them for Kindle.

TOP TEN 'CHOBBING' FILMS / HOW TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL CHOB

Here's an old post I put on my old Facebook page a few years back; it might make you laugh and explain the concept of proper chobbing to you, if you don't already get it. Remember: there's a very key difference between just watching bad films and proper chobbing. Read on.

My Top Ten Chobbing Films Of All Time.
by Luke Smitherd (Notes) on Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 5:06pm

...well, today's list, anyway. I've done this pretty much on the fly, and I'm sure I'll look at it tomorrow and go 'What was I THINKING?!' but here it is. These are not just the selection of memorable chobs (otherwise In The Mouth Of Madness and The Kiss would be in there) but chobbing films that I look back on and think 'Ah...that's a great chobbing film.'

If you don't know what chobbing is, it's hard to explain, but the best way I can put it is there's watching proper, quality, well-made films and then there's chobbing. Chobbing cannot be performed solo, and due to the nature of the films involved, picking a quality chobbing film is hard (because the film itself really shouldn't be quality.)

A common mistake is to get a shit film and think you can just laugh at how shit it is. This isn't true. You will not find it funny or entertaining because it will be fucking boring. Plus, a chobbing film doesn't necessarily have to BE shit, just a bit daft and over-the-top (see: Total Recall, Mortal Kombat, TimeCop.) The first key to a truly great chobber-from multiplex international releases to straight to DVD low budget efforts-is a distinct lack of logic or effort on the part of the filmmakers, and any other icing (poor acting, cliched dialogue and characters, hilarious deaths, and ridiculous character decisions) is a bonus. The second (and for the me, the most important of all, no matter what the chobbing film) is PACE. If it's cheap and crap and badly acted,this won't actually be so-bad-it's-good, it'll just be dull, dull, dull. BUT if it rattles along nicely, you will have a great chob; so-bad-it's-good only works if the pace stops you getting bogged down in the shitness. If the Paceometer is through the floor the wrong way, you are in for a poor time.

Generally, horror, sci-fi, and martial arts films are your best bet.

So, to help you get started, here's a sample of my current Top Ten Chobbing Films Of All Time, in no particular order. If I've forgotten any honourable mentions, do tell me:

1.Braindead (Believe or not, the director went on to become Peter 'Lord Of The Rings' Jackson. Paceometer off the charts.)

2.King Of The Kickboxers ("Wha..what are you guys waiting for?!" Enter Billy Blanks. "They're waiting for ME!!")

3.Bloodfight ("Wow...with these moves, I could kick the shit out of anybody!" Yes, this is a real film.)

4.Total Recall ("You gotta lotta nerve showing your face round here!" "LOOK WHOOOS TAR-KING...")

5.Kickboxer ("Yeah...yeah, I'm a great dancer...")

6.Bloodsport ("Nonono, it's 'Dux')

7.No Retreat, No Surrender ("Chi...equals POWER!!" As Bruce Lee's ghost one-inch punches our young hero across the room.)

8.Predator (Take your pick. Awesome, awesome, awesome, 80s sci-fi machofest, fantastically paced, steadily growing sense of doom, more one-liners than you can shake a stick at, classic villain, and a criminally overlooked orchestral score. This shouldn't really be in here as it is, in my opinion, a classic of the genre, but it's a fucking great chobber none the less.

9.Ring (The japanese original. Again, too great a film to be in here, but every now and then a chobber should bite you in the ass as you think 'Ha, ha, this will be shit and funny!' but it actually scares the living piss out of you. This entry could also be replaced with John Carpenter's Prince Of Darkness, the film that scared me more than any other movie ever has before or since, none even coming close. It made me feel like I was doomed. I didn't sleep. The trailer doesn't do it justice at ALL...)

10.Tales From The Darkside (Still the funniest screen death ever for me, when the guy's mate gets   killed at the start of the gargoyle story. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH-"(slice.)

So, there you have it. Get some friends, some booze, some food, and rent any of the above for a great chob.

To learn more about MY books (Woo!) visit www.lukesmitherd.com where you can buy them for Kindle.

4 TERRIBLE FILMS THAT HOLLYWOOD ACTION STARS HOPE YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT

Forced into costume work, DeVito's career hit a new low.

In the early stages of everyone's career, they find themselves forced into taking on jobs of a more demeaning nature than they would like. This isn't so bad if you are, say, a toilet attendant (those used tampons and syringes aren't going to walk themselves to the landfill, now are they?) as whatever downsides there are to your job, the odds are no-one is really going to find out about it. Not so for aspiring actors; these poor saps are forced to take on all comers (and if they're REALLY desperate, they might find themselves in a genre of film where that sentence has a more literal meaning) and when they move on to loftier heights, those early efforts are left for all the word to see. Actors such as...

1. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: HERCULES IN NEW YORK

Say what you like about Hercules, there aren't many people who can fart out actual horses.

I'd explain the plot, but it'd be so painful to read that your eyes would leap out of your head and go and look at some snuff films in order to see something a little easier to put up with. All you need to know about 'Hercules In New York' is a: Arnold's voice is hilariously dubbed all the way through with someone else's, b: it's so low budget that Central Park is used as a set to represent Mount Olympus (where, presumably, all the cherubs and satyrs drink meths and look suspiciously like hobos) and c: Arnold was so unknown at this point in his career that they changed his name to Arnold Strong upon it's original release. The whole thing is an abomination of a fish-out-of-water 'comedy', albeit without any intentional laughs. 'Hercules In His Final Death Throes At The End Of A Brave And Drawn Out Battle With Ebola' would have been more fun that this. One poster claimed 'It's Tremendous! It's Stupendous! It's FUN!!!' By God, it's not.

2. SYLVESTER STALLONE: THE ITALIAN STALLION

Stallone, pictured spotting the late '90s and early 2000s in the distance.

Originally entitled 'The Party At Kitty And Stud's', the movie was retitled and re-released in an attempt to cash in on the now world famous Stallone's nickname. Stallone got $200 for it when he was penniless and 'at the end of (his) rope"; which is where anyone watching a copy of the original edit looking for some hot action may well find themselves, as it was so tame that Stallone said 'By today's standards, it would probably be rated PG.' The studio since released a version with some close up shots of actual penetration, but don't get excited; it's not Stallone's Stallion, but a stand in added afterwards. By the way, in case you were wondering, Stallone plays Stud, not Kitty. Personally, I'm more interested in the title of one of the other films by the same director mentioned in the trailer; 'The Longest Foot', starring John Holmes. I assume it's a film about javelin throwing.

3. JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME: MONACO FOREVER

Van Damme, pictured after another naked table tennis win.

A bit part in a film made up of bit parts, Van Damme is billed simply as ' Gay Karate Man', appearing in a brief scene where he picks up the hitchhiking hero of the film. Of course, being gay, his character instantly tries to seduce our hero because he's a man (in the 80s, this was generally accepted as What Gay Guys Do) and then, when his advances are aggressively rebuffed and is challenged to a fight, he takes his karate suit off (that's right; he's wearing a full karate suit whilst driving. He's Gay Karate Man. Our hero still feels utterly confident in challenging him to a fight, despite the fact the only clothing he's wearing to demonstrate HIS fighting prowess is a tuxedo) and performs a series of kicks that scares the object of his affections away. JCVD then comedically minces back off towards his car, no doubt already planning his next roadside seduction. Van Damme allegedly takes great pleasure in destroying copies of this film, a passion he would sadly transfer to the rest of his career.

4. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (AGAIN): CACTUS JACK/THE VILLAIN

 The look of dawning confusion of Douglas' face says it all.

Known by both titles, Schwarzenneger makes the list again with this early pile of hot comedic western garbage. With a poster that looks like Arnold has been cast by the producers of Monaco Forever as 'Gay Cowboy Man' (and from Douglas' expression, we can guess where Arnold's hand might be) this description by the producers of this film damns it far more than any description I could give; 'A live action road runner and coyote movie, set in the old west.' Say no more.
      Douglas does his absolute best to save this disaster of a 'comedy', gamely playing his scenes for laughs and almost managing to pull it off thanks to his natural comic timing, but with a script that must have written by someone who decided that comedy=extremely slow and drawn out set pieces that end when something falls on Kirk Douglas, and with Schwarzenegger delivering his lines like Stephen Hawking's computer was his voice coach, this horrific mash-up of cartoon action done on a budget normally reserved for church raffle prizes and 'jokes' with all the wit of a hippo covered in cement ends up being so torturous that the descendants of people forced to sit through it regularly wake up in the night, sweating after nightmares of falling boulders and anvils that are obviously made of polystyrene coming to bounce ineffectively and 'hilariously' off their heads. Years later, professional wrestler Mick Foley would take the name Cactus Jack as one of his many in-ring personae, with the idea being that CJ was by far the most brutal of all of his characters. Brutal is right.

To learn more about MY books (Woo!) visit www.lukesmitherd.com where you can buy them for Kindle.

THE SADNESS OF DOG TV

Heard about Dog TV.com the other day; it's an online streaming service designed to keep dogs entertained, I guess, as the product is entirely aimed at our canine chums. My two are normally in the room with me for most of the day, due to my job as musician obviously being mainly evenings, but I thought it might be nice to have something on in the background to help keep them happy.

 "This just in; tonight's dinner will be DOG FOOD!! YEEEAAHHHHH!!!"

It doesn't seem very effective so far, but that could be due to the fact that I'm having to screen it on my iPad via their app, so the screen might be too small for them to appreciate; my laptop is obviously in use by me, and it's not on TV over here (although I think it it's on cable in the US and mainland Europe (although that being said, literally as I write this, Jeff has suddenly seemed to have become interested...he's not taken his eyes off it for about five minutes now.) Either way, I have a free trial subscription to use, and I like to have it on just in case the dogs take to it. The other reason is the instrumental muzak they use; I'd love to have the radio on, but the lyrical content and DJ speak is too distracting to write against. Dog TV seems to have a constantly changing background tune that stops the room from becoming silent.

It's also nearly unbearably tragic.

Every now and then they pepper it with brief spoken words, usually said by a child, to get the dog's attention (it doesn't work with my two, however...Jeff has now given up and gone for a sleep) such as 'Hey doggy' or 'Good boy.' The one that twists in my gut like a knife made of dog-owner guilt is 'I'm over here!' presumably to get your dog engaged, looking around for whoever is calling them. It doesn't affect my pair, as I say, but it still kills me on two levels. 

One, it's a constant reminder that, unless your dogs are asleep or relaxed, they would rather be playing or running, and would dearly love a child to play with them. I know it's not realistic to keep your dogs entertained 24/7, but when I look at mine, currently stretched out on the sofa to my right (the one they're allowed on) and lying in a position where I can't see their faces, it makes me wonder (regularly) if they're merely asleep, or unbearably bored, wishing they lived on a farm.We live in a flat, and they're walked every day, and played with, but we don't have a garden (they hate the rain and cold anyway, so they'd only be outside about 10 weeks of the year, but even so.)

Two (and I think this might be the one that hits me worse) it makes me think--every time--of dogs that never get walked, or played with, dogs that were bought as a novelty and then neglected ever since, merely fed and allowed to live...dogs that would probably be the ones that their owners expect to be entertained by something like Dog TV, owners who make themselves feel better by sticking their pets in front of the channel all day long and think it makes up for their pets' complete lack of being walked. Obviously, there are dogs that are straight-up abused, but they don't even get fed, let alone 'treated' to Dog TV; they, therefore, are not the image that comes to mind. That's an injustice on a whole other level; the image brought to mind by this sound is just one of sad dogs, the dogs who hear 'Over here, I wanna play!' and leap to their feet, so desperate for any kind of love or attention that even a recorded voice saying it has that effect on them.

That said, if Dog TV makes me feel so guilty that they get an extra ten minutes on their walk today, then maybe it can't be so bad.

"Are you happy yet? ARE YOU HAPPY YET?!?"

To learn more about MY books (Woo!) visit www.lukesmitherd.com where you can buy them for Kindle.

GETTING STARTED, WRITING WARM-UPS, AND ONE TWO FIVER

Anyone who has a MAJOR problem with procrastination, such as myself, knows how tough it is when it comes to just sitting down and contiuing to write your book, or to start that day's chunk of writing; you feel like you're not aware enough of the rest of the story (if it's a project that's already in progress) it feels cold and alien, and the zone you were happily beavering away in the last time you were adding to your novel seems a million miles away. The main problem, of course, is that you're not only trying to start writing out of nowhere (the literary equivalent of going 0-60) but you're trying to do that whilst adding to a huge chunk of text that already exists. And if you're starting your book or essay full stop, trying to find a way to begin, you can feel like your opening words won't be good enough because you're coming to it cold. It's not always like this, of course, but there's a lot of days where it is. On days like that, the way to solve the problem is to have a quick warm-up; it won't solve the adding-onto-existing-text problem, but it certainly makes it feel a damn sight easier when your writing brain is prepped an ready. 

So how do you do it? For me, one of the bonuses I've found about writing this blog is that it works as an excellent warm up on days when I'm sat in front of the laptop and pissing around on Facebook instead of getting down to the job in hand. It gets the juices flowing before diving back into my latest undertaking, helping me get it nice and ready to sit unnoticed at the bottom of the Kindle store listings...(feeling rather bitter about failed free listings today.) So getting a blog going is one idea, even if it's just a blog for random thoughts. Blogging is fun, and you never know who might be reading (the police, for one, so keep those thoughts clean.)

But here's an excellent, excellent writing warm up for you; the wonderful onetwofiver.com , a small and simple website with a built in tool that works on a simple concept. To use their words:

"One Two Fiver is a series of stretches for warming up your writing muscles.

Start with a single word.

Type it like you mean it.

Now write two words.

Move on to five...

Keep typing until you are writing."

It's like's an extended version of that old game where you take it in turns to say the next word in a sentence...except each time you keep saying more words. It sounds daft, but it is indescribably useful on those days where you just can't seem to get started (on anything, not just writing fiction; it works equally well for bringing yourself to getting round to sending a lengthy complaint email to WWE for giving you horrendous seats for Wrestlemania without telling you that the view would be highly restricted....for example.) I highly recommend giving onetwofiver a go anytime you just can't seem to get your A into G.

Whilst I'm here, I thought you might find it fun to see a sample of what I produced one of the times that I used it; admittedly I started with 'Once' because I knew I was going with 'Once upon a time', but once I got to '...there was a' I added 'Pig' and away I went. Not really the way it's supposed to be used, I know, and normally I start with just a random word and go from there, but this is the only one that I still have a copy of. I remembered that I'd copied all of the text and kept it for some reason (I liked it as a beginning and thought I might go somewhere with it eventually, just as a short story.) And if you're REALLY bored, why not try and finish off the story and post your results below? I'd love to see them.

Your messages are always so kind.

Here's what I came up with as a writing warm-up:

Once upon a time there was a pig called Steve, unremarkable in appearance and manner, but reknowned amongst the other animals on the farm for being an all round likeable chap. Whenever, say, one of the lambs were worried about their first shearing, or one of the horses were concerned about the appearance of their coat, or the cockerel was feeling inadequate in his role as leader of poultry, all would come to Steve for a kind word, sage advice, or just to have a friendly pig's ear to talk into.

And so it was in this manner that the farmhouse cat came to Steve one day, leaping up onto the wall of the pigsty and nervously clearing his throat. Unfortunately, this also caused the start of a hairball retch, but once he'd cleared it he regained his composure. The cat rarely deigned to put in an appearance with the farmyard animals; they thought him aloof, he secretly thought them uncultured, but there was no genuine malice between them. Even so, his appearance at the pigsty was a mild surprise, and all the pigs-including Steve-turned to look at him. Trying to look and sound casual, the cat spoke.

"Yes," said the cat, feigning a casual air, "I...I'd like to talk to Steve please, if he has a minute?" The pigs all turned to look at Steve, who blushed slightly. It looked unusual on a pig.
"Um...of course," replied Steve, finding himself feeling strangely nervous, "What's the matter?" The cat didn't respond at first, and instead just looked around, scratching at his neck in a manner that was supposed to look relaxed but actually just made him look even more furtive.
"Any chance," said the cat finally, inspecting some unseen object in the middle distance and still not addressing Steve directly, "We could talk a little more privately, Steven?" Steve bristled slightly at this (easy for a pig) as he didn't like being called Steven. It reminded him of his mother, long since taken away to what the animals called 'The Happy Pasture.'
"Nope," replied Steve, bolder now, "I think we'll talk right here, actually."

That's where I stopped. See what you can do, if you can be arsed.

To learn more about MY books (Woo!) visit www.lukesmitherd.com where you can buy them for Kindle.

SELLING MORE BOOKS ON THE KINDLE STORE...BY BUYING MORE BOOKS ON THE KINDLE STORE?

 "No, of course I won't be selling this on the Kindle store. What do I look like, an asshole?"

I've had a bit of a theory, and as of yet I can't see any reason why it wouldn't be true. Here it is: since getting a Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas (previously I was reading all my eBooks on the Kindle app for the iPhone which was perfectly fine, but the Paperwhite with its e-ink screen is SO much better to allow for restful sleep/rested eyes when reading in bed, plus the bigger screen obviously allows for less swiping) I've been buying a lot more books than before from the Kindle store.

(Right, here's where it gets mildly complicated, so keep up.)

However, after seeing my own books occasionally popping up in the 'customers who bought this also bought' section of other books that I'VE bought (I always buy a copy or two of my own books on free listing days; doesn't hurt) I got to thinking thusly: “If I buy my OWN book...then buy someone ELSE'S book...surely therefore there's a good chance that people who see the other books listing might have MY book come up in the 'customers who bought this also bought' section for that book.”

If you followed that, the thinking makes sense at least, right?

If that's true, then it's a beautiful win/win situation; you read new books, and potentially promote your own book in the process (providing you've bought your own book before.) In other news, the free listing of TBRP1 was a total failure. First time that's happened. Very worrying, as the free listings were always the thing I banked on to get the books (and thus my work in general) out there. I hope this is just a one-off, and that something in the The Black Room's tags or listing is causing it to be a specific no-show, but this could spell disaster, and the end of a literary dream...

"You want magical-realist fiction with that? I mean, fries?"

 To learn more about MY books (Woo!) visit www.lukesmitherd.com where you can buy them for Kindle.

'THE BLACK ROOM, PART TWO: THE WOMAN IN THE NIGHT' OUT NOW!!

Just a quick one here; The Black Room, Part Two: The Woman In The Night is out NOW; and Part One is free until the end of May 5th! Perfect for the Bank Holiday Weekend, if you associate out-of-body experiences with your Bank Holiday weekend. Depends how much you drink, I suppose.

Here's the link for the Amazon US link for it too. Just don't forget to leave a goddamn review, eh?

To learn more about MY books (Woo!) visit www.lukesmitherd.com where you can buy them for Kindle.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PRE-SLEEP SHUTDOWN

"Hello, ambulance? My legs have been severed off at the knee by a falling Monolith."

As someone who's always struggled with sleep (I was diagnosed with Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder several years back. Basically means that I'm programmed to fall asleep several hours after midnight and not wake up properly until ten. Effectively I'm built for the sleep pattern of a student) I've tried everything to help fix it, and I'm well aware of the horrendous effect poor sleep has on someone's productivity. Sleep issues and aids will therefore be a large part of this blog in future, so I'm gonna start by talking about the pre-sleep shutdown, and why it's more important than getting that extra episode of Breaking Bad in before you pass out. Even if you sleep pretty easily, keep reading; I'm gonna help you sleep better. And everything I say here is probably something that you already know, in your heart of hearts, to be true. You just need tellin'.

I'm sure, like me, you spend a lot of your day looking at some sort electronic screen, be it laptop, phone, TV tablet, or anything that shows Craigslist ads for live-in submissive slaves. Right? Well, all that eye stimulation leaves your brain more wired than you think, to the point that even when you're exhausted you'll either struggle to drop off, or even when you do manage to pass out you don't properly drop into REM sleep and wake up feeling tired and unrested. Basically, you're spoiling the effectiveness of your own sleep.
 

Your eyes-and brain-need to reset before that sleep happens; watching TV right up until bed is bad for your life in the bedroom (unless it's the Playboy channel...no, wait, that's still bad) and getting into bed and monkeying around on your phone is a no-go too. So you need to spend half an hour to an hour doing something that takes your eyes and mind away from that kind of stimulation. Reading is an excellent way to do this (and yes, the e-Ink displays on a Kindle are fine as they don't flicker at a high rate like conventional screens) or even an audiobook or podcast. Your eyes therefore have plenty of time to settle before you pass out (this sounds like a contradiction in terms, but trust me, it isn't) and your brain has the load taken off it at the same time.

Now, this might sound counterproductive to clearing things off the Endless To Do List; an hour's less precious 'fun' time means either exactly that or taking an hour out of your 'producing' time, but not only is reading and/or listening to podcasts fun, it also means that you'll awake feeling more refreshed, more mentally capable, and it'll help make the most of the working time you have. Trust me. It helps. And if you REALLY can't do without the Playboy channel, read some erotic literature instead, and kill two birds with one stone. In fact, 'Two Birds With One Stone' is actually the title of this great saucy novel I read 0nce where the twin Countesses, Letha and Lase, ask the gardener....nevermind.

To learn more about MY books (Woo!) visit www.lukesmitherd.com where you can buy them for Kindle.