How Pitchapalooza Led to a Book Deal

January 23, 2013 at 10:14 pm (Books, transgressive fiction, Writing)
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Pitchapalooza is a strange and unique event. Hosted by The Book Doctors, it offers the participants the opportunity for a one minute pitch. No more, no less, than one minute. After you have made your pitch, you are critiqued on it with the aim to help you make your pitch better. The winner gets a future meeting with an agent or publisher or editor uniquely qualified to assist.

You never know what it will lead to. This is my story.

SPOILER ALERT: I did NOT win.

It was at the KWA Scene Conference in 2012 that I participated. On this blog, I debated which of two pieces to pitch: a traditional neo-noir hardboiled mystery or an experimental piece of Transgressive fiction. I chose the latter. It was unique enough to stand out even though it might not be the most commercial piece to pitch.

I had looked up Pitchapalooza on YouTube and saw several examples. I wrote and re-wrote my pitch. I practiced. At the Friday night session, the twenty entrants were randomly drawn. I was confident going in. But as the participants came and went, I waited. And waited. And waited. Nerves were starting to settle in.

And then I was called. And, to be honest, I nailed it. I hit it out of the park. Pick your own analogy. But I did what I was supposed to do. I was ready for that cash bar.

At the end of the session, the five panelists excused themselves for a review/vote/consultation. They came back a short time later to announce that they had a winner AND an honorable mention. I knew from my research that was unheard of. They did not usually have Honorable Mentions. I was announced as that rare honoree. Initially I was disappointed but having been mentioned at all, to have been considered, WAS a victory.

One of the panelists was Dan Case of AWOC.COM Publishing who was quite taken with my pitch, my story, and me. I had a one-on-one session with him on Saturday as well as one with Arielle Eckstut, one of the Book Doctors.

Flash forward two months to the OWFI Conference. One of the sessions was on the Elevator Pitch. Again, my Transgressive work, having recently been perfected, was blurted out in a one sentence pitch. More applause and appreciation.

I run into Dan Case. He remembers me. He still wants to see what I’ve got up my sleeve. I send him both pieces that I pitched back at the KWA Scene Conference. We can flash forward some more. Because Dan Case decides to publish the neo-noir hardboiled mystery, “Swan Song”, currently available on Amazon Kindle and Paperback, Barnes and Noble Nook and Paperback, and Kobo e-books.

It’s really mind-boggling, amazing, fascinating, and fun, all at the same time. I keep thinking that Raymond Chandler published his first novel, “The Big Sleep”, when he was 51. I beat him by six months.

It’s only a start. I know that. I don’t know where it actually goes from here. But it all really started because of a crazy event called Pitchapalooza.

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The Evolution of a Novel – “Swan Song”

December 27, 2012 at 7:53 pm (Books, Writing)
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Why do writers write? It is the fascination and obsession with the Word. Their connection, their sound, their emotional weight. We are story tellers and we tell our stories with words.

This is the story of “Swan Song”, my debut novel published by Deadly Niche Press. {The Kindle Edition is available at Amazon.com; the print version will be available after the first of the year.}

In 2007, I won a prize in the Adult Poetry Division of the Kansas Writer’s Association’s yearly contest. At the presentation and corresponding reading at Watermark Books in Wichita, KS, I talked with Storme Maynard who told me about a strange thing called NaNoWriMo. All you had to do was write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. No problem, right?

The stress of the thing was palpable. Writing poetry in Boston in the mid 1990′s was a thought-provoking, emotional, and at times intellectual process. But we took our time until we got it right. This thing was literary insanity. But I finished it; I completed a “book”, such as it was. However, looking over my effort in December was out of the question. The holidays were approaching and I didn’t want my sloppy 50,000 words to depress.

I did work on it. Many times through several years. Eventually I came up with a piece of neo-noir hardboiled fiction that still captures my attention and creates striking images in my mind. Keep in mind that it is still nothing more than a manuscript at this time.

That is until I met Dan Case of AWOC.com. He was a speaker at the KWA Scene Conference in 2012 and a panelist for Pitchapalooza, sponsored by The Book Doctors, David Henry Sterry and Arielle Eckstut. In a what-the-heck kind of moment I decided to pitch my Transgressive novel, Weekend Getaways, or Adventures in Contract Killing. I got an honorable mention for my pitch and some additional people looking in my direction, one of whom was Dan Case.

I ran into him at the OWFI Conference in May. We talked; he said he was interested and so was I. I sent him the manuscript for both. Knowing that the Transgressive piece might be a harder sell, he opted to start with “Swan Song” which has just been released as an e-book.

I am thrilled and pleased and know that the work has just begun. But consider the evolution: writing contest to casual conversation to online writing event to writer’s conference to pitch session to another writer’s conference…

There are those who say that NaNoWriMo is silly and it’s not really about the art and craft of writing. There are those who say that writing conferences are a venue for published novelists to garner attention. There are those who think that an e-book is somehow not a “real” book.

Whoever those people are, I do not agree with them.

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Photo montage as a form of book marketing.

June 30, 2012 at 2:04 pm (Books, Writing)
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Many people are familiar with book trailers as a way to promote one’s work. I’ve got two that I’ve created, one for Kansas Two-Step and another for Quick.

But I got the idea to do a photo montage on Facebook in which images, closely resembling scenes from the book, would be posted, along with a page number and quote. It is far more brief than a book trailer and perhaps easier to accomplish. I realize that the concept of motion and music might be more powerful to some. however, with the right image and a tantalizing quote, this marketing tool might just as easily capture someone’s attention.

For those not one of my friends on Facebook, here it is. Any feedback or comments would be greatly appreciated.

P. 27 “And maybe it was just sour grapes because I lived in a combination loft/efficiency/office in a crummy old building on Douglas just outside of Old Town.”


P. 26 “I’d like to say that I was blown away by the architectural splendor of the house design or the magnificence of the landscaping. However, the superlatives would have been wasted. Each home had the same “trying-to-outdo-you” attitude making the whole effect moot.”


P. 38 “The garage door was open, the punching bag was swinging, and Gregg was lying down on the weight bench doing 200 lb. presses. The grey t-shirt-with-ripped-off-sleeves was covered with sweat and the ‘ooh’ was followed by the ‘aah’ as he lifted.


P. 78 “I paid my bill quickly and left. I walked down to Old Town Square and sat on a bench and stared at the shooting waters fountain.”


P. 45 “The early news on the NBC affiliate reported a body found in a field off E. 61st St. and North Broadway not too far from I-35. Nothing unusual about a murder except the severity of the assault.”


P. 168 “Still running the porn lines?” “Not enough money in that business. No, we reacquainted ourselves with some of our former colleagues. We have a lovely fenced-in house with a pool out in Goddard. It’s on a large piece of land so we have a lot of privacy.”


P. 152 “I hack into public and private databases to find out information which is useful to my clients who are usually shyster lawyers looking to get huge settlements in divorce cases.”


P. 14 “I sit here most of the day at my trusty computer. Occasionally, I go to the library or the Epic Center. More often than not, I go to Old Town for lunch and a beer. But I figure it’s within walking distance so it’s easy to stumble back here.”

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The Book Giveaway Contest Has Ended

March 1, 2012 at 9:03 pm (Books, Writing)
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And the winner is…?

Sorry, but I think I said I would announce the first week of March.

Enjoy your weekend!

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Let’s have a contest!

January 31, 2012 at 9:09 pm (Books, Personal, Writing)
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Well, I’ve got this blog and I’ve got a website and I’ve got some decent product in the form of two novels, a collection of novellas, and two collections of poetry. My first novel “Kansas Two-Step” has gotten a shot in the arm from a vlog on Keyhole Conversations. I figured I could generate even more buzz.

And who doesn’t love a contest?

This one is simple but fun. Go to my website, hbberlow.com, go to the Guestbook and send me a creative message telling me what your favorite dance is and why. That’s all.

The contest will run the entire month of February and the winner will be announced the first week of March. Don’t forget to include your e-mail address when you enter so I can contact you for mailing address info.

Put on your reading glasses and your dancing shoes.

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“Time’s Arrow” — Martin Amis

August 9, 2011 at 7:17 pm (Books, Writing)
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Of late, I’ve been challenging myself as a reader.

“Naked Lunch” with its psychotropic excursions into the world of drug addiction. “Filth” written largely in Scot dialect with a visual apparition of a tapeworm infesting the main character’s body. And now Martin Amis’ novel which was short listed for the Booker Prize.

The main character, Tod T. Friendly, dies at the beginning of the novel and regresses throughout. The world is run backward. Patients, who are well, leave the doctor’s office sick. Conversation need to be read twice, in both directions. Tod goes to New York City, where his name changes, and then takes a ship to Europe, where his name changes again, and then becomes a Nazi doctor in a concentration camp.

Amis has an extreme fascination with words, structures of sentences, double meanings, and ambiguities. It is quite difficult to revert your way of thinking when you go into a novel such as this. However, as with my previous two examples, it was at an undetermined point in the reading when I understood the time sequences and the methodologies.

This is by no means “light reading” or something to be read for pure entertainment. After the previous two novels it will be quite important for me to read something light. Like a good piece of crime fiction.

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“Chasing the Devil’s Tail” – David Fulmer

July 6, 2011 at 9:16 pm (Books, Writing)
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This intriguing book is the first for the author. It is a murder mystery set in New Orleans in 1907 with a Creole detective investigating the brutal murders of several prostitutes in the Storyville section of the city. The novel integrates real life characters (musicians Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton, photographer E.J. Bellocq) with colorful denizens who could just as well have been real.

The novel is infused with language of the time and expressions that are unique to the period. I did not stop to look up any of the words or phrases that were not “modern” so as not to interrupt the flow of the narrative. The descriptions of New Orleans of the period give a sense of feeling, the sensory images conveying a mood and a feeling of the climate.

In contemporary crime fiction and television and movies, we have become used to scientific applications, forensic testing, and computer analysis. This is all absent from this novel due to the time period. That being the case, the investigatory thread of the narrative relies on perception, intuition, and intellectual analysis. Therefore there are some sections that drag and the evocative description can not completely make up for it.

That being said it is still a remarkably entertaining piece with all the required elements necessary to become a series (which it has). I was fascinated with the historical nature of it. {I also enjoyed “The Alienist” by Caleb Carr and “Nevermore” by William Hjortsberg.) At the end of the book, Fulmer dedicates barely a page to the research he had done on the piece. By contrast, I had written a blog entry on another and far more famous novelist who dazzles us with his research acumen over eight pages. {Apparently this more famous novelist must use Google alerts because he found the entry and responded with scathing criticism of my blog entry. After I responded with courtesy, he turned around and thanked ME for MY civility. It was a completely ironic turn of events.}

I have another book by Fulmer, Jass, also in his series. I will interested in seeing if the crime investigation portion goes deeper than this first offering.

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“Low Life” – Ryan David Jahn

May 9, 2011 at 7:15 pm (Blogging, Books, Writing)
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I had never read an existential thriller until I finished the above mentioned book. Unlike standard thrillers where there is a relative amount of action and suspense, Jahn posits a scenario and then runs his main character through a set of daunting paces.

It does start rather slowly, detailing the boring life of a boring man. Simon Johnson lives in seeming decrepitude and has a life unworthy of a story. At same point, a man breaks into his run-down apartment and attempts to kill him. In defending himself, he kills the intruder and discovers a remarkable resemblance to the deceased. He sets about to discover who the man is and why he wanted to kill him.

There is a need to suspend disbelief initially. The character of Simon is blase at best and it is hard initially to accept that he would undertake this personal and psychological journey into a great unknown. But as the intensity builds and the answers do not seem readily apparent, we do desire to see Simon’s effort through to the end.

Jahn could have bailed out early on this premise and cut it short with a pat answer akin to the end of a CSI-type hour-long drama on television. Instead he digs and explores deeply. There are twists and turns and repositioning of the time continuum which becomes understood at the conclusion. The book is challenging in that it does not rely solely on the tools of a standard thriller but delves into what makes a person themselves or want to be someone else.

Jahn has a great blog, Guns and Verbs, which reveals some of his whimsical character as well as his considerations on the writing life. His debut novel, Acts of Violence has already been translated into several languages and he shows great promise for a long and successful career.

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“Swann’s Last Song” – Charles Salzberg

May 1, 2011 at 9:45 pm (Books, Writing)
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This novel was nominated for a 2009 Shamus Award by the Private Eye Writers of America and it is easy to see why. Salzberg takes the traditional private eye noirish novel and flips it around so that your expectations are skewed.

First, the main character, Henry Swann, is NOT a private eye but rather a muddled and troubled skip tracer living and working in a rundown section of New York City. Therefore it sidesteps all the usual clichés of the detective novel. Swann is certainly NOT Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade. Not even close. The novel makes what appears to be a traditional segue to California where the culture clash scenes are prevalent. However, Swann makes a trip to a hacienda in Mexico followed by a dangerous trek into the mountains. This appears to be more of something from “Romancing the Stone” or an Indiana Jones movie.

If this locale is not jarring enough, Swann then flies to Berlin where there is all the rainy and dark cloudiness of a Robert Ludlum spy thriller. And yet, throughout all these romps across the globe, it never falls back into a travelogue with droll descriptions of scenes and places. It is mood that Salzberg is creating.

The story is rather muddled but in that regard it is no different than the classic “The Big Sleep” (which Chandler readily admitted that he was uncertain as to who committed one particular killing.) Stories of this type are about character and mood and Salzberg creates a new and fresh version of the genre.

——–

I had the opportunity to meet Charles Salzberg at the KWA Scene Conference in Wichita in 2010. He was a speaker as well as a consultant who I had the opportunity to visit with on a ten-minute consult. We discussed (briefly) my transgressive work, “Weekend Getaways, or Adventures in Contract Killing” and I was encouraged by his comments and grateful for his feedback.
He is one the founders of the New York Writers Workshop (www.newyorkwritersworkshop.com) and heavily involved with Greenpoint Press (www.greenpointpress.org). He is gracious to a fault and a pleasant conversationalist (as I experienced at lunch).
I was absolutely delighted to have made his acquaintance and honored to have an inscribed copy of his novel.

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“Trash” by Irvine Welsh

April 28, 2011 at 7:51 pm (Books, Writing)
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I just finished reading this book by the same author of the more popular work “Trainspotting”. I chose this newer piece because I didn’t want to be influenced by having seen portions of the movie version of the earlier work.

I came across Irvine Welsh originally when I was finding writers of Transgressive fiction. This work certainly fits the bill. The blurb on the back says “…in an Irvine Welsh novel nothing is ever so bad that it can’t get a whole lot worse.” It is also a highly challenging piece for a number of reasons.

First, it is written in predominantly Scots dialect. I hadn’t read anything of that ilk since studying Robert Burns. It took a while to get used to the vernacular and the accompanying slang.

Second, like Brett Easton Ellis’ “American Psycho”, the main character does not have a lot of redeeming features. Bruce Robertson, a Scottish police Detective Sergeant is racist, misogynistic, a manipulator of his friends, a heavy drinker and cocaine user, and since he doesn’t do his own laundry, his stench emanates from the pages.

He is investigating the murder of a black man and he doesn’t really feel it is worth his time or effort to solve the case. The reasons are revealed later in the book.

And third, the book employs an intriguing typographical feature of showing a parasite (a tapeworm) living inside his body. It places itself directly over the text you are trying to read. Initially there are small fragments until much later in the book, the parasite becomes Robertson’s voice of conscience while, at the same time, hoping that Robertson (the Host) lives so that the creature will as well.

I was enthused that such a work was indeed published because my own Work In Progress (“Weekend Getaways, or Adventures in Contract Killing”) also is rather dark and employs elements of unusual typography for visual as well as emotional effect.

I enjoyed the work largely because Welsh keeps Robertson grounded in a real world of the working class and giving some indication that the character feels justified (which is the point behind Transgressive fiction.) I was up for the challenge of reading something that seemed more like a connection of anecdotes than a traditional Three Act formula. I was caught up in the descriptions of location despite the fact that I’d never been to Scotland. And finally, I could see behind all the darkness a sense of humanity, one that might have been different under other circumstances.

If Irvine Welsh can write these kinds of work, I am encouraged to know that my dark comic Transgressive work just might have a place as well.

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