F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Leisure

Be Brave

by

Sara Bareilles
Brave lyrics

Songwriters: BAREILLES, SARA/ANTONOFF, JACK
You can be amazing
You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug
You can be the outcast
Or be the backlash of somebody’s lack of love
Or you can start speaking up
Nothing’s gonna hurt you the way that words do
And they settle ‘neath your skin
Kept on the inside and no sunlight
Sometimes a shadow wins
But I wonder what would happen if you
Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be braveI just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave

Everybody’s been there, everybody’s been stared down
By the enemy
Fallen for the fear and done some disappearing
Bow down to the mighty
Don’t run, stop holding your tongue
Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live
Maybe one of these days you can let the light in
Show me how big your brave is

Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

Innocence, your history of silence
Won’t do you any good
Did you think it would?
Let your words be anything but empty
Why don’t you tell them the truth?

Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you.

© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

The Woman in Black

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My wife and I watched this 2012 film last night and, though there were some odd incongruities I can’t mention because they give elements of the plot away, it was overall pretty cool! What I really loved about the film was the atmosphere and some of the really cool visuals. The story is a period piece about a lawyer (Daniel Radcliffe, of Harry Potter fame) who has lost his wife and has to raise his child on his own (well, with a nanny), and is sent to a dead woman’s estate (the “Eel Marsh House,” at a cool setting involving tidal washes) to close it out. Of course, the supernatural ensues. This film is produced with several companies, one of which is Hammer Films. I love Hammer films! They have such richly created and stylish worlds to all their productions, and I was not at all disappointed this time around. It was neat to see “Hammer Films” up on a screen again!

Now, this is not like your current crop of flicks that go all gory and hack-and-slash crazy, and I loved that. It was a ghost story. It was psychological and carefully played out. About shadows and reflections and peripheral visions.

Creepy.

That would be the operative word!

Check out this site, and the last video, titled “Classic Ghost Story.” Then catch the film itself, at night, in a dark room….

During afternoon tea, there’s a shift in the air.
A bone-trembling chill that tells you she’s there.
There are those who believe the whole town is cursed.
But the house in the marsh is by far the worst.
What she wants is unknown, but she always comes back.
The specter of darkness, the Woman in Black.

From FirstCovers.com.

Going Indie—What I’ve Learned (So Far)—Part 6

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Wailing Loon (F. P. Dorchak, Lon Kirschner)
Wailing Loon (F. P. Dorchak, Lon Kirschner)

In my latest indie publishing endeavor, I’d created a trade paperback book in addition to my ERO e-book. I haven’t yet done this for The Uninvited, but plan to in the future. ERO is my “Big Book,” so that’s why I made the extra effort and spent the extra money; I even already have the ISBNs for Uninvited. So, in keeping with documenting my indie publishing adventures, here is my latest installment about learning the ropes, on the ropes:

  1. It’s really fun! That is, if you have most of your ducks in a row and you work with a great team! My team included Pam Headrick and Lon Kirschner, both of whom I’ve written about before, and truly are a great couple of people! It wasn’t like when I create Sleepwalkers, through [then-now-gone] 1st Books, back in 2001. Though it had been fun on my part, I kept finding errors in the gallies that they added, either through fat-fingering or whatever. It was most frustrating.
  2. Create a checklist of what you need to do. I’m in the process of doing this, and had one in progress as I was doing the paperback, but it will save you embarrassment in the future, like forgetting to include someone in your Acknowledgments/Author Notes pages. Now, granted, as an indie author you DO HAVE THE POWER! (Power Ring thrust up into raging storm and lightning) to go back in and make those corrections, but it will cost ya (whatever the minimum $$$/hour rate your formatter/cover artist will charge to do the work…but then you’ll have more than one version of your work out there…so think long and hard before submitting material).
  3. As Pam had forewarned me, there is a lot more interaction between you and your team. A lot. Do you want an extra graphic in the Front Matter (the pages before the actual story, in the front of the book)? I did. Gotta get a graphics person to do it, then submit it to your formatter. Are you done? No, how large do you want it? What placement? And none of this even considers your interaction with your graphics person. At one point there was so much going back-and-forth, that I had to hand Pam and Lon off to each other, so they could just go and “speak their ‘speak'” without me getting in the way and adding yet more time to the whole process.
  4. Consider a faux Imprint. Wailing Loon is my faux imprint. It just adds a nice touch, tells a little about “who you are” and rounds out the professional looking quality of your book. Is it “cheating” by not using the “CreateSpace” logo…maybe, a little, but it gives your work yet more of you own identity, and isn’t that a large part of what Indie publishing is all about?
  5. Title page. Pam had the idea of using a black & white version of the cover. So, sure! We did up a B&W version, and inserted it. See #3, above.
  6. For the Back Matter (if “front matter” is…), I tried to tidy up the rear information, and not give all those “hyperlinks” that e-books live off of. Just basic info about me, and my website.
  7. Pictures and stuff: I don’t really care about having a picture on my books, but in this instance, since I had one of me while in the Air Force during the 80s, and it fit right in with the story of ERO, I thought, what the heck. Adds to the whole “package.”  I also had a faux organizational patch a friend of mine had created for me, so we also used that on the back cover. Consider those kinds of touches for your book.
  8. Post Office box. This I haven’t done yet, but I’m planning on looking into it. It might seem a bit weird to do, but what if you have people asking about sending you a copy of their book for your autograph? Yeah, hadn’t thought of that one, have you? Well, some of us are old school and prefer not to give out that kind of information—especially over any kind of social media, and that a very good thing to not do—so the thing to do is get a Post Office box. More on that, if necessary, as I look into it.
  9. Currently, CreateSpace (CS) has a weird rule: they do not allow all capitals for titles in creating a CS account. So, for ERO, I had to add periods in the title for the CS account, for “E.R.O.” They assured me it would have no affect on the actual title. But they are quite wrong. What it affects…are retailing your “title.” Go do a search for “ERO” in Amazon.com. What did you find? Sure, the Kindle version is there, but the paperback version is not displayed…at least not at the top of the page. If you scroll down, you’ll find related searches (which is a good thing Amazon does, searching on other parts of the main search for additional info), and there “E.R.O.” displays. Additionally, if you have your ebook at Nook (B&N), Nook says it synchs up “any other versions” of the book out there, but they have to be “word-for-word, space-for-space” the same names and titles. And who knows where else and what else this will impact! But, it certainly impacts people looking for your book! A friend of mine did a search for “ERO” and told me she couldn’t find it. The above is the reason why. So, see how easy it is TO LOSE A SALE?! You bet. So, I’ve been in contact with CS and Nook, and while I was nearly brushed off by initially trite and not-reading-all-of-the-e-mail responses, I pushed it, and, last I’ve seen, CS has sent the issue to their tech peeps. I’d asked they reconsider their protocol or rework my title. We’ll see how this goes. I’ve also asked why they do it, but I suspect it might have something to do with “flaming” over social media, or something. I just cannot image what other reason why a company would do something like that.

Okay, I think that about covers it for now. Go, have fun creating your own books!

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ERO—Trade Paperback Now Available!

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ERO (2013, F. P. Dorchak, Don McCall, Lon Kirschner)
ERO (2013, F. P. Dorchak, Don McCall, Lon Kirschner)

Well, the trade paperback edition of ERO has arrived!

The 6 x 9 trade paperback edition of ERO is now available at CreateSpace, courtesy of Wailing Loon. I’m asking $14.99 for it. It hasn’t yet migrated to Amazon.com and other distributors, as of this writing, but do keep checking!

And (I must say…) the complete, full jacket is every bit as stunning as the front cover! It might be the young buck on the back flap, it might be the really cool faux organizational patch…or could it be le très cool Wailing Loon imprint image? Oh, yeah, I hope the story kicks butt, too. Yeah, the story. Anyway, I’m really not sure which is more stunning-er. You be the judge.

The nifty patch above is courtesy of two friends of mine, Don McCall, who created the patch at my request several years ago, and Lon Kirschner, of Kirschner Caroff Graphic Design & Consulting, my cover artist for ERO. I’ve been dying to use this patch and put it out into the public “eye”—ha, pardon the pun!—ever since Don created it (thanks, Don, for that kick-ass patch—there’s a free, autographed book in it for ya)! Lon had to do some “graphic artist wizardry” to use it on the book, but we also had to change some things cause: 1) NRO stole my motto, and b) had to add some extra “pop” for the cover. Oh, yeah, I do plan on going Cafe Press with it. But that will be a little while. My original motto was “Above and Beyond,” in various versions of Latin, but a fellow writer friend pointed out that NRO (the bastards) already had the phrase. Since they’ve been around a little longer, and are, well, scarier than me, I decided not to fight the issue. I changed the motto to “IN TÉNEBRIS,” which is supposed to translate into “Into the darkness.” I used a couple of Internet translators for this and they seemed to agree, so I hope it’s correct. It better be correct. If it isn’t, don’t tell me and allow me to live in my little Fantasy Land….

And then we have…the rest…of the cover:

ERO Paperback (2013, F. P. Dorchak and Lon Kirschner)
ERO Paperback (2013, F. P. Dorchak and Lon Kirschner)

Yeah, that’s me, 26 years ago. As a captain in the U.S. Air Force.

Where the hell does the time go, maaan?

The Air Force and I parted a long time ago, but I thought the picture germane to use for the cover, since the main character is me—I mean, the main character is in the Air Force, in the same timeframe (and, no, Conspiracy Theorists, do not read anything into that—all the weird shit is made up, period; those who deal in real Weird Shit know this, but I don’t need the added grief of some weird shit mythology building up around me as some kind of weird shit guru, cause I’m not—I’m just a writer trying to get by…writing weird shit…). And Lon was cool enough to incorporate Don’s extraordinary efforts of the ERO patch onto the cover. Thanks, again, man. Ever consider consulting?

So, there it is, my friends and kindly readers, the e-book and trade paperback editions of ERO, a story I began back in 2006, based on a weird idea, and helped along by various individuals, including my ex-agent (who I still can’t thank enough), incredible content formatter, Pam Headrick, incredible Cool Cover Dude, Lon Kirschner, and CreateSpace, Smashwords, B&N, Amazon, and all the other outlets and platforms and people out there and are mentioned in my acknowledgments page. I hope you enjoy the read and, if you do, please, talk, tweet, blog, and whatever the hell out of it. Yes, you can use these images—just, please attribute the appropriate people and/or links to their creation. Then could I also ask of you to post reviews of your read when done? Thanks. I’d greatly appreciate it.

See my website (www.fpdorchak.com) for other books.

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Wailing Loon

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Wailing Loon (F. P. Dorchak and Lon Kirschner)
Wailing Loon (F. P. Dorchak and Lon Kirschner)

In my continuing journey as an Indie author, I thought about the creation of the trade paperback for ERO, and asked Lon Kirschner, my Cover Guy, if we could create a “fake imprint” to round out the cover…something instead of “Create Space” that would communicate the kind of writing I do. Basically, “finish” off the whole cover process. Lon enthusiastically said, “sure!” So, I (pardon the pun) floated a couple ideas by him I’d been thinking about, one involved a black lab (in honor of our long-gone dog, MacTavish du Lac) and the other involved a loon. Lon gave some great advice, one of which was that in doing this I should be different, think of something unique, cause “everyone” does a dog. Sage advice, because I did want something unique…something I could brand all my work with, not just ERO. Well, yesterday Lon presented me with his offerings, and, I must say, once again, I am blown away by his work! What he has created is so classy, so professional, it simply belongs on the spine of books!

I chose the loon, because I’ve always loved them…loved their haunting tones…and the way they always bring me back to the Adirondacks of upstate New York, where I grew up. When I hear them, I’m transported to dark and mysterious places…the calm, dark waters of the Adirondacks, also replete with mystery. The Adirondacks are one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world. The image of the loon also lends a calming, end-of-day relaxation, gliding over the glass-like evening-into-night waters…of places largely unfrequented by the masses…causing many to give pause and introspection to not just one’s day, but one’s life.

And then there’s the red eyes.

They’re just such a different bird…that I’ve come to love their symbology so much, I’ve decided to use them as my Indie imprint. Mysterious, haunting, subtle. Stark. Different. All things I hope my work embodies.

So, I hope you enjoy my new brand…and I hope you enjoy my work. The creation of the physical trade paperback (in 6 x 9 format) is coming along nicely, and I hope to have it out soon! But, until then, sit back and enjoy…the haunting wail of the loon….

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