F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Short Stories

To Blog or Not To Blog a Novel

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By Camdiluv, from Concepción, CHILE (Colours) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons)
By Camdiluv, from Concepción, CHILE (Colours) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons)
I say “novel,” but it could just as well be a short story.

I’m going to try to make this short and sweet.

There are all kinds of advice floating around about whether or not one should or shouldn’t blog out portions of one’s work into the Internet…how it might or might not damage the success of said work, should the blogger want to publish it, en masse.

Dare I say it?

Bullshit.

To that I add: pure bullshit.

A member of the writing I belong to expressed concern about that, because that was what this member was doing…then had stopped…but was, again, considering doing. He did it because of several reasons, some of which were that he enjoyed doing it. It got him writing. He’d found an audience.

I’d say the following be my opinion, but I really don’t think it’s an isolated “opinion” anymore. Heck an opinion at all; it has become fact: As long as what you do doesn’t hurt anyone, do what you love. Do what you enjoy. There are always people out there who love serials…and those who would love to read those serials again…or in one complete form. Those who have never seen your work, so one platform or the other serves them.

Do you really think a traditional publisher is going to care whether or not you blogged about your work–if they really felt they could make millions of you?

Hell no.

Any free promotion they can get to help sell their version of your work, all the better.

Look, no trad publisher is gonna take you if they don’t feel they can make a buck off of you, period. Your blogging of your book is an antiquated issue, based upon antiquated reasoning. Antiquated reasoning is what’s damaged (and continues to damage) traditional publishing. Reasoning can be made for or against anything, but it’s all about packaging. Look at all the crap out there that’s been out there for ever, suddenly repackaged and re-promoted. Instead of bitching and moaning about what not to do, about how terrible the world is and how things “could never work,” why not spin that frown upside down, my perfectly bound friends? Anything can be sold. Just put out a little effort, for crying out loud.

And you can always, always, Indie publish (don’t even get me going about how Indie publishing merely promulgates more shitty work into the world).

Do what gives you joy.

It’s your life.

Live it as you want. If your work is good or meant to succeed–in however way you define it—it will.

Just ignore all the white noise out there, and do what makes you happy. Life is short. Play hard.

To “he” out there, you go, dude! Have fun and keep your audience wanting more!

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A HUGE Thank You To All of You!

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By Erkan Yilmaz (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
By Erkan Yilmaz (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
I just wanted to give a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who has taken the time to visit my sites (here, Facebook,  About Me, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest), read and review my work, or to mention any of this to another. In interacting with me on social media (oy, and trying to stay up and current on all this social media while working a day job, trying to WRITE, living a regular life…?!).

It is still weird to me, as long as I’ve been writing, the whole promotion thing…focusing attention on me…so, I look at it more as focusing attention on the work (I even have a hard time saying my work!). The books, the stories. These are things people like me like to say we “channel,” or sculpt into existence. Like a wood carver “discovering” the shape that “forms” out of tree trunks or limbs. We shape things. I suppose we all do it for different reasons, like entertainment, enlightenment, cathartic release. I’m sure you’ve heard it all before. Whatever the reason, we just do it. It’s what’s “built” into us…mechanics are drawn to oil and machinery and athletes to their sports. We’re all drawn to something in our lives. Writers/artists are no different. But in our case, without you, we’re only halfway there. To write is to be read, and I am ever grateful for you being on our team, because it is a team.

I appreciate that you’ve taken time out of your day to spend a little of it with people like me to read, comment, discuss, commiserate, what-have-you. There’s a lot going on out there, and I’m very appreciative of everyone’s time and efforts, and I periodically like to let you all know that I try to take very little for granted…especially my readers and support group—YOU.

Thank you!

The Face Maker and Other Stories of Obsession, by Joe Ponepinto

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The Face Maker and Other Stories of Obsession (© Joe Ponepinto)
The Face Maker and Other Stories of Obsession (© Joe Ponepinto)

The cover of Joe Ponepinto’s collection of dark tales, The Face Maker and Other Stories of Obsession, not only grabbed me by the throat, but continues to throttle me every time I look to it.

Much like his stories.

The picture is a shot of a collection of WWI facial reconstruction casts and masks, created by sculptor, Anna Coleman Ladd. These masks were needed, because plastic surgery had yet come into its own. WWI relied heavily on trench warfare, so, with only the head and shoulders available as a target, it would seem to me, this was a great cause of concern for those who survived their many times traumatic injuries. Our face is our calling card, our identity. What we look at every day in the mirror, and what others look to. How we present ourselves to the world, and to have it so hideously mangled and destroyed can be more traumatic than the injury itself.  I always maintain that there is a person “built” for every type of work out there, and in this case, it causes me to well up with emotion that there were people out there who dedicated themselves to helping these damaged soldiers who returned from trench warfare in any way that they could (and still do, sadly, in today’s conflicts, as war continues to ravage our Humanity). What would you do to help someone in your circle of influence? How much would you give up for another? Our first story, “The Face Maker,” drives home this point.

But, all of Mr. Ponepinto’s stories similarly drive home their points, like shafts of steel beneath fingernails. He ventures into the darker circles of human behavior to visit upon his “Host of Unluckies” the logical conclusion to their actions. In all of them are varying degrees of obsession. Several of them might make you uncomfortable, uneasy, cause you to squirm (maybe hit a little too close to home?), but they are meant to do that. If he—or any of us—wrote about the mundane and the dull, where would be the fun in that? We need conflict…struggle. Good against Evil. No one wants to read about watching water boil…unless there’s a body in it…and that’s what these stories present. People writhing in the boiling water of their actions. There’s always plenty of time to turn off that pot before reaching 212 degrees. Plenty of time to ponder whether or not to plunge our—or another’s—hand into that water. Why is it some of us choose to do the unthinkable, the heinous? Who knows, but that many do, give Joe Ponepinto more than enough grist for his mill. I’m not going to go into each and every story…I leave that for you to discover on your own, but my favorite is definitely “The Face Maker” (though “Excerpts from the Diary of the Last Roman Emperor” was the most fascinating to me to read…). It hit me with the raw emotion of those in need…and one man’s journey to fill that need. Yes, I welled up reading it. I hate to see evil done to anyone…but to have another dedicate their life to helping those touched by evil, is truly a redemptive thing.

I also like Mr. Ponepinto’s end notes. They helped “cap” what I’d read; was a nice closure.

I love Mr. Ponepinto’s writing, the artful skill of it. I love his choice of words. How he wields them. These are not the darkest stories out there, but, like looking to roadkill, perhaps, I couldn’t look away because of the delivery of his writing. Powerful, meaty…this is what “keepin’ it real” is all about when you truck within the darker circles of human behavior. I pray none of you go there for real. You might very well end up in Mr. Ponepinto’s next tale….