F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Sleepwalkers

Roaring Success Radio Interview – Sleepwalkers

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Today I was interviewed by Roaring Success Radio, at Castle Rock Radio. I will try to load the entire interview onto my website in the very near future, but for now, you can access it by clicking HERE.

The whole thing came about kinda cool: Paul had a cancellation for today, and talked with a mutual friend of ours (Jan C. J. Jones, of Forest Rose Productions, which also includes another friend of mine and my wife, Bob Garner) who recommended me (thanks, again and again!). Paul checked out my sites, sent me an e-mail, and I called him Monday night. Paul loved my blogs and website, and now I love Roaring Success Radio!

How cool is that?

The interview centered around Sleepwalkers and dreams…and how to better use dreams, get more out of dreams. There were actually very good questions, and Sleepwalkers is actually written with that in mind (BTW, it’s actually cheaper to purchase the novel here, than Amazon.com, but you can read the reviews on Amazon.com). Sleepwalkers actually gives ways to better utilize and better remember one’s dreams–and actually has some my (weird!) dreams woven into the book (like the “barn” and “sea” dreams). Both Anthony (the show’s producer), and Paul were very excited, open, and interested in the topic, and we had some great discussions on and off mike.

And my wife made brownies!

I hope to do more with them in the future–thanks, Paul and Anthony!

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Sleepwalkers Are Among Us….

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Do you wonder about your dreams, stray thoughts, and alternate realities? What if they merged? Would you like to take a peek behind the curtain of life? See what might be running your life?

Tomorrow, in Longmont, Colorado, is the Longmont Public Library’s Colorado Authors’ Open House, Friday, April 13, 2 to 5 p.m. This is part of their “You Belong” Longmont Library Festival. There, among nearly 100 authors, you will find me and my novel, Sleepwalkers, a story (and some of my actual dreams!) of how and what may be going on in the background of our lives….

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Colorado Authors’ Open House!

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Come one, come all to the Longmont Public Library’s Colorado Authors’ Open House, Friday, April 13, 2 to 5 p.m. This is part of their “You Belong” Longmont Library Festival.  Some 80 authors are expected to show, all excited to be there, meet you, and share their perfectly bound thoughts and ideas! It’ll be a beautiful day for a drive, so ditch work, pick up your favorite caffeinated beverage, and hightail it on up to beautiful Longmont, Colorado (or hop a flight, if you live out-of-state)!

I will be there with my novel Sleepwalkers, hoping to see old and new faces alike. And you can get Sleepwalkers for far less than on Amazon (I think it’ll be selling for $16.50), and I’ll even autograph it for ya. And engage in some pleasant and witty (at least to me…) banter, if you’re so inclined.

So, come on by–we’ll all be waiting!

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The “You Belong” Anthology Read

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I took photo in Longmont, CO, with Canon camera.
Longmont Public Library, Longmont, CO, with Canon camera. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

National Library Week is this week, and, as I mentioned previously, in celebration of this, the Longmont Public library decided to create the “You Belong” anthology. This past Monday (April 9, 2012), the book was unveiled and went on sale, and the library held a public reading, which, my wife and I attended. Both of us were extremely impressed by the talent in that room! From the eight-year-old boy who read about the death of his grandmother’s dog, to all the adult readers (I won’t go into ages!), it was an entertaining and enlightening evening! We had to leave before the very end, but one piece of “performance art,” was an amusing sled dog song, called to “Run On To Nome,” by Sandy Erickson–and she’d gathered up the three children in the front row and had: 1) one wear traditional Eskimo garb, 2) one stand on the sled to “mush,” and 3) one “move the stuffed dog” in a running motion. It was quite entertaining! As Mr. Kenworthy, the book’s Point Man and MC noted, the collection of stories were quite varied!

And the library staff was so polite, courteous, and helpful–and even had a refreshments lounge set up, with mouth-watering cookies (unfortunately for them, I’d just downed a massive “Longmont” burger, at the Pumphouse, down the road–highly recommended)!

I haven’t read before the public in a few years, and I have to admit, it was fun being part of this group of talented writers and their audience! My wife and I sat up front, so we didn’t realize just how packed (SRO) the room had gotten over the course of the evening, but how cool that so many attended!

We each read about five minutes of our work, so my wife brought the video recorder and away she “taped”:

Thanks, again, Mr. Kenworthy, the panel involved in the story selection, and the staff of the Longmont library, for this opportunity! Here’s hoping the anthology does well!

Note:  I will be attending a local author booksigning this Friday (there will be a ton of us!), April 13th, from 2 – 5 p.m., for my novel, Sleepwalkers. Hope to see you there!

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Promotion vs. Promotion

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Spy vs. Spy
Image via Wikipedia

Such an ugly word to some, choiristic (that a word?) angels and bright lights to others. But a genuine concern to anyone who has anything to sell.

How much is too much?

Just yesterday a friend and I exchanged an e-mail on why some booksignings may or may not be getting the quantity of people to them they used to in the past. The topic arose about social media. That now, on Twitter,  Facebook, and you-name-it, everyone knows about everyone’s nosepicking, butt-wiping, teeth brushing habits, so there’s little left to the imaginaton…little mystery left to authors. Many claim social media the cure-all to selling anything, others, like The Red Pen Of Doom, decry diametrically. I am somewhere in the middle, but basically subscribe to the notion that it’s all “word of mouth.” Pick your platform, pick your poison, but I feel it doesn’t necessarily matter what your poison is, if it’s at all interesting to anyone, it will sell. I also believe in the Zen of life, and that applies to everything (so there’s always a Zen reason for why anything may or may not succeed as the owner may wish it to, and that trumps most of this discussion…). Sure, it has to get out there, but that’s where one’s poisonous platforms come into play. Once it’s out there, there simply has to be interest, and I feel basic “backyard clothesline telegraphy” can get the job done just was well as any TV advertisement, YouTube, or tweet. Because it all comes into play when people are interested in anything.

So, while I agree with much of Mr. Red Pen, and greatly like what he has to say, I disagree in that anything can sell anything. There just has to be some kind of a fire lit under it. And I can’t tell you what that fire is. It could your burning wit, your good looks, your eloquence. Your tireless promotional energy. Yes, it could still be Oprah.

Hell, it could even be your powerfully delivered story, characters, and message.

Now, I’m a huge fan of mystery. I realize long ago, I don’t really and necessarily want to know a movie star’s political alignment, nor an author’s brand of toothpaste. We all have our quirks and weirdness, and I don’t think we need to broadcast every little thing about ourselves. I love the imagination, and I love to What-if. I think we all need a little mystery left to our lives, left to our imaginations…these will help fire our imaginations. Imagination is important. It fuels pretty much everything about our lives. We imagine to do better, to go farther, to grow and improve. If every little thing about about every little thing is laid out bared and eviscerated, it can well kill (at the very least blunt) the imagination. An ability not used atrophies. It also takes away the fun, and there’s something to be said for experiencing more fun in our lives…perhaps now more than ever. Deadening our imagination takes away our ability to think for ourselves. Leave a little meat on the bone, for crying out loud, and let your imagination run wild, not your tweets.

So, in summary (I’m imagining myself before a packed lecture hall…), all I’m saying is, is that anything could sell your wares. Literally anything. And that we need to allow mystery back into our lives. Not always going for the explicit the minutiae inundated lifestyle that seems to have overtaken us. I hope to prove this in the near future, but it’s what I truly believe.

In the interests of promotion, I’ll be in Longmont, Colorado, April 13th, for an en masse booksigning at the Longmont Public Library. I’ll be signing my novel, Sleepwalkers. Hope to see you there!

Also, in interests of promotion, I’ve created a new blog site, called Reality Check. We’ve all had weird things that have happened to us throughout our lives, so I thought I’d try a new site to handle this stuff, which greatly interests me, ever since I was a wee lad, and which factors in my fictional work.  I’m preferring to make this a positive site, not about the dark and the nasty.  There’s enough of that out there. This site is about the GOOD in life. Please check it out!

Just had this epiphany after having posted this earlier today (and maybe it’s not new to you, but it just hit me while I was washing lettuce in the kitchen sink): what if the real secret to utilizing social media in selling anything is not so much sellers and authors using it…but customers? That it’s in the customers’ best interests to FB and tweet the hell out of their praise for an item, since so many get upset at people sell their wares on Twitter, by e-mail, and perhaps even FB?

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for taking the time to read my posts!