Self-aggrandizement has never sat well with me. Was it my mother who drummed such modesty into me? My father? Some distant genetic inheritance decrying self-flattery? No idea, but there it is. Sometimes, however, circumstances dictate ringing the bell, tooting the horn, and puffing up the chest. As my penance for elbowing my way to the rostrum on this occasion, please note below my deliberate avoidance of any first-person singular subject pronouns.
Forty years ago, my words first appeared in print in an anthology about San Diego neighborhoods.
Forty years ago, my words first appeared in print in an anthology about San Diego neighborhoods.
Since then, over six hundred of my articles, reviews, short stories, and poems have wiggled, crawled, leaped, danced, or butted their way into various magazines. My book reviews for the Smoky Mountain News, written over the last fifteen years, comprise the majority of these publications. Another two hundred articles or so have flickered through the blogosphere. In the last four years, two of my novels, a collection of essays, and a guide to movies have trotted across the stage of literature. In the wings stand a third novel, tentatively titled The Man Who Loved Books, another congregation of essays, and a collection of stories and poems.
Some kind souls consider me a skilled writer and editor. If true, applying my bottom to a chair and my fingers to a keyboard day after day deserve all the credit. After all, only a bonehead could labor so for four decades without developing some skill.
But self-publication depends on self-promotion. And it’s here my face meets the pavement.
In my apartment sit three crates of unsold books. Orders through Amazon for these same books occur with all the regularity of rain in the Sahara. As for my bank account…well, let’s just say that if my bank account were a character from Shakespeare, it would be Cassius with his “lean and hungry look.”
It’s time for a change.
In the last week, the US Postal Service has carried copies of my books to five reviewers and publishers. They will carry more this next week. Two local stores have agreed to display my books. My daily writing stint now finds me doubling down on articles written for commercial profit rather than for my blog.
Below, in a blatant act of self-advertising, you will find posted the titles of my published books along with links to them via Amazon. If you’ve read my books and enjoyed them, please pass your copies along to friends. (Readers are as pleasing to me as change in my pocket.) If you’ve read my books and disliked them, please accept my apologies. Bear in mind that if you bundle these volumes together with some colorful bits of ribbon, they make attractive doorstoppers. If you’ve never read my books, please click on the links and see if you find one or two that might appeal. The books in these links are: Amanda Bell (novel); Learning As I Go (essays); Dust On Their Wings (novel); and Movies Make The Man (well, movies.)
Thank you.
https://www.amazon.com/Amanda-Bell-Jeff-Minick/dp/1482390132/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505486107&sr=8-1&keywords=amanda+bell
https://www.amazon.com/Learning-As-Satirical-Containing-Conjectures/dp/1491298103/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505486149&sr=1-1&keywords=learning+as+I+go
https://www.amazon.com/Dust-Their-Wings-Jeff-Minick/dp/1517523559/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505486199&sr=1-1&keywords=Dust+on+their+wings
https://www.amazon.com/Movies-Make-Man-Hollywood-Guide/dp/1530623901/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505486243&sr=1-1&keywords=movies+make+the+man
Some kind souls consider me a skilled writer and editor. If true, applying my bottom to a chair and my fingers to a keyboard day after day deserve all the credit. After all, only a bonehead could labor so for four decades without developing some skill.
But self-publication depends on self-promotion. And it’s here my face meets the pavement.
In my apartment sit three crates of unsold books. Orders through Amazon for these same books occur with all the regularity of rain in the Sahara. As for my bank account…well, let’s just say that if my bank account were a character from Shakespeare, it would be Cassius with his “lean and hungry look.”
It’s time for a change.
In the last week, the US Postal Service has carried copies of my books to five reviewers and publishers. They will carry more this next week. Two local stores have agreed to display my books. My daily writing stint now finds me doubling down on articles written for commercial profit rather than for my blog.
Below, in a blatant act of self-advertising, you will find posted the titles of my published books along with links to them via Amazon. If you’ve read my books and enjoyed them, please pass your copies along to friends. (Readers are as pleasing to me as change in my pocket.) If you’ve read my books and disliked them, please accept my apologies. Bear in mind that if you bundle these volumes together with some colorful bits of ribbon, they make attractive doorstoppers. If you’ve never read my books, please click on the links and see if you find one or two that might appeal. The books in these links are: Amanda Bell (novel); Learning As I Go (essays); Dust On Their Wings (novel); and Movies Make The Man (well, movies.)
Thank you.
https://www.amazon.com/Amanda-Bell-Jeff-Minick/dp/1482390132/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505486107&sr=8-1&keywords=amanda+bell
https://www.amazon.com/Learning-As-Satirical-Containing-Conjectures/dp/1491298103/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505486149&sr=1-1&keywords=learning+as+I+go
https://www.amazon.com/Dust-Their-Wings-Jeff-Minick/dp/1517523559/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505486199&sr=1-1&keywords=Dust+on+their+wings
https://www.amazon.com/Movies-Make-Man-Hollywood-Guide/dp/1530623901/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505486243&sr=1-1&keywords=movies+make+the+man