The Dog and Pony Show

One of the most time-consuming parts of being a writer (besides the actual writing bit, of course) is the marketing involved in spreading the word about your book. Unless you're a big name like Stephen King or Dennis Lehane, a lot of the leg work can fall to you. Getting press kits out, lining up appearances, developing an interesting "talk"--not to mention all the follow-up involved--eats up a lot of time. Even then you don't know how many people, if any, will show up to see you. Kind of scary.

When I started down this road, I thought I'd hate this part of being published--the lining everything up, the actual showing up and putting myself on the emotional line. Strangely, though, I don't. I find I like it--a lot. I've developed a kind of "dog and pony" show wherein I incorporate readings from Hunter Huntress into a presentation about the writing process itself, how initial generative ideas become incorporated in narrative, how dreams feed creativity, the responsibility of the writer to conduct thorough research and manuscript vetting to ensure accuracy and authenticity--stuff like that.

So if you're in the Durham, NH area on Wednesday, May 25th, come give me a listen at the Durham Public Library beginning at 7:00. The dog and pony will be raring to go!