There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results. – Kenneth Blanchard (also attributed to Art Turock)
Question: In a bacon-and-egg breakfast, what’s the difference between the Chicken and the Pig?
Answer: The Chicken is involved, but the Pig is committed!
Today is the big day. My collection of novellas, Road Stories is live and available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and at great independent bookstores like Parnassus Books in Nashville, Powell’s Books in Portland, and Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City. It’s an exciting day.
If you been following along on my journey, you know that Road Stories is a collection of my three previously published novellas: Tierra del Fuego, Lake of the Falls, and Back on the Road. If you’re not familiar with these novellas, here’s a little bit about each of them:
Tierra del Fuego — Matt Cravens has always trusted his wife, but lately she’s been acting strange. He fears she’s having an affair, and when he confronts her, she promises to tell him the whole story when she gets home from work. But she never makes it home. When she is killed in an auto accident, Matt is consumed with feelings of grief and betrayal, emotions that prompt him to leave his home and his job, to find answers in one of earth’s most remote places. Will Matt find the answers he’s looking for? If he finds them, will he ever be able to return home?
Lake of the Falls — Kevin Hargrove is a workaholic attorney who has been in a rut so long that he has given up on ever getting out. That is, until he takes a trip with his father to their former small hometown in Northern Wisconsin. Kevin hates the idea of going back, but when he unexpectedly runs into an old high school flame, he starts to think that getting out of his rut is not only a possibility, but a necessity. Can a divorced workaholic really change his life in his childhood hometown or was Thomas Wolfe correct that you can’t go home again?
Back on the Road — The year was 1983, and three college friends set out on a road trip inspired by Jack Kerouac’s book, On the Road. They planned to spend most of the summer traveling across the country, seeking adventure and putting off adulthood, but sometimes, even the best laid plans don’t turn out as intended.
Whether you buy the print version of Road Stories, or you opt for the digital version, I hope you enjoy it.
This video has nothing to do with writing or with my books, but I thought it was really well done. It’s amazing what a huge difference a relatively small amount of time can have on our lives. Take a look at the video, and then go out for a walk.
I’ve had a couple people mention to me that it sure seems like I’m writing and publishing a lot of stuff in a very short time. I can understand why people would think that, but it’s not quite what it seems.
I published Tierra del Fuego in September 2015, Lake of the Falls in November 2015, and Back on the Road in January 2016. Now I’m about to publish Road Stories next week. But don’t be deceived. Road Stories isn’t new material. It’s a collection of those first three novellas. I’m publishing Road Stories because I wanted to offer the novellas in printed form, but each novella is too short to print on their own. So I’ve combined them into a collection, and am offering them in both print and digital formats. I hope to have an audiobook version available soon, as well.
If you haven’t read my first three novellas, pick up Road Stories. You’ll have all three stories in one place, and you’ll save a little money in the process. If you have read the first three novellas, be sure to pick up Promised Land, a new novella that will be available in March.
Hey, isn’t that Lou Mindar’s book, Road Stories, sitting next to three of Ernest Hemingway’s most famous novels, as well as a replica of the Mercedes Benz 300 SLR that Sir Sterling Moss drove in the 1955 Mille Miglia? Why yes, yes it is.
That’s a proof copy of Road Stories in the photo. I’m excited that the book is ready, and will be officially published on Monday, February 29. The book is available in both print and digital, and can be found wherever fine books (and not so fine books) are sold. That’s right, even in bookstores (although you’ll probably have to order it).
Want to be happy and successful? Who doesn’t? Author and University of Houston Professor Brene Brown has seven suggestions to help you (and me) live a happier and more successful life:
Note: These suggestion are from Brene’s Ted Talks, and were compiled in an article in Inc. Magazine.
Here’s one of Brene Brown’s most popular Ted Talks:
The following quotes are from Do The Work, the great and inspirational book from author Steven Pressfield:
“In other words, any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health, or integrity.Resistance cannot be seen, heard, touched or smelled. But it can be felt. We experience it as an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential.”
“Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. It will perjure, fabricate, falsify; seduce, bully, cajole. Resistance is protean. It will assume any form, if that’s what it takes to deceive you. Resistance will reason with you like a lawyer or jam a nine-millimeter in your face like a stickup man.Resistance has no conscience. It will pledge anything to get a deal, then double-cross you as soon as your back is turned. If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get.”
“Don’t think. Act. Once we commit to action, the worst thing we can do is to stop.”
“Our mightiest ally (our indispensable ally) is belief in something we cannot see, hear, touch, taste or feel.
Resistance wants to rattle that faith. Resistance wants to destroy it.”
“Picasso painted with passion, Mozart composed with it. A child plays with it all day long.
You may think you’ve lost your passion, or you can’t identify it, or that you have so much of it, it threatens to overwhelm you. None of these is true.
Fear saps passion.
When we conquer our fears, we discover a boundless, bottomless, inexhaustible well of passion.
When art and inspiration and success and fame and money have come and gone, who still loves us—and whom do we love?”
“If you and I want to do great stuff, we can’t let ourselves work small. A home run swing that results in a strikeout is better than a successful bunt or even a line-drive single.”
“Start playing from power. We can always dial it back later. If we don’t swing for the seats from the start, we’ll never be able to drive a fastball into the upper deck.”
“Do you love your idea? Does it feel right on instinct? Are you willing to bleed for it?
Get your idea down on paper. We can always tweak it later.”
“Don’t worry about quality. Act, don’t reflect. Momentum is everything.
Get to THE END as if the devil himself were breathing down your neck and poking you in the butt with his pitchfork. Believe me, he is.”
“Our job is not to control our idea; our job is to figure out what our idea is (and wants to be)—and then bring it into being.”
“Assistance is the universal, immutable force of creative manifestation, whose role since the Big Bang has been to translate potential into being, to convert dreams into reality.
I ask myself, again, of the project: ‘What is this damn thing about?'”
“What comes first is the idea, the passion, the dream of the work we are so excited to create that it scares the hell out of us.”
“The opposite of fear is love—love of the challenge, love of the work, the pure joyous passion to take a shot at our dream and see if we can pull it off.
The dream is your project, your vision, your symphony, your startup. The love is the passion and enthusiasm that fills your heart when you envision its completion.”
I’ve been working with a designer on the cover for my next book, Road Stories. This is my first print book, so it is the first time I’ve had to worry about the size of the book, back cover design and text, spine text and size, etc. It’s taken some time, but I finally received the final design files this morning. I’m a happy camper.
Here is a sneak peek at the ebook cover. The front of the print book will look identical. There’s still some work to be done to get the book ready for publication on February 29, but we’re getting closer.
Earlier this year, I set out my goals for 2016. One of those goals was to publish my first print book, Road Stories, in February. I had planned on publishing it mid-month, but I’ve run into a few challenges. Publishing a print book is a bit more involved than publishing a digital book. The cover is more involved, the front matter (the text at the front of the book that comes before the actual book content) is more involved, and the upload of the manuscript is more involved. It’s taking time to learn the process, and as a result, the print book won’t be available mid-month.
The good news is that the book will still be available in February. Thanks to the fact that this is a leap year, Road Stories will be available beginning Monday, February 29. I still have some work to do to get it ready, but I’m committed to having it published by then.
Time for me to get back to work. Thanks for following along.
Hey, Lou, why do you give your books away for free? It’s a fair question. I just released my latest book, Back on the Road, and I’m already giving it away for free. Why would I do that?
Actually, there are two reasons I give my work away for free. First, I want people to read what I have written. Sure, I hope that if they like what they read, they’ll buy future books. I’m not above making a little money from my writing. But it’s even more than that. I want people to enjoy the stories that I write. I want them to be entertained. I’ve been writing for a long time, but until recently, no one has read what I’ve written. What’s the point of that? I want my writing to be read.
The second reason is a little more selfish. My hope is that if I offer my books for free, people who take advantage of the offer will write a review. Amazon reviews are incredibly important to a newbie writer. The more reviews a book receives, the more attention Amazon pays to the book. With enough reviews, Amazon will promote a book to likely readers, and will list the book as an “also bought” when readers search for a book.
Back on the Road is available for free today and tomorrow (February 1 & 2). I encourage you to pick up a copy. I hope you enjoy it. And if you get a second, please leave a review of the book. Written reviews are great (they carry a lot of weight with Amazon), but even a simple star rating is helpful.
Happy reading!
