Civil War and Angry Old Men are Featured Today

Elia and Easy Earl were two characters who originally made their entrances in my first novel, Lifetime Loser. They are both regulars in the clubhouse at Prairie Winds Golf Course.

Elia is a barber who hails from Beirut and who wears dark hair and a heavy beard with style. The war and violence that marked his childhood led him to flee his home country and immigrate to the United States. His home away from home is the golf course and his perspective serves as a constant reminder that life abroad is much more difficult than life in the United States.

Current events in the Middle East have placed Elia in a whole light for me.  I wonder what he would have to say about the Arab Spring that swept across the region last year and the amazing changes to political and social structures that are occurring.  Would he wish to be back in Beirut and part of the action?  

Easy Earl, on the other hand, is a product of a much more stereotypical American story. He works part-time at Prairie Winds and is a retired used car salesman. He is ornery, opinionated and in his eighties, but can still play the game of golf very well.  You probably all know someone like Easy Earl--an older guy who knows the answer to everything and who you practically can picture yelling, "You kids get off my lawn!"

Thanks again for coming along with me for this alphabetical journey through my characters and themes!

James Ross
Author of Lifetime Loser, Finish Line, Tuey's Course, Opur's Blade, and Pabby's Score
jamesross@authorjamesross.com
Website: http://www.authorjamesross.com/
Publisher Websites: http://www.xlibris.com/ and http://www.nightengalepress.com/
Blog: http://www.authorjamesross.blogspot.com/
Purchase: http://golftwitt.com/46ey

Teen's Death in Florida Shows that Divisions are Still Strong

I am sure that most, if not all, of you have heard about the shooting death of seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida late last month.  As a quick recap, the teenager was walking through a gated community on the way to his dad's home, having just stopped at a local convenience store for some candy.  George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain in the area, deemed Martin to be suspicious for some reason and called 911.  Despite the dispatch office telling Zimmerman not to chase down Martin, he proceeded to provoke a confrontation.  What exactly happened in the next few minutes isn't totally clear, but it ended up with an unarmed young man dead.

George Zimmerman has not been charged with any crime, stating that he acted in self-defense, and the protests against the way law enforcement has handled this case are growing.  Crowds gathered in New York and Florida yesterday and online petitions have been circulating internationally in an effort to at least bring Zimmerman before a judge to explain his actions and to criticize police for their lack of thorough investigation at the scene of the crime and thereafter.

At the heart of the issue is the matter of race and the discussion of how young black males are viewed in our country.  Did George Zimmerman make assumptions about Trayvon Martin due to his skin color?  We can't say for sure.  Would the police department have handled this case differently if a white teenager had been shot?  Some are arguing that.  Is the furor that this case has caused coming to an end anytime soon?  Hardly.

While I realize that my works of fiction are hardly comparisons for real-life violence, the writer in me is drawn to events such as this one as they reveal how we interact with one another on the most basic level.  I explore issues of race and stereotyping in all of my books, and particularly in my third novel Tuey's Course I dig into the institutional power in government and how it deepens the racial and socioeconomic divide that exists in so many towns and cities throughout our country. 

I hope in this instance that the true timeline of what happened that night in Florida can be told and those who need to be accountable for their actions or inaction will be brought to light.  I also hope this becomes a moment that creates conversations that somehow help us in moving forward with how we look at and react to one another. 

Couple Guilty of Fraud Leave Kids on School Bus While in Prison

As I've noted in previous posts, my new release Pabby's Score covers many topics that are hot on today's news radar.  Among them is the prevalence of insurance fraud that seeps through our hospitals, pharmacies, home construction services, and many other areas, leaving many ruined reputations and creating its fair share of criminals.  And, sadly, there are plenty of innocent victims of insurance fraud as well.  It's not just a matter of manipulating numbers and records.

Two children were found living in a school bus in Texas and apparently had been there for a long period of time, ever since their parents were sent to separate federal prisons following their convictions on fraud  charges after they stole money from victims of Hurricane Ike in 2008.  The five-year-old boy and eleven-year-old girl were reported to be living in squalid conditions by a postal worker who reported the situation to authorities.  They had been home-schooled by their parents through the mail for the past year, making them essentially recluses from adults who could have noticed the problem much earlier. 

In interviews from prison, the parents insisted their children were well-cared for, as they had an aunt staying with them at night and the bus had been converted to provide running water, heat, and toilets.  The mother shared that she is being released next month and looks forward to taking care of her kids and moving forward.  That goal may be in doubt, though.  The kids are in the custody of child protective services and I doubt authorities will be particularly anxious to hand them back over to mom considering what she thought would be appropriate living conditions in her absence.

It just goes to show that there often are more unusual people in real life than we ever could create for a novel.  Let's hope that once these two finish their time for fraud against others in Texas, the guilty characters in this instance face the consequences they deserve for the way they left their children.  

Finding a Good Read

With the release of my most recent novel finally here, I've decided to try several new marketing options to promote my work.  I've shared with you my YouTube video and my efforts to get the book in the hands of those who are willing to share their review with others.  I'm also returning to an idea I've used before and hope to improve my approach this time.  I will be giving away two copies of Pabby’s Score through the popular book review website Goodreads. From now until the end of March, these free copies of my fifth release will be given away to readers who frequent that site.

I've tried this marketing tactic before with mixed results. A previous release, Opur’s Blade, was given to a reader who did not care for the story and therefore published a lukewarm review.  I'll be honest -- that made me a bit hesitant to share my work for free again.  It's disappointing to give a copy of a book to someone who does not like your writing style, characters or plot. Ouch!  Every reader is entitled to his or her own opinion, of course, and I want to hear from everyone.  But, it's not what I had hoped.

At any rate, I've rebounded and I want to give it another try.  Obviously, I hope for better feedback for Pabby’s Score, but we'll see what happens. It is a story that features two special needs children, Internet dating, insurance fraud, a sleazy law firm, and a secret society. I am excited to share that the early reviews have been very promising. We’ll see if the readers on Goodreads share those positive opinions!

Please visit Goodreads and sign up for the program. Maybe you’ll be getting a freebie copy in the mail in at the end of March!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Pabby's Score

by James Ross

Giveaway ends March 31, 2012.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

James Ross
Author of Lifetime Loser, Finish Line, Tuey's Course, Opur's Blade, and Pabby's Score
jamesross@authorjamesross.com
Website: http://www.authorjamesross.com/
Publisher Websites: http://www.xlibris.com/ and http://www.nightengalepress.com/
Blog: http://www.authorjamesross.blogspot.com/
Purchase: http://golftwitt.com/46ey

The PR Power of YouTube

Pabby’s Score was recently published and we tried to do some things during the pre-release stage of marketing that we had not included in publicity efforts for my previous four novels. I like to think that I am learning from each book publishing experience and becoming a more effective marketer of my own work with each new offering. The digital age presents writers with so many ways to share our products that weren't available ten or even five years ago, and the possible outlets can be overwhelming!

This new book of fiction I've created could have been available for purchase as early as the summer of 2011. But we waited . . . and waited . . . as we planned out our marketing tactics for optimal coverage.

We wanted to present to the online community an organized, promotional campaign that was cohesive and multi-pronged in its distribution. One decision we made was to include the use of video.

We all recognize the power of YouTube as a marketing method. Just ask Justin Bieber or any number of laughing babies whose parents now have a million hits on a homemade video!  These publicity pieces can be made by anyone; it is rather easy if you follow the tutorials. So, we decided to give it a try.

Our focus was to try to keep the message at a length of thirty seconds. We wanted to make our point and move in and out of the video quickly. The cuts are realistic. The writing is to the point. We slapped a little music to the screen and presto -- we made our own amateur YouTube production.

You can watch the video as embedded in this post or check out the link. If you find the video convincing, I hope you then will give Pabby's Score a try.  I'm really excited to share this fifth novel with my reading audience and I look forward to your feedback, both on my YouTube efforts and the book itself.

James Ross
Author of Lifetime Loser, Finish Line, Tuey's Course, Opur's Blade, and Pabby's Score
jamesross@authorjamesross.com
Website: http://www.authorjamesross.com/
Publisher Websites: http://www.xlibris.com/ and http://www.nightengalepress.com/
Blog: http://www.authorjamesross.blogspot.com/
Purchase: http://golftwitt.com/46ey

Offering Review Copies Proved a Great Marketing Tool

I am excited to share that Pabby's Score is finally available for purchase! It is my fifth novel in the Prairie Winds series. As I mentioned in some prior blog posts, we delayed the release of this book to try some new approaches with pre-release publicity.

We researched different marketing tactics in an effort to create some buzz for this book before it hit the virtual shelves. One of the things we tried was sending out pre-release review copies to people who have helped our efforts in the past. I asked for help from friends who have an interest in golf, have had me as a guest on their radio show, have provided a review for one or more of my previous books, or have met me on an online social media site.  If you are one of these people and you've read Pabby's Score for me -- thank you!

I anxiously waited for those review copies to be read and to get the feedback from peers and others whose opinion I so highly value.  Well, the results have been staggering.  Nightengale Press and I received some wonderful comments from readers that are now included on the back cover of the book, as well as inside the front pages.

We also featured some of the positive remarks in a YouTube production as well as a Twitpic that could reach even more people through the powerful tool of Twitter.  Check them out!

I hope that reading the great reviews Pabby's Score has already earned will generate interest among new readers to my style of writing. Even if you have never read one of my books before, I hope you will try Pabby’s Score. It is a drama, but also loaded with comical moments and suspense. It will allow you an opportunity to meet some of the eclectic characters that I’ve created over the years, and maybe you'll want to go back and read what they've done in my previous work.  I look forward to your feedback!

James Ross
Author of Lifetime Loser, Finish Line, Tuey's Course, Opur's Blade, and Pabby's Score
jamesross@authorjamesross.com
Website: http://www.authorjamesross.com/
Publisher Websites: http://www.xlibris.com/ and http://www.nightengalepress.com/
Blog: http://www.authorjamesross.blogspot.com/
Purchase: http://golftwitt.com/46ey

A Literary Agent Versus a Publicist -- Enlighten Me

Someone help me. It doesn’t make sense. Authors write. Their work is reviewed, critiqued, and sometimes even ripped apart by friends, family members, and complete strangers in order to end up with a great manuscript. Once the body of work is ready, many authors compose query letters. Then, despite all of the preparation, the rejection occurs. Are we all that lousy at our craft?

In today’s writing world, are literary agents that important? Do they help you sell books? Not that I can tell. Will they get you a publisher? Supposedly, but with the advent of self-publishing, why is that important?

A publisher eventually will turn to the author to sell books anyway. Why is having a Big Six publisher important? Granted, many of us strive to land a large publisher. Think about it, though. Why is it a necessity to be hooked to a corporate giant? I guess they help promote through their literature, trade shows, advertising and distributing. It used to be that a big-name author would be the leader that would allow a publisher to get a hoard of lesser known authors into a book store.

However, things have changed. Book stores are being boarded up. The Internet has taken over. Hardback and paperback books are being replaced by eBooks. Online booksellers are the wave of the future. The bricks and mortar on the corner book store are falling to the ground.

So that comes back to the original question. Why is having a literary agent that important? What do they do if authors can self-publish and sell eBooks via the Internet?

Maybe having a publicist is more important in today’s writing world than an agent. I’d like to hear your thoughts about that. Doesn’t coming up with a strategy to market make more sense in getting your word out?

Or, if the funds are limited, maybe the best course of action for an author is to do self-promotion. In that case is it possible for an author to utilize the Internet and publicize traditionally enough on this own to make a difference?

Publicists put together PR campaign plans. They act as a liaison between a client and the media. Their connections can be used to land radio gigs or television talk shows. A publicist helps to promote a brand and make it more visible in the marketplace. In a nutshell they create -- buzzzzzzzzz.

So we are back to the beginning. Help me. I’m confused. What is the best way to go? As authors we all want to explore ways to get our word to the public. We seek more readers. We reach out to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, YouTube and a host of other online social networking sites. Who has the answer? If there is no set acceptable standard, then what is one to do?

I’d love to hear what has been successful for some other authors. Give me some feedback!

James Ross
Author of Lifetime Loser, Finish Line, Tuey's Course, Opur's Blade, Pabby's Score
jamesross@authorjamesross.com
Website: www.AuthorJamesRoss.com
Twitter: golfnovels and JamesRossBooks
Publisher Website: www.Xlibris.com and www.nightengalepress.com
Blog: http://www.authorjamesross.blogspot.com/
Purchase link: http://golftwitt.com/46ey

What's in a Name?

A good friend of mine called yesterday to let me know that he had just left the doctor's office with his wife and they learned that they are having a little girl.  They already have a son, and are thrilled to be adding a daughter to their family.  And now, the discussion about names will begin.  Some couples read every baby book and website possible, sifting through hundreds of names in search of the perfect one.  Others choose to honor family members by passing down a name from a previous generation.  Or, there are times when both mom and dad just know right away that a certain name is meant to be for their baby.

If you are a writer like me, you know that creating your characters is much like giving birth.  While there certainly is no physical comparison to the effort, we certainly spend time thinking about the people we are developing, wondering how they will turn out, and introducing them to the general public with a sense of pride and protectiveness.  And, at some point, we also must provide our characters with names.

In my work, the names I select all mean something and were chosen with purpose.  Whether it's the all-American girl who works in the clubhouse or the fallen athlete who ended up on the wrong side of the socioeconomic divide or the businessman from the other side of the world, I play into cultural stereotpyes when selecting names and, I hope, promote some challeging conversations among my readers.

So, I would like to know from you -- what is your process for naming your characters?  Does the name come first with the full personality and other details to follow?  Or, do you need to step back and look at a developed character sketch and then pick a name that is fitting?  I want to know how you give birth to your characters.  I imagine it's probably a personal and emotional process for you as much as me.

Use the Calendar to Sell Your Books!

All of us who are involved in the world of writing and publishing have explored ways to expand our marketing efforts. Many times, as a little guy, it has seemed like getting the word out about my books to the large audience that I desire is an insurmountable task. However, with my fourth release, Opur’s Blade, we tried something different and I wanted to share the exciting results.

Do you know how those bestseller lists that you see with online distributors such as Amazon are determined?  If you want to succeed at the game, you need to know the process.  We set out to do just that.

With several sites, one of the requirements is a large number of sales in a very short, concentrated time frame. We found that is the case with Amazon. With this knowledge, the gears were set in motion.

Opur’s Blade was categorized as a sports/fiction book on that global online bookseller. We told the world, through social media and traditional outlets, that we hoped people would purchase this new release on 10/10/10 and asked those who were considering buying the book to hold off until this date.

Bingo! Our efforts succeeded. With those sales, Opur’s Blade rose to at least #17 on the best-seller list at Amazon in the sports/fiction grouping and stood next to authors with names like Patterson, Grisham, and other notable literary figures. For a short while it was gratifying but alas, it didn’t last forever. At the end of the day, though, I can say that Opur’s Blade rose to lofty heights on the bestseller list at Amazon.  And, I know that this campaign exposed my work to many people who may not have discovered it otherwise.

We’ll certainly use this strategy with Pabby’s Score when it is released. You should try it, too!

Short Jockeys and Big Winnings!

Readers of my stories are aware that I try to take the principles of golf like honesty, integrity and dedication to improvement and apply them to situations in life outside of the putting green.  But I try not to limit those lessons strictly to golf; I believe that the lessons learned from sports in general are valuable as we all go forward in life.  There are lessons in leadership and teamwork to be learned from football and soccer . . . and even horse racing.

One of the settings I’ve developed in my already published novels is Hoof and Bridle Park, which is the local thoroughbred race track. This venue will take on a role of great prominence in my upcoming 2011 release, Pabby’s Score. The regular golfers at Prairie Winds have an opportunity to take their friendships beyond the familiar clubhouse and become well-known figures at this racing establishment and their good fortune plays an integral part in the plot that unfolds.

The reader will have an opportunity to live in the bowels of the track, in the pit and under the grandstand. The bleachers will provide an open air view of the home stretch and finish line. The paddock area comes alive with the smells of the stables. I hope that readers will feel like they have been transplanted to the upscale environment in the Turf Club, where pampering is the standard.

“And down the stretch they come….”

Any horse racing fans out there?  What do you enjoy most about an afternoon at the track?  The atmosphere, the beauty of the animals, the thrill of gambling?  Let us know if you have your own connection to this sport that would help us better understand the passion and emotional investment of those involved.

Texting and Tweeting: For Better and For Worse

 When was the last time that you sat down at a desk, wrote a letter by hand, placed the completed note in an envelope, and dropped the sealed correspondence in a mailbox?  The art of letter writing seems to be a thing of the past, replaced first by e-mails and now the even more instantaneous and abbreviated text message.  While there are many great advantages to having these communication tools at our fingertips, something has been lost along the way.

As a writer, I love the expression that develops out of putting words and phrases together to create a character or a visual image.  One of the features of my novels of which I am most proud is the emphasis that I put on descriptive language.  I want my readers to become engulfed in the scene through the words that I choose.  If people, especially our young students who have never known life without spell check and the other conveniences of computers, claim text messages written in short hand as the extent of their writing experience, they are being shortchanged.

In my new novel, Pabby's Score, I look at how culture and communication has changed with text messages, instant messaging, and Tweets.  As a novelist who always incorporates social commentary into my work, I enjoyed bringing such a hot topic into my writing this time.  I bet you will find some similarity to situations in your own life.

Are you one of those who constantly has a Blackberry or iPhone by your side, ready to send and receive text messages or read emails?  Has this technology changed your relationships with family and friends?

Teeing off Against Corruption

Article Taken from RADIO-TV INTERVIEW REPORT (Mid January 2009)

This Expert Explains Backdoor Dealing on the Golf Course

Your area golf pro shop seems like an innocuous place, but
it’s likely swarming with powerbrokers, movers and
shakers, and others among the local intelligentsia. Here,
important business and political schemes are hatched off
record and out of public view.

Had Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich tried selling Barack Obama’s Senate seat
on a golf course instead of on the phone, he’d likely be a wealthier man.

Some, like writer James Ross are intimately familiar with what goes on behind-the-scenes at pro shops, golf courses and country clubs. And as a descendant of legendary political satirist Mark Twain, Ross has a natural aversion to
corruption. Time again he is shocked and appalled by the events being shaped on the golf course.

Ross will take listeners and viewers behind the headlines for an insider’s view of how power is really brokered in America.

Ross will also discuss:• How golf can teach people ethical principles.

• What cheating at the “gentleman’s game” reveals about a man’s character.

• Why Bill Clinton’s golf game upset Jack Nicklaus.

• What politicians can learn from some time on
the links.

CREDENTIALS: James Ross is the author of LIFETIME LOSER, TUEY'S COURSE and FINISH LINE

AVAILABILITY: National availability by arrangement via phone.

CONTACT: James Ross (314) 578-0144 or jamesross@authorjamesross.com

Website: http://www.authorjamesross.com/

Blog: http://www.author-jamesross.blogspot.com/