QUEST FOR BLACK BEACH: TINTINNABULATION!

TINTINNABULATION!  Because in my world the bells are ringing!  Starting September 10^th in this very year, my novella for adolescents, QUEST FOR BLACK BEACH, has been a-go-go on the market!  And before I write on, my first order of business is a BIG THANK-YOU TO 

JEANNE MARTINSON OF WOOD DRAGON BOOKS!

*(For more information on access and price, just click on 

QUEST FOR BLACK BEACH pictured in the side-bar to the right of this blog entry.)

Here is a thumbnail sketch of QUEST FOR BLACK BEACH:

It is the year 2113 and a series of brightblasts has resulted in four remnant groups vying for survival: the robotia, the roktillia, the pterosauria, and the humanoids.

The robotia represent what is left of the mechanical world. These robots have an incredibly high artificial intelligence and adhere to the codes of conduct as designed in their individual and collective programming. The roktillia are a mutated blend of mammal and reptile, with unique traits to help them survive both on land and in water. The pterosauria are large featherless creatures that can fly. Most of the humanoids have established themselves in close communities along the waterways. Other humanoids have become alienated and are ruthless hunters and scavengers.

Two young sailors, Kllay and Buzz, rowing an old wooden boat, The Snail, along a creek to the sea sanctuary of Black Beach. Along with their companion, Westminster, a member of the robotia, they battle against hostile humanoids, roktillia, pterosauria, and other robotia on their quest to reach Black Beach and reunite with their family.

I love this story, and even more so now as a published book!

I suppose an early cheesy marketing strategy would be for me to solicit my family and my friends and my colleagues for praise and profit. However, this is more of a strategy to dampen friends and damage the respect of colleagues. Such a strategy encourages only sycophant praise with nickel-and-penny profit.  Despite this truth, this has been my tactic to date.  (Really, I should be letting my publisher take the reins on all of this --- but I so want others within and without to recognize how literary I am, damnit! For whatever shallow reasons I suffer psychologically, I seem to crave the celebrity.)  Currently, I am creating my claque for this soon-to-be, hope-to-be money maker!  For my QUEST FOR BLACK BEACH to be a BESTSELLER, the book must have olla podrida appeal.  Hmmm … a hodgepodge readership of a million teenagers would do it! 

Ah, of course in my dreams now ... 

I see myself cavorting along the Mediterranean beaches on sunny days, 

and toiling with tireless pen in a garret, cold and dark and drear, 

in moonlit evenings.  Thank you, Robert Service, 

for this Unforgotten inspirational line!

QUEST FOR BLACK BEACH is not my first book to be published. In 1985, while in graduate studies, I wrote A WISHBONE EPISTOLARY. Back then, 38 years ago, I got my Andy Warhol 15 minutes of basking in a delusional fame when my WISHBONE was distributed to every member of the CANADIAN GUIDANCE COUNSELLORS ASSOCIATION. But that was then, this is now. Alas, all those past WISHBONE readers are either retired or dead, none of whom being potential QUEST FOR BLACK BEACH consumers.  For another 15 minutes of fame, I really do need that hodgepodge of a million teenagers mentioned above.

ONE OF MY FEW COPIES LEFT

Publisher: Guidance Centre, Faculty of Education, University of Toronto (1985)

FACTOID:  I began writing QUEST FOR BLACK BEACH immediately after A WISHBONE EPISTOLARY was published.  QUEST FOR BLACK BEACH has been on my brain for a long, long time.

More FACTOIDS: Thirty-eight years from A WISHBONE EPISTOLARY I am still hale and hardy.  Since the time of that publication, I have kept writing mostly for fun and sometimes for profit.  For profit, I have written book reviews for the local newspaper; for profit, I have written a few magazine articles (I especially loved “VALLEY OF GHOSTS” – a scuba expedition a friend and I took); for fun and profit, I have written close to a hundred songs (I am a singer-songwriter for bar gigs and busking); and for fun I have written more than a couple hundred blog entries, the one you are reading right now being the latest sample.

MY ONLY COPY

Anyway, I have lasted this long as a writer and now at long last I am again, a contemporary published author.  And I shall resume my novel writing (for profit) with chutzpah!

Marching in my CHAUCERIAN PARADE this week:

BUSKING AT THE CONEXUS ARTS CENTRE

BARON AND SELF BUSKING AT THE QUEEN CITY MARATHON