Two things

 YouTube vidy of my reading a couple weeks back at Magers & Quinn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV-J00OamnU

And, Amazon's got a relatively new feature for a series that is much nicer than their Author Page:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FFDLBRD

If I Lie in a Combat Zone

 

September 22, 7pm at Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Uptown Minneapolis:

reading/launch of If I Lie in a Combat Zone, a novel by Will Tinkham

It goes like this:

Ordered to inspect a suspected Viet Cong tunnel in November of 1968, Private Walt Whitman von Funck crawls inside and falls in love. And tears a hole in his foot. Zow spends eight months nursing him back to health, while her brother and grandfather conduct midnight raids and accumulate prisoners, including a general.

During his convalescence, Walt and Zow wed; theirs is a love story that defies race, religion and bureaucratic red tape. Upon his return to Chu Lai Air Base with his pregnant wife and six prisoners, Stars and Stripes declares Walt a hero.

Till a U.S. Army doctor declares the foot wound self-inflicted.

Hailed, then jailed—repeatedly—Walt becomes a favorite of the anti-war crowd and a thorn in the side of President Nixon. Walt accepts offers to speak on college campuses. Protests involving gunfire and bombings become routine. It's almost as if they are targeting him.

Far from just another love story, If I Lie in a Combat Zone provides a fictional glimpse into child-actor Brandon deWilde's (“Come back, Shane!”) portrayal of Walt on Broadway, soldier-songwriter John Prine testing out tunes for Walt and Zow on a flight home from Germany, Joe Biden's first Senate run and Donald Trump's initial venture into housing discrimination.

On April 10, 7pm

Will Tinkham reads
from his new novel,
The Miracles.

Wednesday
April 10, 7pm
@Magers & Quinn
Booksellers, 
3038 Hennepin
   Ave S., Uptown

On better failure

Over the last half-year, I've been conducting a failed experiment that will now come to an end. I ventured away from an exclusive Amazon Kindle agreement (see December 2, 2017 post) to sell my novels through other outlets such as B&N and iBooks. I sold exactly ZERO BOOKS through this expanded distribution, while the books I did sell through Kindle garnered a smaller royalty than if I had stayed strictly with Amazon.

According to Samuel Beckett I'm right on course: Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.

Hmmm... Shouldn't it be: "Ever Tried? Ever failed?"

Be that as it may, all six titles are still on Amazon, as well as at Magers & Quinn in Uptown. 

Ask about all six at Subtext Books in St. Paul, even though they currently only carry this one particular title:

Thanks!

Oh, Weill

A very intimate affair last night. I guess I could blame it on the StarTribune (see previous post) and their confusion over the title of my book. Or I could blame it on the Pioneer Press and their misspelling of my name:

But I won't.

On a title or two

So I made the online event calendar at the StarTribune. A good thing except somehow they saw fit to add a couple of quotation marks and turned one title into two.

For the record: I'll be reading from one novel, The Cary Grant Sanatorium and Playhouse, and would be thrilled if anyone would come by and have a listen. Thanks!

Also, the book is now on sale at Magers & Quinn (for those who simply can't wait).

On changing titles

My last post named my new novel Nazi Abortion Slaughterhouse. This proved to require too much explanation and justification when someone asked: “What's the title of your new book?” I found myself explaining that the original title was Sidney's Sanctum, about a home for unwed mothers that is bad-mouthed by an ultra-religious newspaper to the point where it becomes known as a Nazi abortion slaughterhouse. Too much work.

I've gone with a more whimsical title: The Cary Grant Sanatorium and Playhouse. So far this has drawn smiles and chuckles. Which is how it should be. But there's more than just whimsy behind the change. Mr. Grant is a character in the novel and did, in fact, write a check to Sidney's Sanctum and its clinic for the purpose of building a theater that could double as a clinical facility. Much of the last half of the book takes place in, or centers around, the Sanatorium & Playhouse and activities held there.

Sidney's Sanctum? It was named for a small girl who died during the writing of my third novel, Bonus Man. This new novel pretty much picks up where Bonus Man left off. Heck, if you wanna read Bonus Man, you can find it here. 

And here:

HOW DONALD TRUMP HARSHED MY BUZZ

It was November 7 and I had completed a reading at Magers & Quinn for my latest novel. I had a blast! Friends and even strangers seemed to enjoy themselves. I sold some books. The next morning—still riding the high from that reading, along with the prospect of the first woman POTUS—I set out for Franklin and Hennepin to vote. The euphoria I felt exiting the Scottish Rite Temple after casting my ballot was beyond description. I needed only to get home and write it all down...

Then things got murky. I came out of the haze just last night. I was at Eagles 34. A birthday party? I flashed back to a swamp being drained—only to be refilled with toxic waste. The phrase 'Bannon Sessions' reverberated in my head. Had I crossed over Hennepin Ave to LiquorLyle's that fateful voting day, laying to waste 10-plus years of sobriety? What did Alexander Hamilton have to do with anything? I stared up through bright lights to see Johnny Rey staring back, guitar in hand, and a sea of dancing women. Of course! Sharon Samels' birthday bash. It was next on my November calendar, but what had become of the previous ten days? Who cared? It was rock 'n' roll, love was in the air, and I was back! 

(With pictures to prove it.)

I may never know what fog set in and stole a week and a half of my life. North Carolina... I should maybe see my physician. Pennsylvania... I hope they understand at work. As I type the headaches come and go, hints of my unexplained hangover. Wis-wis-wisconsin?

President-elect—

Nooo00000000OOOO!!!!

On sale now!

THE GREAT AMERICAN SCRAPBOOK is physically available now at Magers & Quinn and located in a case (main aisle, just west of cash registers) featuring other upcoming events. Have at it—and my other novels, as well. Also, the release date for pre-orders of Kindle has been moved up to November 3—best I could do.

As if you need a reminder: Book launch is November 7, 7pm, Magers & Quinn.

I've changed my distribution so all my paperbacks will be available to purchase/order at any book retailer. To do so I had to raise the prices a buck or two. My apologies. Digital copies are still only available, dirt cheap, through Amazon (free Kindle app with purchase).

Enjoy!

On pre-order, launch news and some trepidation

THE GREAT AMERICAN SCRAPBOOK is now available for pre-order (Kindle version) and the paperbacks are winging their way here in anticipation of the launch at Magers & Quinn on November 7 (7pm). The pre-order business is only because it's complete and I promised the good folks at M&Q that it wouldn't go on sale before the launch. (Last time I did a pre-order nobody pre-ordered.)

For more launch info, and to catch up on the soundtrack for the novel, click here.

I've redone my humble website here to give notice of the new release. Have a look around see if anything interests you.

This new book seems to be a bit more stressful for me than my previous ones. The others were way more historical and all the real-life characters were dead. In this I'm using real live characters like Sherwin Linton, Anita from the Uptown Bar, Johnny Rey and Bill Murray, as well as friends who passed away far too young: Steve Foley, Kevin Foley and Kevin Calhoun Hazlett. Institutions like Bob Dylan and John Prine figure prominently without ever showing their faces.

Hope to see you November 7 and hope you enjoy the book(s).

On November 7: A Book Launch

My latest novel, THE GREAT AMERICAN SCRAPBOOK (Americana #5), will launch on November 7 (7pm) at Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Uptown Minneapolis. (Details will certainly follow.)

Beginning with George W. Bush's “Mission Accomplished” speech of May 1, 2003 and culminating on Election Night '04, The Great American Scrapbook follows more important things like Brock McCoy falling in love, the perils of three fictional Minneapolis rock 'n' roll bands, and two long-lost siblings' efforts to maintain the historical significance of a newspaper woman murdered in the 1920s.

Brock, 31, lives in his mother's basement near Lake Harriet. Newly returned from Toronto, he stumbles into a gig as bass player in an all-girl rock band. He falls in love with Jenna on lead guitar. Back home he does what he can to ease the burden on his sister Nancy and her Gulf War I-related PTSD, as well as comfort his mother and her back that just won't heal. On a table in the basement is an old scrapbook that Brock helps Peaches try to turn into something publishable.

Oh, did I mention they solve the mystery of D.B. Cooper?

Like my other books, we celebrate real-life characters in The Great American Scrapbook, most notably Brock's bandmates Kevin Foley, Steve Foley and Kevin Calhoun Hazlett, as well as celebrities still among us like Sherwin Linton, Johnny Rey, and Bill Murray in his role as part-owner of the Saint Paul Saints.

Please stop by on November 7 (before packing for Canada) and give a listen to the reading and whatever else transpires. Thanks!

On Stocking Shelves

There's nothing quite like getting to schlepp a new supply of books over to Magers & Quinn after my readers all but cleaned them out. Satisfaction! Even discussed a book launch for my next novel with Annie, the book buyer, after I mentioned that there's at least one scene that takes place in their very bookstore—and several more down the street at the old Uptown Bar. We also discussed a new distribution option that will require a hike in my prices, which she admitted were pretty low. Hear that? PRETTY LOW. So, if you've been planning to buy, buy now or pay a couple bucks more later.

Did a reading the other night that I've failed to mention. Another Cracked Walnut affair, this time at Golden's Lowertown. Went over quite well.

Oh, and that Amazon page length snafu I mentioned in my last post was finally cleared up after only three short weeks. Thanks for tuning in!

Tell your friends!

Got my MN tax ID and sent in all the forms, so it looks like I'm set to peddle my wares at LowertownPop in St. Paul on April 9. Here some info. It features: “local artisans and craftspeople, brewers, bakers, distillers, street performers, artists, and musicians,” which may leave me as the only writer there. We'll see how that works out.

Just finished up a 24-straight-day period where 3,000+ pages of all four of my books were read on Kindle Unlimited. I get paid something per page from a pool of some amount divided by a multiple of pages, readers and writers, minus the square root of Amazon's take and rounded down to the nearest penny. I know it sounds complicated but it is. My thanks to the fellow in Wisconsin who liked a sample of Hank Fenn he read, read the whole book and then the other three, and told his friends—who all seem to enjoy Unlimited's $10-a-month, all-you-can-read deal. Tell your friends!

Wanna flip rather than swipe? Shop paperbacks in store and online at Magers & Quinn, Uptown, Mpls.

HANK FENN on sale!

My latest novel, The Adventures of Hank Fenn (Americana Book 4) is out in paperback and digitally at Amazon. Paperbacks are also available in store & online at Magers & Quinn, Uptown Minneapolis. It goes like this:

For Hank, Sam never became Mark Twain. As a riverboat pilot, Sam saved young Hank from the crushing paddle wheels as the boy stowed away on the City of Memphis. Sam returned Hank to Minnesota when news reached downriver that Hank's mother was on trial for killing the father Hank had run away from. Years later, in a barber's chair prior to his mother's funeral, Hank reads a frog story that's awful close to a tall tale Sam once told. The magazine claims it's written by a fellow named Mark Twain.

The Adventures of Hank Fenn sends Hank searching the West—and then the East—for Mr. Twain. All along he and Sam exchange letters and make plans that never seem to get them together—Twain always on the road or abroad. Hank does find hatred and brutality while railroading and mining throughout this new frontier. He finds Calamity Jane in a Wyoming mining camp and Custer breaking treaties. He finds the Emperor of these United States. Ultimately Hank finds love, boys to raise and gold to unearth on a Black Hills mountaintop.

Thanks, Will

PS: An interview from last month concerning an earlier novel, Bonus Man.

On sale now!

The Adventures of Hank Fenn is out and available in paperback and digitally at Amazon. The hope is that Magers & Quinn will be carrying it by the end of the month (I'm not even due to receive my copies till Jan. 27).

2015 saw me publish three books which all started out fine sales-wise then fizzled over the last half of the year. Somehow I have to get beyond Facebook and business card word of mouth and move on to another level. All in all, the 103 copies sold were far more satisfying than the 100-plus rejections I likely would've received had I continued on the more traditional path.

There's talk of a trade show this spring (at which I may be the only writer) at the Union Depot in St. Paul. I'd have to figure out how to set up some sort of slide show (been watching Youtube videos) involving book covers and blurbs. And what if someone wants to buy one? Taxes, credit cards... And what if no one buys one? Then I'm stuck with a bunch of books... So much to learn.

Meanwhile I work on book #5, The Great American Scrapbook. It's the long-awaited sequel to Alice and Her Grand Bell. The much-anticipated sequel to No Happier State, too. And The Adventures of Hank Fenn, for that matter. Come to think of it, if you're worried about those quadruplets born on that train, it serves as a sequel to Bonus Man, as well. And a prequel to more...