|
Listen to enough writers, filmmakers, artists, etc. and you'll find a prevalent theme that releasing your work into the wild for the masses to judge is a terrifying venture. Suddenly something you've labored over and poured a piece of your soul into is out there for the internet trolls to potentially find and deride at their pleasure. Worry about such a thing long enough and you'll never release anything. Today, I want to show you the positive side of releasing your creation into the wild and what it means to see it resonate with others. 
0 Comments
When it comes to film adaptations, I love to read the book first to get a feel for the original vision, then go see how closely the screenwriter either stuck to it, or if they at least nailed the vibe. Man, when those two things hit....music, baby.
I was a freshman in college when I saw the first trailer for Peter Jackson's film adaptation of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Lost my friggin' mind, yo. He rocked that entire trilogy and even with the extended 3+ hour director's cuts, I wanted more of Middle Earth. ...and then we have the, erm, blatant expoloit--I mean, Hobbit trilogy. What the heck? That didn't need to be three movies, dude, as clearly evidenced by this good ol' animated Rankin Bass version. **To be fair though, I'm still grateful for a) This incredible scene of the dwarves singing Misty Mountains Cold, b) Martin Freeman rocking the Bilbo role, and c) All of The Cumberbatch. We all have that friend who insists the book was better than the movie. (And, let's be honest, I'm probably that guy). So what gives? Why does it seem so difficult for Hollyweird to get it right more often than not? 'Cause it's harder than it looks, friends. This has been the hardest year of my life, friends.
(**Note: This post has a happy ending, so I promise it's not all doom-and-gloom, people). So 2016 was the worst, huh, Galv? Not that first year in Chicago (05') when you were literally starving, about to be evicted, had zero friends in the vicinity, and woke up (on the floor) to dead cockroaches by your face every morning? No - 2016 has been worse, To be fair, some of this year's general suckiness was a slow descent off the tail end of 2015 with the hospice care and eventual passing of my mother-in-law, so I suppose I can't place all the blame on the last twelve months. Having said (written?) all that, this year, and an amazing little show called Hell On Wheels, has taught me one inarguable fact... I'm still here.  I suck at honey-do lists.
"Honey, can you Glue the broken arm on the kitchen chair?" I've done it twice and it keeps breaking...think maybe we should just get a new one? "Honey, can you change out the broken lightbulb?" There's still three working... "Well, can you at least--" Sorry, darlin', there's readers waiting on books! The Salt awaits! Some of my reasoning for general suckiness at ticking off items on the honey-do list is our house is a natural disaster zone. With two kiddos under 5, it doesn't matter what you do all day, a whirlwind of Little Miss and her toddler sidekick have dealt destruction anew by 8:30 p.m. But my wife has recently crusaded we should be better. Thus, my honey-do list. Yesterday, I decided to tackle item #5,341 - Clean the lint out of the dryer vent line. And that's where things got interesting...  A few years back, a couple friends of mine suggested I consider coming to GenCon with my books.
It's hosted in my home state (Indiana) so I'd heard of the con before, but knew it as more of a gaming convention rather than a literary festival or con. Still, they persisted. My good friend, Nick, even sent me an oh-so-subtle exhibitor application link for this year's event, so I decided to opt in. Figured it'd be at least worth a trip home, even if the venture failed. It did not. :) Back for more! In my last post, we discussed how I screwed up my debut novel's cover, then doubled down on the sequel.
Here's the thing - cover design is just one part of the process. You can have the most gorgeous covers in the world, but if the editing isn't there and the story doesn't hook your reader, then what're you left with? Nada, Jack. In this pt. 2 post about where I screwed up, I thought to share with you why I made some changes to Salted and (hopefully) made it a better, clearer read for all of you. (Hint: I have you awesome reviewers to thank for the advice too!) So...you ready for round 2?  Thought about titling this post 'Here's What I Learned', but let's face it - in today's society, more people are interested in hearing how someone screwed up than what they actually learned.
I'm gonna give you both. Today, you get to see the Rascal admit his errors, multiple failings, and eat some crow. I'll show you how I screwed up my debut novel, Salted, how I doubled down with its sequel, why I've sat on those mistakes for two years. More importantly, I'll go over the changes I've implemented to hopefully succeed in this newest go-around. (Aaron picks up his knife and fork) Hope you enjoy the spread, folks. This is where Aaron Galvin gets real. Anyone else hum the title of this blog post to the opening tune of Jake & The Neverland Pirates? Just me? Oh... That may be in part to I just spent a week's vacation with my wife and kiddos, so you can guess what Disney show played often. Felt good to take some time off and recharge the batteries. I meant to write up a post about how much fun I had at the 1st ever Barnes & Noble Teen Book Festival last week, buuuut...vacation. ;) Anyway, holy Teen Book Festival weekend, Batman! I'm already stoked about next year's event. Receiving an invitation to sign at three different B&N stores and be one of the featured authors made me feel beyond blessed. And that was before the weekend even started.  "You should totally do it."
"Yeah, I dunno. It's just--" "Come on. All the cool authors are doing it!" And thus it was peer pressure succeeded again and Aaron Galvin joined Instagram. Now if I could just figure out how to post something... What's that you say, you little birdie? Barnes & Noble is hosting their first ever Teen Book Festival this June and have asked me to be one of the authors? I mean... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! I'm halfway on my second trip over and around the moon right now with this news. Anyway, if you're not doing anything the weekend of June 10th-12th, you should come to one of the stores I'll be speaking and signing books at. Oh, caught that plural bit did you? That's right. I'll be at not one, not two, but THREE Barnes & Noble stores that weekend. Oh, and if you're not in the SoCal area, check out the event listings in the Barnes & Noble near you to see which authors are being hosted near you.  |
AARON GALVIN
Author. Actor. Rascal.
Archives
December 2020
SELF PUBLISHING
|
RSS Feed