Hello one and all. We are in the second month of the year and this is the first post update for the New Year.
I have been very, very busy getting things up and running for the New Year and trust me you will not be disappointed.
First I want to thank all of you who have been purchasing my work on Kindle. i hope to have all my titles there by the end of the year. It seems that A Gamble of Faith has become a very hot title amoung my book on Kindle so for all of you who have been reading it, I have big news.
The stage play version of A Gamble of Faith will be back this spring. We are in rehearsals at the momen tand hope to have a show up by May. I will keep you posted on the progress and when to expect to see it up and running.
There are changes coming to my website soon. I will no longer be selling books through the company but each book will have a link to where you can purchase those and their Kindle counter parts. Also the Dead Syndicate book review will be available soon as well.
My new novel The Dead Syndicate is out at bookstores. It won't be available for Kindle for a while so don't wait, order your copy today at your retail bookstores. If you live in the NY/NJ/CT area I will be at this years Lunacon in Rye, NY selling and discussing The Dead Syndicate. Lunacon is running March 18th-20th and you can learn more about it at http://2011.lunacon.org/
My long anticipated childrens book will be out late April/early May entitled Etienne and the Stardust Express.
Two new horror stories will be available for Kindle in September.
So get ready for a very active year from Hobbcat Publishing. I'll be back soon for Lunacon announcements.
Be well!
About Me
- Marc L Abbott
- I am a self published author from Brooklyn, New York. I have been publishing my work since 2004 and currently have four titles on the market in print and ebook format. I write horror and fantasy fiction as well as books for young adult. I am also a playwright with stage productions in and around New York City. Visit my website at www.hobbcatpublishing.com
Friday, February 18, 2011
Friday, October 01, 2010
OCTOBER UPDATE
Happy October,
I’d first like to thank all of you who came out to the Brooklyn Book Fair last month. I was great seeing old faces and meeting new ones. There is a lot to announce so without further adieu lets go down the line.
After 18 years and countless rewrites, the first book in my Dead Syndicate series made its debut at the Brooklyn Book Fair. The Dead Syndicate: Trial of the Archnemesis, which chronicles a fallen angels’ fight in the war between good and evil, is available now in limited run. The book officially launches at the end of the month just in time for Halloween. You can check out the blurb in the bookstore on the Hobbcat website. Those of you who have Anthorrorgy and have read The Diary of the Archnemesis already know the troubles Archnemesis Clide is facing, this first book will take you further down his dark path. So if you haven’t gotten a copy of Anthorrorgy yet, this will be the perfect time to purchase a copy.
Many readers have asked me when will I make some of my books available for the popular eReaders. In the beginning I had my doubts about the devices but I caved in a bought one for myself. After a smooth test drive of the product I made the decision make my work available. So I am excited to announce that The Hooky Party, my most popular novel and first book published under Hobbcat Publishing Inc., made its debut on Kindle last month. If you have any of the Kindle eReaders , you can purchase the book for ½ off the cover price at the Kindle store on Amazon. The other novels will follow in months to come. By next year, all of my titles will be available for all eReaders. So stop by the Kindle store and get your copy of The Hooky Party and don’t forget to tell a friend.
A Gamble of Faith is in the works again to be brought to the stage. I am working with a new producer and in talks of bringing the stage play back in the New York area and possibly further. The play is due to go up early 2011 and may go on the road as the year progresses so I will keep you posted on that.
I will be adding a new section to my website soon called Shorts! which will feature a short story, poem or excerpts from upcoming larger works of mine. Right now I am putting together a small collection that will change from month to month. Availability for download to eReaders will also be made available for a small price. How small, well you won’t break the bank I promise you.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for the next set of announcements during the month of October.
Until next time!
I’d first like to thank all of you who came out to the Brooklyn Book Fair last month. I was great seeing old faces and meeting new ones. There is a lot to announce so without further adieu lets go down the line.
After 18 years and countless rewrites, the first book in my Dead Syndicate series made its debut at the Brooklyn Book Fair. The Dead Syndicate: Trial of the Archnemesis, which chronicles a fallen angels’ fight in the war between good and evil, is available now in limited run. The book officially launches at the end of the month just in time for Halloween. You can check out the blurb in the bookstore on the Hobbcat website. Those of you who have Anthorrorgy and have read The Diary of the Archnemesis already know the troubles Archnemesis Clide is facing, this first book will take you further down his dark path. So if you haven’t gotten a copy of Anthorrorgy yet, this will be the perfect time to purchase a copy.
Many readers have asked me when will I make some of my books available for the popular eReaders. In the beginning I had my doubts about the devices but I caved in a bought one for myself. After a smooth test drive of the product I made the decision make my work available. So I am excited to announce that The Hooky Party, my most popular novel and first book published under Hobbcat Publishing Inc., made its debut on Kindle last month. If you have any of the Kindle eReaders , you can purchase the book for ½ off the cover price at the Kindle store on Amazon. The other novels will follow in months to come. By next year, all of my titles will be available for all eReaders. So stop by the Kindle store and get your copy of The Hooky Party and don’t forget to tell a friend.
A Gamble of Faith is in the works again to be brought to the stage. I am working with a new producer and in talks of bringing the stage play back in the New York area and possibly further. The play is due to go up early 2011 and may go on the road as the year progresses so I will keep you posted on that.
I will be adding a new section to my website soon called Shorts! which will feature a short story, poem or excerpts from upcoming larger works of mine. Right now I am putting together a small collection that will change from month to month. Availability for download to eReaders will also be made available for a small price. How small, well you won’t break the bank I promise you.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for the next set of announcements during the month of October.
Until next time!
Friday, August 20, 2010
AUGUST UPDATE
The Brooklyn Book Fair is just a few weeks away and Hobbcat Publishing is going to be there. Join us this year as celebrate the launch of my new novel The Dead Syndicate: Trial of the Archnemesis. This book has been a labor of love for me for the last 18 years and finally it is out for you to enjoy. This is book one in a four part series so you’ll want to get your hands on this and get started. For those of you who read Anthorrorgy, you are familiar with the last story Diary of the Archnemesis. This story gives you a brief background of the main character in The Dead Syndicate. For those of you who have not read Anthorrorgy, here’s as good a reason as any to get yourself a copy.
Also, this year at the fair, we will be having our first ever Hobbcat Raffle. Lucky winners will get an autograph copy of a book of their choice and one grand prize winner will get a complete set of four books. That’s all four titles (A Gamble of Faith, The Hooky Party, Anthorrorgy, The Dead Syndicate) for one very low price. So the raffle tickets will be as follows:
Three red tickets for $5. The winner will have their choice of any one title.
One blue ticket for $10. The winner will win a collection of all four titles.
Times for the drawing will be announced at the fair along with the rules.
So come on out on Sunday September 12 from 10am – 6pm to the Brooklyn Book Fair located behind Brooklyn’s Borough Hall. For more information go to http://www.brooklynbookfestival.org/BrooklynBookFestival/festival.html
We’re also asking our readers to let us know if you want to see our titles made available for E-Readers. We would like to provide our work to all who are using the devices.
Hope to see you all at the fair!
Also, this year at the fair, we will be having our first ever Hobbcat Raffle. Lucky winners will get an autograph copy of a book of their choice and one grand prize winner will get a complete set of four books. That’s all four titles (A Gamble of Faith, The Hooky Party, Anthorrorgy, The Dead Syndicate) for one very low price. So the raffle tickets will be as follows:
Three red tickets for $5. The winner will have their choice of any one title.
One blue ticket for $10. The winner will win a collection of all four titles.
Times for the drawing will be announced at the fair along with the rules.
So come on out on Sunday September 12 from 10am – 6pm to the Brooklyn Book Fair located behind Brooklyn’s Borough Hall. For more information go to http://www.brooklynbookfestival.org/BrooklynBookFestival/festival.html
We’re also asking our readers to let us know if you want to see our titles made available for E-Readers. We would like to provide our work to all who are using the devices.
Hope to see you all at the fair!
Monday, March 08, 2010
Anthorrorgy and the Rebirth of A Gamble of Faith - Part 3
I have always loved horror and I have my father to thank for that. Though my mother would later tell me later that my father was actually afraid of horror movies (he left her sitting in the Exorcist in 1972 because it frightened him so bad), he had a very enchanting way of making horror sound captivating. He would tell me, with a deep voice, about Dracula and his castle. How a cursed man can turn into a werewolf and the terrible things the Invisible Man did to his victims. And to accent these terror tales we would watch the old Universal horror movies together on Saturday nights on PBS on a 13 inch black and white TV he kept in his den.
So imagine his suprise when he started to see the “modern” monsters of horror gracing my wall. As much as he hated seeing Freddy, Jason, Pinhead and Michael Meyers on my wall and in my video library, he continued to fuel me with the likes of King, Barker, and Straub by buying me their books for my literary library. My mother didn’t help the matter much by providing me with a book of Edgar Allen Poe’s collective works.
The books were my favorite because I could envision the sequences in my mind (hence the anger I spewed whenever a beloved book was turned into a bad movie) and I was always up on whatever my favorite authors were printing. When I knew for certain I was going to be a writer, I knew I wanted to write horror for sure.
Though writing in general is not easy, certain genres I found were more difficult than others. Horror is one of the more difficult. It’s not just the style that makes it difficult, the subject matter as well is hard to. It’s not easy to scare an reader. Many of the classic monsters that we have grown up with have changed so much that they have lost their appeal. Vampires, for example, have come to the point where the reader now sympathizes with the monster rather than fear it. What used to destroy them we are now told are myths (the myth has myths) and that they are now misunderstood creatures of the night. Trying to revert back to the classic image now is nearly impossible.
So I sat down and started to think of different kinds of stories to tell. I made a list of things that scare me, conventional monsters and monsters in nature (i.e. plants and animals) that either maim or kill.
Once I had enough on the list I began to weed out the ones that would not make a strong story. There were just some creatures that just would go over well in a horror story; the ones that you could believe would come after you in the dark. I kept the traditional ones like vampires, werewolves and ghosts. Then I added spiders, mosquitoes and plants along with a couple of aliens and a demon. I threw in a couple of surprises just to spice it up and when I was done I began writing.
Many of the stories had already been fleshed out prior to the list. They were stories I had already begun so I added them to the list in order to focus on finishing them. Now my mind works in a very strange way. By that I mean that while I was finishing one story I had started writing two others. So I would have three word windows open on my computer and I would switch back and forth from story to story as ideas for each came to me. This didn’t speed up the process but it did keep me on top of things.
While doing the stories, I started to think about a name for the book. I had first considered using one of the story titles followed by “and other stories of horror and suspense” but that had been used too many times before. I needed an original name, something that snapped and was very different.
I love to play with words (if you read Gamble you know what I mean) and I did that very thing with this book. Since I knew I was writing an anthology of horror stories, I decided to mesh the two words (horror and anthology) together to form one. Removing “olo” and replacing it with the word horror, I came up with Anthorrorgy. Pronouncing it, some people found, was difficult so how I explained it was like this: You say it the same way you would say anthology except you have the word horror in the middle (ie. An – thor –rorgy). It takes some getting used to but once you get it, you understand it.
Once I had the name, I started thinking about the cover. I wanted something really disturbing but not gross for the cover. I spent a lot of time looking at covers for horror novels and many of them weren’t really that eye catching. It seemed that as long as the authors name was large and yelling out at the reader, that’s all it took. The cover art was very subtle and maybe hinted on what was inside, but for the most part they didn’t seem to be big attention grabbers.
I then turned to the fantasy novels for some help and noticed that almost every cover had either some kind of action sequence or battle ready character that drew the reader in. I liked that concept so I decided that was one way to go.
But a lot of those covers were drawn. The artwork was impeccable and eye catching. I had been told that artwork, in terms of the kind of fiction I was doing, was not the best idea for a cover. But I knew that it would have to do for what I was thinking about for the cover. I had developed a very distinct idea in my head about what I wanted at that point and no photographer was going to be able to capture it.
The idea came from two of the stories in the book; The Pheromone Incident and Five by Seven. Both stories were unsettling in the fact that the people in them were suffering great deals of pain at the hands of some creature. So I wanted to showcase someone in great pain, but which of the two creatures to showcase was the question.
I went with the one I knew everyone could identify with and that was the spider. But I was particular about the kind of spider it would be. I chose the Australian Funnel Web Spider, one of the worlds deadliest spiders, as my “model”. The idea was to show it crawling out of a person’s mouth as their screaming in agony while their eyes were stitched closed. Knowing no one in the world would voluntarily put one in their mouth for a photo shoot, I had to find someone who could bring the concept to life.
At the time, I was part of a lightsber stage combat crew called NY Jedi. The group was comprised of many different artists, musicians and writers who all had a soft spot for performing and lightsaber lore. In this group I met an artist named Tara Lopez who was working on a comic strip she was pushing to the public. On her website, I found wonderful sketches and designs but what caught my eye was a style of “living art”. It’s where the art work looked almost alive. Peoples features were distinct and simply amazing.
I approached her with the idea of doing a book cover and she was excited about it until she heard the idea. She literally cringed because, as I found out, spiders were not her thing. I knew from that response I had a great cover coming. I gathered pictures of the spider in its most menacing poses and gave them to her and left her to do her work.
I went back to writing and editing the stories. When I was done I had fourteen stories I felt would work well in the book. But as I did a reread of each one, I started to discover that some of them just didn’t fit right. They were all good but there were some that I could use for a different book at a later date so I removed them. Then I decided to take a page from The Twilight Zone and write an introduction for each one. But after I put the chosen few together, the introductions seemed to be a bit much. They felt forced rather than adding something special as I intended them to. So upon working on the fourth draft, I got rid of the introductions and left the stories alone.
Next was to put them order. I had read that Stephen King, for his anthology of stories in Everything’s Eventual, used a deck of cards to help him decide the order for his stories. I went in order of when the stories were created. So the oldest and more seasoned stories came first then the newer stories followed. The final story in the book, however, was chosen specifically because it was a precursor to a series I had been working on for several years.
Satisfied with the order, I did one more edit before I got the cover from Tara and put the book together. I sent the book to the printer and had twenty copies printed right away. I sent one to the book reviewer and the others I handed out as review copies. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
One reviewer called me and said that he and his wife found errors running rapid through the book. That is probably the worse thing a writer can hear. He sent me a list of the pages I needed to look at and I went back to work correcting the stories. While working on the corrections, I discovered another minor setback; a story that did not fit with the others. The whole situation began to frustrate me so I walked away from the book for a week so that I could gather my thoughts.
I ended up taking off two weeks then I picked the book up again and got back to work. With a fresh set of eyes, I was able to find the errors and clean the manuscript up. Then I removed the story Ms. Elliston and put it to the side to use in another collection. I passed the revised edition onto an editor who made sure the mistakes were corrected then I prepped the book for print.
As I awaited the book to be reprinted, I began looking into redoing A Gamble of Faith with a new cover and a new description on the back. I contacted IUniverse to see if I could send a new cover in and they told me in order to change the cover, I needed to pay the same processing fee I did when I set the book up. I thought that was a bit much seeing as how the interior of the book was not changing. But it was further explained that they would have to issue me a new ISBN number on the new cover and that constituted as a new set up.
I took a few days to think about it and came to the conclusion that if I was going to pay to have the book redone under IUniverse, I might as well move the title under Hobbcat Publishing where I could have the freedom to do what I needed and it would be easier to manage. So I wrote a letter to IUniverse telling them that I wanted to discontinue my novel with them and that the book had been picked up by another publishing company.
While awaiting an answer from them, I began rewriting A Gamble of Faith. My original manuscript had been lost when my computer crashed and I had to begin again from scratch. Using one of the IUniverse copies I began working on copying the story over and adding a few new details to the story.
Anthorrorgy, meanwhile, made it to print and was released in May followed by a book review featured in the New York Amsterdam News. I put together a release party for the book which had a strong turnout and soon after I went back to working on A Gamble of Faith.
I went back to Marion Designs for the cover again. I knew that I wanted to keep the same theme as the original cover but I didn’t want to carbon copy it using models. I gave them a few ideas to work with and settled on a design that kept the card game feel. Whereas the original artistic cover captured nearly all the characters on the front, the new cover only encompassed three of the characters during a pivotal moment in the game.
The layout was the next phase and that outcome was surprising to say the least. When I first published the book with IUniverse, the print was small and page count was around 170 pages. This time around, the book length was 270 pages with the print size slightly larger. For the exception of a few additions, the manuscript was pretty much the same one I had originally wrote. So I had to ask myself why the original Gamble was so much thinner and smaller than this revised edition. Putting the two side by side I was able to see the difference in font seizes, page size and spacing. In the end I didn’t worry about what the book used to be, only that it was now the book it should have been all along and I was pleased with it.
A Gamble of Faith was re-released in June, a month after Anthorrorgy made its debut. I didn’t do as heavy of a release with Gamble since it technically wasn’t a new title. I did have a small release party for it which allowed people who had not read it to finally get a copy.
With the launch of two books, I went on to the Brooklyn Book Fair in September. Anthorrorgy, with its frightening cover and blurb from the Amsterdam News, drew readers right away. Those who were disturbed by the cover turned their sights to A Gamble of Faith and The Hooky Party for more light hearted reading. Sales went well for Hobbcat Publishing, Inc. and a week later I was back to work on A Gamble of Faith again. This time, I was working on revising the play.
So imagine his suprise when he started to see the “modern” monsters of horror gracing my wall. As much as he hated seeing Freddy, Jason, Pinhead and Michael Meyers on my wall and in my video library, he continued to fuel me with the likes of King, Barker, and Straub by buying me their books for my literary library. My mother didn’t help the matter much by providing me with a book of Edgar Allen Poe’s collective works.
The books were my favorite because I could envision the sequences in my mind (hence the anger I spewed whenever a beloved book was turned into a bad movie) and I was always up on whatever my favorite authors were printing. When I knew for certain I was going to be a writer, I knew I wanted to write horror for sure.
Though writing in general is not easy, certain genres I found were more difficult than others. Horror is one of the more difficult. It’s not just the style that makes it difficult, the subject matter as well is hard to. It’s not easy to scare an reader. Many of the classic monsters that we have grown up with have changed so much that they have lost their appeal. Vampires, for example, have come to the point where the reader now sympathizes with the monster rather than fear it. What used to destroy them we are now told are myths (the myth has myths) and that they are now misunderstood creatures of the night. Trying to revert back to the classic image now is nearly impossible.
So I sat down and started to think of different kinds of stories to tell. I made a list of things that scare me, conventional monsters and monsters in nature (i.e. plants and animals) that either maim or kill.
Once I had enough on the list I began to weed out the ones that would not make a strong story. There were just some creatures that just would go over well in a horror story; the ones that you could believe would come after you in the dark. I kept the traditional ones like vampires, werewolves and ghosts. Then I added spiders, mosquitoes and plants along with a couple of aliens and a demon. I threw in a couple of surprises just to spice it up and when I was done I began writing.
Many of the stories had already been fleshed out prior to the list. They were stories I had already begun so I added them to the list in order to focus on finishing them. Now my mind works in a very strange way. By that I mean that while I was finishing one story I had started writing two others. So I would have three word windows open on my computer and I would switch back and forth from story to story as ideas for each came to me. This didn’t speed up the process but it did keep me on top of things.
While doing the stories, I started to think about a name for the book. I had first considered using one of the story titles followed by “and other stories of horror and suspense” but that had been used too many times before. I needed an original name, something that snapped and was very different.
I love to play with words (if you read Gamble you know what I mean) and I did that very thing with this book. Since I knew I was writing an anthology of horror stories, I decided to mesh the two words (horror and anthology) together to form one. Removing “olo” and replacing it with the word horror, I came up with Anthorrorgy. Pronouncing it, some people found, was difficult so how I explained it was like this: You say it the same way you would say anthology except you have the word horror in the middle (ie. An – thor –rorgy). It takes some getting used to but once you get it, you understand it.
Once I had the name, I started thinking about the cover. I wanted something really disturbing but not gross for the cover. I spent a lot of time looking at covers for horror novels and many of them weren’t really that eye catching. It seemed that as long as the authors name was large and yelling out at the reader, that’s all it took. The cover art was very subtle and maybe hinted on what was inside, but for the most part they didn’t seem to be big attention grabbers.
I then turned to the fantasy novels for some help and noticed that almost every cover had either some kind of action sequence or battle ready character that drew the reader in. I liked that concept so I decided that was one way to go.
But a lot of those covers were drawn. The artwork was impeccable and eye catching. I had been told that artwork, in terms of the kind of fiction I was doing, was not the best idea for a cover. But I knew that it would have to do for what I was thinking about for the cover. I had developed a very distinct idea in my head about what I wanted at that point and no photographer was going to be able to capture it.
The idea came from two of the stories in the book; The Pheromone Incident and Five by Seven. Both stories were unsettling in the fact that the people in them were suffering great deals of pain at the hands of some creature. So I wanted to showcase someone in great pain, but which of the two creatures to showcase was the question.
I went with the one I knew everyone could identify with and that was the spider. But I was particular about the kind of spider it would be. I chose the Australian Funnel Web Spider, one of the worlds deadliest spiders, as my “model”. The idea was to show it crawling out of a person’s mouth as their screaming in agony while their eyes were stitched closed. Knowing no one in the world would voluntarily put one in their mouth for a photo shoot, I had to find someone who could bring the concept to life.
At the time, I was part of a lightsber stage combat crew called NY Jedi. The group was comprised of many different artists, musicians and writers who all had a soft spot for performing and lightsaber lore. In this group I met an artist named Tara Lopez who was working on a comic strip she was pushing to the public. On her website, I found wonderful sketches and designs but what caught my eye was a style of “living art”. It’s where the art work looked almost alive. Peoples features were distinct and simply amazing.
I approached her with the idea of doing a book cover and she was excited about it until she heard the idea. She literally cringed because, as I found out, spiders were not her thing. I knew from that response I had a great cover coming. I gathered pictures of the spider in its most menacing poses and gave them to her and left her to do her work.
I went back to writing and editing the stories. When I was done I had fourteen stories I felt would work well in the book. But as I did a reread of each one, I started to discover that some of them just didn’t fit right. They were all good but there were some that I could use for a different book at a later date so I removed them. Then I decided to take a page from The Twilight Zone and write an introduction for each one. But after I put the chosen few together, the introductions seemed to be a bit much. They felt forced rather than adding something special as I intended them to. So upon working on the fourth draft, I got rid of the introductions and left the stories alone.
Next was to put them order. I had read that Stephen King, for his anthology of stories in Everything’s Eventual, used a deck of cards to help him decide the order for his stories. I went in order of when the stories were created. So the oldest and more seasoned stories came first then the newer stories followed. The final story in the book, however, was chosen specifically because it was a precursor to a series I had been working on for several years.
Satisfied with the order, I did one more edit before I got the cover from Tara and put the book together. I sent the book to the printer and had twenty copies printed right away. I sent one to the book reviewer and the others I handed out as review copies. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
One reviewer called me and said that he and his wife found errors running rapid through the book. That is probably the worse thing a writer can hear. He sent me a list of the pages I needed to look at and I went back to work correcting the stories. While working on the corrections, I discovered another minor setback; a story that did not fit with the others. The whole situation began to frustrate me so I walked away from the book for a week so that I could gather my thoughts.
I ended up taking off two weeks then I picked the book up again and got back to work. With a fresh set of eyes, I was able to find the errors and clean the manuscript up. Then I removed the story Ms. Elliston and put it to the side to use in another collection. I passed the revised edition onto an editor who made sure the mistakes were corrected then I prepped the book for print.
As I awaited the book to be reprinted, I began looking into redoing A Gamble of Faith with a new cover and a new description on the back. I contacted IUniverse to see if I could send a new cover in and they told me in order to change the cover, I needed to pay the same processing fee I did when I set the book up. I thought that was a bit much seeing as how the interior of the book was not changing. But it was further explained that they would have to issue me a new ISBN number on the new cover and that constituted as a new set up.
I took a few days to think about it and came to the conclusion that if I was going to pay to have the book redone under IUniverse, I might as well move the title under Hobbcat Publishing where I could have the freedom to do what I needed and it would be easier to manage. So I wrote a letter to IUniverse telling them that I wanted to discontinue my novel with them and that the book had been picked up by another publishing company.
While awaiting an answer from them, I began rewriting A Gamble of Faith. My original manuscript had been lost when my computer crashed and I had to begin again from scratch. Using one of the IUniverse copies I began working on copying the story over and adding a few new details to the story.
Anthorrorgy, meanwhile, made it to print and was released in May followed by a book review featured in the New York Amsterdam News. I put together a release party for the book which had a strong turnout and soon after I went back to working on A Gamble of Faith.
I went back to Marion Designs for the cover again. I knew that I wanted to keep the same theme as the original cover but I didn’t want to carbon copy it using models. I gave them a few ideas to work with and settled on a design that kept the card game feel. Whereas the original artistic cover captured nearly all the characters on the front, the new cover only encompassed three of the characters during a pivotal moment in the game.
The layout was the next phase and that outcome was surprising to say the least. When I first published the book with IUniverse, the print was small and page count was around 170 pages. This time around, the book length was 270 pages with the print size slightly larger. For the exception of a few additions, the manuscript was pretty much the same one I had originally wrote. So I had to ask myself why the original Gamble was so much thinner and smaller than this revised edition. Putting the two side by side I was able to see the difference in font seizes, page size and spacing. In the end I didn’t worry about what the book used to be, only that it was now the book it should have been all along and I was pleased with it.
A Gamble of Faith was re-released in June, a month after Anthorrorgy made its debut. I didn’t do as heavy of a release with Gamble since it technically wasn’t a new title. I did have a small release party for it which allowed people who had not read it to finally get a copy.
With the launch of two books, I went on to the Brooklyn Book Fair in September. Anthorrorgy, with its frightening cover and blurb from the Amsterdam News, drew readers right away. Those who were disturbed by the cover turned their sights to A Gamble of Faith and The Hooky Party for more light hearted reading. Sales went well for Hobbcat Publishing, Inc. and a week later I was back to work on A Gamble of Faith again. This time, I was working on revising the play.
Monday, January 25, 2010
The Hooky Party and the Birth of Hobbcat Publishing, Inc.- Part 2 of The Writers Journey
The Hooky Party was my second book and, technically, my first self published novel. Like Gamble, it was based on a screenplay I had started working on with my childhood buddy Michael Barksdale. Originally we had started with a bevy of different ideas and events that developed into the concept. But after years of not being able to make the screenplay come together fully, we abandoned it and it became another idea that never got fleshed out.
I got the idea of turning it into a novel when I stumbled across the old script three years after it’s rough draft was done. Rereading it with a fresh set of eyes I started to see how to mold and shape the story better. Being able to fill in the gaps through a novel rather than tip toe around parts due to screenplay time constraints was very refreshing. Initially there was no real story behind Hooky Party other than some guys cutting school to throw one. But the novel gave me a chance to create an entire plot behind it all. So rather than just have a story about kids cutting school, I developed an entire reason behind it.
Using the names of people I knew to help me focus on the characters better, the story of teen rebellion, love and friendship slowly unfolded. Two teen friends decide to throw the Hooky Party after their new tough-as-nails principal cancels the long awaited and much beloved Senior Cut Day. Underlining that plot is a story about taking responsibility for ones own actions; a lesson the two friends learn when their party doesn’t go as planned. The intention was to make this more about a life lesson than just about rambunctious teens going wild.
In the beginning, I intended the story to be a trip down memory lane for people of my generation. I made references to things that were familiar to my growing up in New York as well as setting the story in the early nineties. I even created characters that nearly everyone could relate to (ie. The kids that steals tater tots from people, the underclassmen that liked hanging out with the older crowd and student that kissed up to the principle). But As I neared the completion of the story, I realized that the story could easily appeal to today’s youth.
But that was going to be a hard sell. I observed that many teens I saw reading books on the train were reading some very adult books. Urban Fiction (a label given to many of today’s African American books whose stories focus on or are driven by the street, sex and some violence) was a big draw for them. Very few were reading classics or even were immersed in the popular teen vampire/romance/drama stories. Was it even possible for this story to get through to them or would they even consider reading it?
I realized after looking over it that there were no stories like this out there for young adults. True, most young adults read mature subject matter, but rarely do they read something that they can really relate to in fiction. The story, a coming of age story with a lesson in taking responsibility for one’s own actions, seemed like a good fit for many of today’s teens but would they want it? That was a question I wouldn’t know for sure until I put it out there.
The novel took seven months to complete. Since this was my second novel, and I had learned so much from my initial outing with Gamble, I put a lot behind this project. I also did things a little different.
With Gamble, I edited the book myself. This time, with Hooky Party, I sought out an editor to properly go through the book and make the corrections that were needed. Granted I didn’t have a great deal of mistakes in Gamble, but it was a shorter book. This one was more intricate and detailed so I needed a second set of eyes for it. I had the entire book checked for grammar, spelling, story structure and redundancy. When I got the manuscript back and double checked it, I decided that this time I would go through a traditional publishing house.
With help from the editor, I had a query letter drawn up and I proceeded to send out copies of it to publishing houses that would take unsolicited material. As they made their way to their destinations, I sent a second set of letters out to agents, looking for representation. I knew two things going into the letter writing campaign. The first was that it would be some time before I heard anything back. The second was that many of them would come back as rejections. It was very rare for one to get picked up right away but I remained hopeful.
Within three weeks, the first round of letters came back from publishing houses with the usual “thanks but no thanks” kinds of answers. I wasn’t surprised by this and took them in stride. By the forth week, I started to get letters back from a handful of agents who wanted to see the manuscript. I packaged up several of them and shipped them out immediately.
Within a month I started to get letters back from them saying that they were passing on representation. While the rejection wasn’t too surprising, the statements following the initial rejection was. “Although the manuscript was a good read, we are not sure who to target this story to. The demographic is unclear.” One agent even stated that it seemed too difficult to even market. I was both confused and taken aback by this.
For starters, the majority of the characters in the story are high school students. Many of them are African American and Hispanic. The story is set in a high school and its about high school hi- jinx. It seemed pretty obvious to me who the demographic were. I also stated it’s a coming of age story as well. It didn’t seem confusing to me who would want to read it.
It was never made clear to me why anyone didn’t think they could move the book. Even minority companies declined the novel. If it wasn’t the writing, then what was it about the book people felt they couldn’t sell it? I never received an answer to that question and I was just left with a batch of rejection letters.
After sending out close to 50 letters and landing not a single deal, Hooky Party was destined to end up with its screenplay counter part; collecting dust in a drawer. I was left with one option and that was to publish it myself. I had enlisted the help of an artist to do a cover for me but after several months of waiting and not getting anything back, I was pretty much stuck. I had considered going back with IUniverse but at the same time, Gamble wasn’t doing too well either. As I contemplated on what to do, I received an email from Gotham Writers Workshop (I was on their mailing list) that the Center of Independent Publishers was hosting a seminar and workshop on self publishing. I figured I had nothing to loose so I enrolled in the workshop and spent my entire Saturday going to panels and learning what it meant to be a self published author.
I discovered that my decision not to go back to IUniverse was correct and in a way, the fact that my cover never got done was a blessing.
One of the panelists took a look at Gamble and told we everything that was wrong with the book. From the artist drawn cover down to the font size and pricing. Then I found out why I was not touted as an self published author. There was something on the book itself that did not belong to me but rather to the IUniverse that signified that they were the publisher, not me.
The ISBN number on the barcode had been issued to me by IUniverse. Because I didn’t buy the number myself and it was provided to me by them; it meant that they were the publisher, not me. I had to own that number and it could not be bought from them. I had to buy it under my own company name or my own. But it was strongly advised that I have a company, which I didn’t have. I also found out that there were companies out there that did book covers. I had always been under the assumption that only publishing houses issued covers. It never dawned on me to look for a company to do that. Then there was the matter of finding a printer to print the books, pricing the book and marketing. None of this had ever crossed my mind, but it didn’t sound terribly difficult to do as long as I knew where to go for what I needed.
So for nearly nine hours I listened, learned, took advice and gathered as much research material as I could. Then I went back home and for several days I did homework.
The first thing I had to do was find out how to get incorporated. I was told to check out Legal Zoom where I could have incorporations done online. On the site they offered to research the name I had chosen for my company to make sure it wasn’t already taken. I chose the name Hobbcat for the company because I had used the name before as a trademark which had long since been cancelled. Once the name was approved I went through the steps of setting it up as incorporation. The entire process took only a few weeks to have done.
My next step was getting the ISBN numbers for the company. Following the directions I got from one of the panel discussions, I went to the website where I bought 25 numbers along with some barcodes. I assigned the first number to The Hooky Party then put it to the side while I went looking for a book cover designer.
Marion Designs was my choice for cover design. The experience wasn’t what I had expected. When they replied to my email about working with me, they wanted to know what I had in mind for the cover. Granted I had thought about some ideas but I figured that the company was going to just come up with ideas on their own. But they involved me in the process and I was happy to pass along some of my ideas. They even helped me to design my company logo.
Approximately one month later I had a finished cover complete with bar code, ISBN numbers and an eye catching font design. All that was left was to do was have it printed. But I didn’t immediately have a printer to work with. I knew that I wanted to print books like I did with IUniverse which was by small volume. Many printers wanted me to order and print large quantities which would mean I would have to make room in my apartment for thousands of books. Marion Designs told me about a company that did what is called Print On Demand which allowed me to order only the amount I needed. The company was called Lightning Source. Not only were they a good place for me to print but they also work with Barnes and Noble and Amazon so when my novel was finished and approved, it was listed on their sites.
Ten months after its initial completion, The Hooky Party was finally published and was the first book released under Hobbcat Publishing , Inc.
Soon after its release, I wanted to run an ad for it in The New York Amsterdam News. I was advised that instead of an ad, to have the book reviewed. I was a little apprehensive at first because a review can swing both ways. A good one would give it life. A bad one could stop it dead in its tracks. It was a 50/50 chance I had to take.
In August of that year, reviewer Glenn Townes wrote a solid review of the book which helped kick off sales. By September, The Hooky Party, made its official debut at the Brooklyn Book Fair and nearly sold out before the day was over.
Once I knew exactly what self publishing entailed, I decided I would work to bring A Gable of Faith over from IUniverse into Hobbcat’s fold. Unfortunately, a computer crash destroyed the manuscript and I was forced to start over from scratch using the novel I had in my possession. While working on that, I started putting together the finishing touches on my third book.
I got the idea of turning it into a novel when I stumbled across the old script three years after it’s rough draft was done. Rereading it with a fresh set of eyes I started to see how to mold and shape the story better. Being able to fill in the gaps through a novel rather than tip toe around parts due to screenplay time constraints was very refreshing. Initially there was no real story behind Hooky Party other than some guys cutting school to throw one. But the novel gave me a chance to create an entire plot behind it all. So rather than just have a story about kids cutting school, I developed an entire reason behind it.
Using the names of people I knew to help me focus on the characters better, the story of teen rebellion, love and friendship slowly unfolded. Two teen friends decide to throw the Hooky Party after their new tough-as-nails principal cancels the long awaited and much beloved Senior Cut Day. Underlining that plot is a story about taking responsibility for ones own actions; a lesson the two friends learn when their party doesn’t go as planned. The intention was to make this more about a life lesson than just about rambunctious teens going wild.
In the beginning, I intended the story to be a trip down memory lane for people of my generation. I made references to things that were familiar to my growing up in New York as well as setting the story in the early nineties. I even created characters that nearly everyone could relate to (ie. The kids that steals tater tots from people, the underclassmen that liked hanging out with the older crowd and student that kissed up to the principle). But As I neared the completion of the story, I realized that the story could easily appeal to today’s youth.
But that was going to be a hard sell. I observed that many teens I saw reading books on the train were reading some very adult books. Urban Fiction (a label given to many of today’s African American books whose stories focus on or are driven by the street, sex and some violence) was a big draw for them. Very few were reading classics or even were immersed in the popular teen vampire/romance/drama stories. Was it even possible for this story to get through to them or would they even consider reading it?
I realized after looking over it that there were no stories like this out there for young adults. True, most young adults read mature subject matter, but rarely do they read something that they can really relate to in fiction. The story, a coming of age story with a lesson in taking responsibility for one’s own actions, seemed like a good fit for many of today’s teens but would they want it? That was a question I wouldn’t know for sure until I put it out there.
The novel took seven months to complete. Since this was my second novel, and I had learned so much from my initial outing with Gamble, I put a lot behind this project. I also did things a little different.
With Gamble, I edited the book myself. This time, with Hooky Party, I sought out an editor to properly go through the book and make the corrections that were needed. Granted I didn’t have a great deal of mistakes in Gamble, but it was a shorter book. This one was more intricate and detailed so I needed a second set of eyes for it. I had the entire book checked for grammar, spelling, story structure and redundancy. When I got the manuscript back and double checked it, I decided that this time I would go through a traditional publishing house.
With help from the editor, I had a query letter drawn up and I proceeded to send out copies of it to publishing houses that would take unsolicited material. As they made their way to their destinations, I sent a second set of letters out to agents, looking for representation. I knew two things going into the letter writing campaign. The first was that it would be some time before I heard anything back. The second was that many of them would come back as rejections. It was very rare for one to get picked up right away but I remained hopeful.
Within three weeks, the first round of letters came back from publishing houses with the usual “thanks but no thanks” kinds of answers. I wasn’t surprised by this and took them in stride. By the forth week, I started to get letters back from a handful of agents who wanted to see the manuscript. I packaged up several of them and shipped them out immediately.
Within a month I started to get letters back from them saying that they were passing on representation. While the rejection wasn’t too surprising, the statements following the initial rejection was. “Although the manuscript was a good read, we are not sure who to target this story to. The demographic is unclear.” One agent even stated that it seemed too difficult to even market. I was both confused and taken aback by this.
For starters, the majority of the characters in the story are high school students. Many of them are African American and Hispanic. The story is set in a high school and its about high school hi- jinx. It seemed pretty obvious to me who the demographic were. I also stated it’s a coming of age story as well. It didn’t seem confusing to me who would want to read it.
It was never made clear to me why anyone didn’t think they could move the book. Even minority companies declined the novel. If it wasn’t the writing, then what was it about the book people felt they couldn’t sell it? I never received an answer to that question and I was just left with a batch of rejection letters.
After sending out close to 50 letters and landing not a single deal, Hooky Party was destined to end up with its screenplay counter part; collecting dust in a drawer. I was left with one option and that was to publish it myself. I had enlisted the help of an artist to do a cover for me but after several months of waiting and not getting anything back, I was pretty much stuck. I had considered going back with IUniverse but at the same time, Gamble wasn’t doing too well either. As I contemplated on what to do, I received an email from Gotham Writers Workshop (I was on their mailing list) that the Center of Independent Publishers was hosting a seminar and workshop on self publishing. I figured I had nothing to loose so I enrolled in the workshop and spent my entire Saturday going to panels and learning what it meant to be a self published author.
I discovered that my decision not to go back to IUniverse was correct and in a way, the fact that my cover never got done was a blessing.
One of the panelists took a look at Gamble and told we everything that was wrong with the book. From the artist drawn cover down to the font size and pricing. Then I found out why I was not touted as an self published author. There was something on the book itself that did not belong to me but rather to the IUniverse that signified that they were the publisher, not me.
The ISBN number on the barcode had been issued to me by IUniverse. Because I didn’t buy the number myself and it was provided to me by them; it meant that they were the publisher, not me. I had to own that number and it could not be bought from them. I had to buy it under my own company name or my own. But it was strongly advised that I have a company, which I didn’t have. I also found out that there were companies out there that did book covers. I had always been under the assumption that only publishing houses issued covers. It never dawned on me to look for a company to do that. Then there was the matter of finding a printer to print the books, pricing the book and marketing. None of this had ever crossed my mind, but it didn’t sound terribly difficult to do as long as I knew where to go for what I needed.
So for nearly nine hours I listened, learned, took advice and gathered as much research material as I could. Then I went back home and for several days I did homework.
The first thing I had to do was find out how to get incorporated. I was told to check out Legal Zoom where I could have incorporations done online. On the site they offered to research the name I had chosen for my company to make sure it wasn’t already taken. I chose the name Hobbcat for the company because I had used the name before as a trademark which had long since been cancelled. Once the name was approved I went through the steps of setting it up as incorporation. The entire process took only a few weeks to have done.
My next step was getting the ISBN numbers for the company. Following the directions I got from one of the panel discussions, I went to the website where I bought 25 numbers along with some barcodes. I assigned the first number to The Hooky Party then put it to the side while I went looking for a book cover designer.
Marion Designs was my choice for cover design. The experience wasn’t what I had expected. When they replied to my email about working with me, they wanted to know what I had in mind for the cover. Granted I had thought about some ideas but I figured that the company was going to just come up with ideas on their own. But they involved me in the process and I was happy to pass along some of my ideas. They even helped me to design my company logo.
Approximately one month later I had a finished cover complete with bar code, ISBN numbers and an eye catching font design. All that was left was to do was have it printed. But I didn’t immediately have a printer to work with. I knew that I wanted to print books like I did with IUniverse which was by small volume. Many printers wanted me to order and print large quantities which would mean I would have to make room in my apartment for thousands of books. Marion Designs told me about a company that did what is called Print On Demand which allowed me to order only the amount I needed. The company was called Lightning Source. Not only were they a good place for me to print but they also work with Barnes and Noble and Amazon so when my novel was finished and approved, it was listed on their sites.
Ten months after its initial completion, The Hooky Party was finally published and was the first book released under Hobbcat Publishing , Inc.
Soon after its release, I wanted to run an ad for it in The New York Amsterdam News. I was advised that instead of an ad, to have the book reviewed. I was a little apprehensive at first because a review can swing both ways. A good one would give it life. A bad one could stop it dead in its tracks. It was a 50/50 chance I had to take.
In August of that year, reviewer Glenn Townes wrote a solid review of the book which helped kick off sales. By September, The Hooky Party, made its official debut at the Brooklyn Book Fair and nearly sold out before the day was over.
Once I knew exactly what self publishing entailed, I decided I would work to bring A Gable of Faith over from IUniverse into Hobbcat’s fold. Unfortunately, a computer crash destroyed the manuscript and I was forced to start over from scratch using the novel I had in my possession. While working on that, I started putting together the finishing touches on my third book.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
A Gamble of Faith: Journey from Concept to Stage to Book- Part 1 of The Writers Journey
A Gamble of Faith was a story that was spawned from two different things; a concept story and a tragic event in my life.
The concept behind the story was originally one I created for a freshman class I was taking in college back in 1990. In that story; a gangster who had just escaped being killed by a rival, runs into the devil at a diner. There, he is forced to play the devil in a game of 21 with the prize being his soul should he win. The story was received well by my professor and my classmates alike. I liked the story so much I attempted to film it as part of a project for a class. But in my attempt to transfer it to screen, I discovered it was lacking substance. With only three characters in the entire story there wasn’t much there to build on. Telling it was easy when spoken. Visually it didn’t work. So I abandoned script, not looking at it for close to nine years. Then in 1999 I picked it back up shortly after tragedy struck my family.
On a chilly night in February of that year my mother came home to find my father, Milton, dead from a heart attack in the kitchen. I was living across town at the time and had to rush home to console her. Though I had faced death in the family many times before, losing him was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. It was completely unexpected and very confusing in that I always felt, better yet I should say believed, that he would ALWAYS be around. I remember thinking that the whole thing was some kind of surreal dream and that at any moment I would wake up and things would be the way they should be. But life went on, we buried him and no sooner was he buried did the anger inside me come to a boiling point. That anger went in one direction and I focused it on the only individual I could. The one who took him from us; God. Forget medical conditions or anything like that, I blamed God totally for this act.
I will admit I felt a bit guilty for doing that, since I knew that death was just a part of life. A moment in time everyone will eventually face. But grief doesn’t know rationality and blaming God was something that I couldn't help but do. I found myself asking that question, "Why God? Why did you take him? Why are you punishing me and my family?" I played it over and over in my mind and from my lips until one day I realized I wasn’t going to get an answer. It was something I had to accept and live with. And I wasn't the only one asking or saying that. Stepping back and seeing and hearing the rest of my family’s response to it, I realized that it wasn't a question to be guilty of asking. And though you know that there will be no answer to it, just being able to say it brought about a level of acceptance to the fact that he was gone. Still, being human, I wondered why it happened at all and I would say I was angrier that I couldn't get that answer from any source.
In the wake of things, I started cleaning up my files and found buried deep in a file cabinet “The Hood and The Devil” the original script based on that story I told almost a decade ago in college. I sat down and read it several times and when I was done I had this question gnawing at brain, "What would I say to God if he walked into a room and sat down across from me and asked me how I felt about my father passing?" At the time I was not sure why this particular story made me ask that question but it did.
Thinking back, it might have had something to do with the fact that the main character in the script “cheated” death by inches only to have his faith be tested by the devil. Could a person, in the wake of death, find the courage to carry on and change the person they are through simple faith and believing in themselves? I sat down and wrote out a series of questions and then tried to guess what God would say. I later applied some of those questions to the life of the thug in the story and discovered that they didn’t fit the characters persona. So I changed him to just an every day Joe and when I did that, I found there was a brand new story to tell with a greater amount of substance to go into it than before.
Now I never intended the story to be anything more than that; a story. A classic tale of good vs. evil set in the wake of one mans tragedy. The fact that everyone, at one point in their lives, faced loosing someone was something I knew people could relate to. And that feeling of betrayal when a person dies was defiantly something I knew people would understand. Couple that with the people around you that share that experience in their own way and Gamble was born. The risk I took was including God in the story. The idea was not to intrude on people's belief systems but rather include the one individual you would not think would show up; given the events in the story. I wasn’t trying to preach or force a point of view either. That was part of the reason God’s partner was finally included. That and he was very essential in throwing off the reader.
It took a year to turn the screenplay into a stage play. I got the idea in late 2000 after seeing a buddy of mine at the time, performing in a play he too wrote and directed. I first tried to go through the small production company that bankrolled his production. I had read on the playbill that they were looking for new stories to produce and I figured it was the best way to get my work out there. But after scheduling several meetings with the head of the company and constantly having to reschedule them at the last minute due to "conflicts" on their end, I became agitated and gave up.
But after talking to my buddy about the process and what he went through, I realized that all I needed was a good cast, a stage to rent out, some meager props and advertisement. All of these things I was familiar with from college and working on some independent film projects around the city. After having worked in the industry for ten years at that point, and coming off a run on the show Law and Order, I had connections in places where I could get the things I needed. What I didn't have a lot of, which was the key element, was money for the theater rental.
I did what so many had done before me which was take a credit card and pay for the rental of the theater. I made sure that I priced the tickets so that I could make both a small profit and pay the bills. Then I began rehearsals in the summer of 2002 for a fall release of the show.
The show opened at the Producers Club in New York City in October of 2002. Promotions for the show mostly went out to family and friends, encouraging them to bring a friend. When I first did the play it was on a double billing with the show Duppy which was the name of the show my friend Ron Haynie wrote, directed and starred in. The show did moderately well for its first two nights. While I was content that the first two shows went well, I was excited when I discovered that a pastor of a church, who was in the audience, requested that I perform the show at his church as a fundraiser.
That was the beginning of a two year run where the cast and myself performed the show for several churches around New York City as a fundraiser for them. In that time the show saw several cast changes happen followed by a revision to the show's opening sequence. That came after several audience members commented on the slow start of the show and felt it could get a bigger boost.
The show did get its share of critics. While many loved the show for its message and its uplifting tone, there were some who felt the portrayal of God was not a positive one. The fact that I had him playing poker and placing bets left a bad taste with many people. A line in the shows final sequence between God and the devil caused a bit of controversy regarding its meaning as well. I did my best to reiterate that it was a work of fiction and that it was never meant to offend but I learned that when people a married to a belief, there isn’t much you can say to sway them. So I took the punches and chalked it up as a learning experience on how to deal with critics.
There was one suggestion, however, I did get vocal about and that was the use of special effects in the show. There were some who felt I should have used special effects to highlight the devils coming and going. There was even the suggestion of adding some form of pyrotechnics and creating some sort of huge battle sequence between them. Though it was in big demand that I do that, I stuck to my guns and refused. I explained that special effects had no place in a story like this. One of the appeals of the show was the fact that the events of the story were actually happening. The audience gets pulled into the drama. The moment smoke and fire erupts, the audience becomes detached from the drama and start to focus on the next visual surprise. They would completely miss the subtleties of the actual story and that’s where the twists and turns are. I always remind people that up until the shocking revelation, no one knows what is really happening. Special effects would certainly give it away.
Gamble, as a play, did moderately well. I was content with the success of it and hadn’t really planned to much more with it until 2004. After one performance, several audience members who had seen the show multiple times, came to me and wanted to know if there was a novel version of the play which they could read and pass on to friends who missed the show. The question caught me off guard as that I had never thought about writing a book. They pointed out that there were things in the story that they would have liked to know more about and that a book would be the best way to address them. When I thought about it from that stand point, I agreed.
I spend the next three months transposing the script into a novel. It gave me the chance to add certain bits of information that I couldn’t put on stage due to both time and money. Characters like Eddie, the best friend who dies of a deadly disease, were able to have a voice and help push the story along and give new insight to the characters involved.
When the book was done and edited, I was going to shop the manuscript around to publishing houses. But I was swayed from doing that when I was told about self publishing. A college classmate of mine had self published his book and was finding success. He told me that I could control everything from how the book looked to the revenues all on my own without the worry of someone screwing me over. It did sound intriguing and safe so I took his advice.
He then put me on to a company called IUniverse, which specialized in working with self published authors in terms of getting them started with printing, covers and publishing. I went to their website and started the process of getting A Gamble of Faith published.
A Gamble of Faith was released in May 2004 and debuted at the Harlem Book Fair. The 137 page novel was graced with the cover that was originally on the playbill for the show which was done by Demetrius Bullock who also starred in the show. The book was subsequently sold at the remaining performances until the play closed in May of 2006.
Though the novel sold well at the shows, it did not sell too well in book stores. Lack of marketing caused it to be over looked by readers. As I moved forward in trying to understand how to make things better sale wise for the book, I learned a great deal more about self publishing and just what that meant to be self-published.
The concept behind the story was originally one I created for a freshman class I was taking in college back in 1990. In that story; a gangster who had just escaped being killed by a rival, runs into the devil at a diner. There, he is forced to play the devil in a game of 21 with the prize being his soul should he win. The story was received well by my professor and my classmates alike. I liked the story so much I attempted to film it as part of a project for a class. But in my attempt to transfer it to screen, I discovered it was lacking substance. With only three characters in the entire story there wasn’t much there to build on. Telling it was easy when spoken. Visually it didn’t work. So I abandoned script, not looking at it for close to nine years. Then in 1999 I picked it back up shortly after tragedy struck my family.
On a chilly night in February of that year my mother came home to find my father, Milton, dead from a heart attack in the kitchen. I was living across town at the time and had to rush home to console her. Though I had faced death in the family many times before, losing him was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. It was completely unexpected and very confusing in that I always felt, better yet I should say believed, that he would ALWAYS be around. I remember thinking that the whole thing was some kind of surreal dream and that at any moment I would wake up and things would be the way they should be. But life went on, we buried him and no sooner was he buried did the anger inside me come to a boiling point. That anger went in one direction and I focused it on the only individual I could. The one who took him from us; God. Forget medical conditions or anything like that, I blamed God totally for this act.
I will admit I felt a bit guilty for doing that, since I knew that death was just a part of life. A moment in time everyone will eventually face. But grief doesn’t know rationality and blaming God was something that I couldn't help but do. I found myself asking that question, "Why God? Why did you take him? Why are you punishing me and my family?" I played it over and over in my mind and from my lips until one day I realized I wasn’t going to get an answer. It was something I had to accept and live with. And I wasn't the only one asking or saying that. Stepping back and seeing and hearing the rest of my family’s response to it, I realized that it wasn't a question to be guilty of asking. And though you know that there will be no answer to it, just being able to say it brought about a level of acceptance to the fact that he was gone. Still, being human, I wondered why it happened at all and I would say I was angrier that I couldn't get that answer from any source.
In the wake of things, I started cleaning up my files and found buried deep in a file cabinet “The Hood and The Devil” the original script based on that story I told almost a decade ago in college. I sat down and read it several times and when I was done I had this question gnawing at brain, "What would I say to God if he walked into a room and sat down across from me and asked me how I felt about my father passing?" At the time I was not sure why this particular story made me ask that question but it did.
Thinking back, it might have had something to do with the fact that the main character in the script “cheated” death by inches only to have his faith be tested by the devil. Could a person, in the wake of death, find the courage to carry on and change the person they are through simple faith and believing in themselves? I sat down and wrote out a series of questions and then tried to guess what God would say. I later applied some of those questions to the life of the thug in the story and discovered that they didn’t fit the characters persona. So I changed him to just an every day Joe and when I did that, I found there was a brand new story to tell with a greater amount of substance to go into it than before.
Now I never intended the story to be anything more than that; a story. A classic tale of good vs. evil set in the wake of one mans tragedy. The fact that everyone, at one point in their lives, faced loosing someone was something I knew people could relate to. And that feeling of betrayal when a person dies was defiantly something I knew people would understand. Couple that with the people around you that share that experience in their own way and Gamble was born. The risk I took was including God in the story. The idea was not to intrude on people's belief systems but rather include the one individual you would not think would show up; given the events in the story. I wasn’t trying to preach or force a point of view either. That was part of the reason God’s partner was finally included. That and he was very essential in throwing off the reader.
It took a year to turn the screenplay into a stage play. I got the idea in late 2000 after seeing a buddy of mine at the time, performing in a play he too wrote and directed. I first tried to go through the small production company that bankrolled his production. I had read on the playbill that they were looking for new stories to produce and I figured it was the best way to get my work out there. But after scheduling several meetings with the head of the company and constantly having to reschedule them at the last minute due to "conflicts" on their end, I became agitated and gave up.
But after talking to my buddy about the process and what he went through, I realized that all I needed was a good cast, a stage to rent out, some meager props and advertisement. All of these things I was familiar with from college and working on some independent film projects around the city. After having worked in the industry for ten years at that point, and coming off a run on the show Law and Order, I had connections in places where I could get the things I needed. What I didn't have a lot of, which was the key element, was money for the theater rental.
I did what so many had done before me which was take a credit card and pay for the rental of the theater. I made sure that I priced the tickets so that I could make both a small profit and pay the bills. Then I began rehearsals in the summer of 2002 for a fall release of the show.
The show opened at the Producers Club in New York City in October of 2002. Promotions for the show mostly went out to family and friends, encouraging them to bring a friend. When I first did the play it was on a double billing with the show Duppy which was the name of the show my friend Ron Haynie wrote, directed and starred in. The show did moderately well for its first two nights. While I was content that the first two shows went well, I was excited when I discovered that a pastor of a church, who was in the audience, requested that I perform the show at his church as a fundraiser.
That was the beginning of a two year run where the cast and myself performed the show for several churches around New York City as a fundraiser for them. In that time the show saw several cast changes happen followed by a revision to the show's opening sequence. That came after several audience members commented on the slow start of the show and felt it could get a bigger boost.
The show did get its share of critics. While many loved the show for its message and its uplifting tone, there were some who felt the portrayal of God was not a positive one. The fact that I had him playing poker and placing bets left a bad taste with many people. A line in the shows final sequence between God and the devil caused a bit of controversy regarding its meaning as well. I did my best to reiterate that it was a work of fiction and that it was never meant to offend but I learned that when people a married to a belief, there isn’t much you can say to sway them. So I took the punches and chalked it up as a learning experience on how to deal with critics.
There was one suggestion, however, I did get vocal about and that was the use of special effects in the show. There were some who felt I should have used special effects to highlight the devils coming and going. There was even the suggestion of adding some form of pyrotechnics and creating some sort of huge battle sequence between them. Though it was in big demand that I do that, I stuck to my guns and refused. I explained that special effects had no place in a story like this. One of the appeals of the show was the fact that the events of the story were actually happening. The audience gets pulled into the drama. The moment smoke and fire erupts, the audience becomes detached from the drama and start to focus on the next visual surprise. They would completely miss the subtleties of the actual story and that’s where the twists and turns are. I always remind people that up until the shocking revelation, no one knows what is really happening. Special effects would certainly give it away.
Gamble, as a play, did moderately well. I was content with the success of it and hadn’t really planned to much more with it until 2004. After one performance, several audience members who had seen the show multiple times, came to me and wanted to know if there was a novel version of the play which they could read and pass on to friends who missed the show. The question caught me off guard as that I had never thought about writing a book. They pointed out that there were things in the story that they would have liked to know more about and that a book would be the best way to address them. When I thought about it from that stand point, I agreed.
I spend the next three months transposing the script into a novel. It gave me the chance to add certain bits of information that I couldn’t put on stage due to both time and money. Characters like Eddie, the best friend who dies of a deadly disease, were able to have a voice and help push the story along and give new insight to the characters involved.
When the book was done and edited, I was going to shop the manuscript around to publishing houses. But I was swayed from doing that when I was told about self publishing. A college classmate of mine had self published his book and was finding success. He told me that I could control everything from how the book looked to the revenues all on my own without the worry of someone screwing me over. It did sound intriguing and safe so I took his advice.
He then put me on to a company called IUniverse, which specialized in working with self published authors in terms of getting them started with printing, covers and publishing. I went to their website and started the process of getting A Gamble of Faith published.
A Gamble of Faith was released in May 2004 and debuted at the Harlem Book Fair. The 137 page novel was graced with the cover that was originally on the playbill for the show which was done by Demetrius Bullock who also starred in the show. The book was subsequently sold at the remaining performances until the play closed in May of 2006.
Though the novel sold well at the shows, it did not sell too well in book stores. Lack of marketing caused it to be over looked by readers. As I moved forward in trying to understand how to make things better sale wise for the book, I learned a great deal more about self publishing and just what that meant to be self-published.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
A GAMBLE OF FAITH BOOK SIGNING JULY 24th 8pm @ THE ASPEN LOUNGE- NYC
Hobbcat Publishing, Inc. in association with OTT Entertainment announces the signing event of the summer. Come out and meet Brooklyn based author Marc L Abbott as he signs copies of the release of another exciting novel.
A GAMBLE OF FAITH, the inspirational story that spawned the successful play, is back in an exciting novel. It's the story of one man struggling with his faith as the forces of heaven and hell converge on him at a poker game. Filled with humor, drama, and a shocking twist tha'ts sure to surprise readers, this newly revised version of Marc Abbott's classic story is a must read, not only of the summer, but of the year.
Marc L Abbott will be on hand to sign copies of this new version for a special release price. You don't want to miss out on your chance to get this new novel.
And if you missed the ANTHORRORGY signing event and have been waiting for your chance to get a copy, the wait is over! A limited quantity of Anthorrorgy will be on sale as well. You don't want to miss out on reading the novel that Glenn Townes of The Amsterdam News called "a riveting and frightening event."
So grab a friend and come on out on Friday, July 24th to the Aspen Lounge located at 30 West 22nd Street between 5th and 6th Avenue. The event is from 8pm to 10:30. Hope to see you there!!
For more information contact us at hobbcatpublishing@yahoo.com
A GAMBLE OF FAITH, the inspirational story that spawned the successful play, is back in an exciting novel. It's the story of one man struggling with his faith as the forces of heaven and hell converge on him at a poker game. Filled with humor, drama, and a shocking twist tha'ts sure to surprise readers, this newly revised version of Marc Abbott's classic story is a must read, not only of the summer, but of the year.
Marc L Abbott will be on hand to sign copies of this new version for a special release price. You don't want to miss out on your chance to get this new novel.
And if you missed the ANTHORRORGY signing event and have been waiting for your chance to get a copy, the wait is over! A limited quantity of Anthorrorgy will be on sale as well. You don't want to miss out on reading the novel that Glenn Townes of The Amsterdam News called "a riveting and frightening event."
So grab a friend and come on out on Friday, July 24th to the Aspen Lounge located at 30 West 22nd Street between 5th and 6th Avenue. The event is from 8pm to 10:30. Hope to see you there!!
For more information contact us at hobbcatpublishing@yahoo.com
Sunday, June 28, 2009
A GAMBLE OF FAITH IS BACK
Hello everyone. I just wanted to let you know that A Gamble of Faith is back! New cover, revised story and a new length, this is edition is better than the original. Keep an eye out here and on my Facebook page and also follow me on twitter under hobbcatpublish and I will let you know when it will be available for purchase through me and Barnes and Nobles. And keep an eye out for the book signing that will be in New York City in July.
Happy Reading!
Happy Reading!
Friday, November 21, 2008
Thanks for listening to the Urban Literary Review Interview
I wanted to take a moment out to thank all of you who tuned into the Urban Literary Review Interview last night. Special thank you to Martin for having me on. I really enjoyed sharing my information with everyone.
If you missed it, you can still go to their website and listen to it. www.blogtalkradio.com/urbanliteraryreview is the link. Just click on there and look for the Marc Abbott interview.
Thanks again to all of you for your support.
If you missed it, you can still go to their website and listen to it. www.blogtalkradio.com/urbanliteraryreview is the link. Just click on there and look for the Marc Abbott interview.
Thanks again to all of you for your support.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Urban Literary Review Interview Rescheduled to Thursday November 20th at 9pm
Hey Everyone,
Please be advised that the interview with the Urban Literary Review which was to take place tonight has been cancelled.
The show has been moved to Thursday November 20th at 9pm. So tune in tomorrow night at 9pm to hear me talk about my new book and Hobbcat Publishing, Inc.
www.blogtalkradio.com/urbanliteraryreview is the link for the show tomorrow night at 9pm people not near a computer can listen via the phone 347-215-8932.
Please be advised that the interview with the Urban Literary Review which was to take place tonight has been cancelled.
The show has been moved to Thursday November 20th at 9pm. So tune in tomorrow night at 9pm to hear me talk about my new book and Hobbcat Publishing, Inc.
www.blogtalkradio.com/urbanliteraryreview is the link for the show tomorrow night at 9pm people not near a computer can listen via the phone 347-215-8932.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Hobbcat Publishing, Inc. on the Urban Literary Review November 19th @ 9pm
Hi Everyone,
I'm excited to announce that I will be on talk radio tomorrow night, November 19th at 9pm. I will be on the Urban Literary Review discussing my new book, Anthorrorgy, and talking about Hobbcat Publishing Inc. as well. If you are going to be near a computer tomorrow night be sure to tune in and listen. Be sure to tell your friends and family.
Remember thats tomorrow night, November 19th starting at 9pm. Hope you tune in.
www.blogtalkradio.com/urbanliteraryreview is the link for the show tomorrow night at 9pm people not near a computer can listen via the phone 347-215-8932.
I'm excited to announce that I will be on talk radio tomorrow night, November 19th at 9pm. I will be on the Urban Literary Review discussing my new book, Anthorrorgy, and talking about Hobbcat Publishing Inc. as well. If you are going to be near a computer tomorrow night be sure to tune in and listen. Be sure to tell your friends and family.
Remember thats tomorrow night, November 19th starting at 9pm. Hope you tune in.
www.blogtalkradio.com/urbanliteraryreview is the link for the show tomorrow night at 9pm people not near a computer can listen via the phone 347-215-8932.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
ANTHORRORGY HAS ARRIVED
Hey Everyone,
I’m here to announce that beginning Wednesday November 19th my new book, Anthorrorgy, will be available for purchase.
Anthorrorgy is a collection of thirteen original stories of horror and suspense written by me. Retail price is $15.95. It will be available on my website as well as through Barnes and Noble and Borders Bookstores. You can either order it on line or go down to your local store and order it through them.
So starting Wednesday November 19th be sure to check out the website bookstore so you can place your order.
Happy reading
I’m here to announce that beginning Wednesday November 19th my new book, Anthorrorgy, will be available for purchase.
Anthorrorgy is a collection of thirteen original stories of horror and suspense written by me. Retail price is $15.95. It will be available on my website as well as through Barnes and Noble and Borders Bookstores. You can either order it on line or go down to your local store and order it through them.
So starting Wednesday November 19th be sure to check out the website bookstore so you can place your order.
Happy reading
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
ANTHORRORGY ARRIVES IN NOVEMBER!!!
The weather has gotten brisk. The days are getting shorter. Darkness is lasting longer and that can only mean one thing...my new book is almost here.
Anthorrorgy will be here in November. In the meantime, here is the brub from the back of the book.
Everyone has nightmares and Marc L. Abbott invites you to delve deep into his. Enter his world where the monsters your parents told you don’t exist actually do, and they are anxiously awaiting your arrival.
The Turbulent Voyage of Flight 722 to New York – A man infected with a deadly disease threatens the lives of airline passengers when it transforms him into something inhuman.
A Language Deciphered – A writer combines ancient languages to create a tale of dread but inadvertently summons something not of this world.
The Pheromone Incident – A sweet fragrance lures three friends into a creature’s lair where it’s determined to make them its next meal.
Vampsquito – Attempts to stop the West Nile Virus spawn a breed of mosquito whose bite turns humans into blood thirsty killers.
Five by Seven – Aliens painfully interrogate the captain of a deep space shuttle mission in a makeshift prison cell after one of their own is kidnapped by his crew.
Those are just some of the nightmares that wait you.
Welcome to the darkness.
Welcome to the Anthorrorgy.
Anthorrorgy will be here in November. In the meantime, here is the brub from the back of the book.
Everyone has nightmares and Marc L. Abbott invites you to delve deep into his. Enter his world where the monsters your parents told you don’t exist actually do, and they are anxiously awaiting your arrival.
The Turbulent Voyage of Flight 722 to New York – A man infected with a deadly disease threatens the lives of airline passengers when it transforms him into something inhuman.
A Language Deciphered – A writer combines ancient languages to create a tale of dread but inadvertently summons something not of this world.
The Pheromone Incident – A sweet fragrance lures three friends into a creature’s lair where it’s determined to make them its next meal.
Vampsquito – Attempts to stop the West Nile Virus spawn a breed of mosquito whose bite turns humans into blood thirsty killers.
Five by Seven – Aliens painfully interrogate the captain of a deep space shuttle mission in a makeshift prison cell after one of their own is kidnapped by his crew.
Those are just some of the nightmares that wait you.
Welcome to the darkness.
Welcome to the Anthorrorgy.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
The Nightmare is Almost Here
Hey Everyone,
With Halloween on itsway, its the perfect time to give you an update on my upcoming book.
It will be a collection of horror and suspense stories marking my first venture into the genre. I'm really excited about this new project. The name of the new book is called Anthorrogy (the combination of Anthology and Horror). Each story is an original one by me with wonderful cover art by artist Tarita Lopez.
If you would like to see this new cover check out the gallery page and bookstore link. For a sample of one of the stories go to the sample stories page and read Patience.
The new book is due out at the end of this month but I will keep you updated on its progress.
Until the next time....keep reading.
MLA
With Halloween on itsway, its the perfect time to give you an update on my upcoming book.
It will be a collection of horror and suspense stories marking my first venture into the genre. I'm really excited about this new project. The name of the new book is called Anthorrogy (the combination of Anthology and Horror). Each story is an original one by me with wonderful cover art by artist Tarita Lopez.
If you would like to see this new cover check out the gallery page and bookstore link. For a sample of one of the stories go to the sample stories page and read Patience.
The new book is due out at the end of this month but I will keep you updated on its progress.
Until the next time....keep reading.
MLA
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Thank You to all who came by the Hobbcat Publishing, Inc. Table
I wanted to say thank you to all of you who came by our table at the Brooklyn Book Fair this weekend. Even if you didn't purchase a book, meeting all of you was a sheer joy.
Those of you who did purchase copies of my work, I hope you are enjoying them.
Keep your eye out for my new novel coming later in October called Anthorrorgy: A collection of horror and suspense stories written by yours truly.
We will be at Boys and Girls HS on Saturday September 27th again promoting and selling our work.
Until next time, take care.
Marc L Abbott
Those of you who did purchase copies of my work, I hope you are enjoying them.
Keep your eye out for my new novel coming later in October called Anthorrorgy: A collection of horror and suspense stories written by yours truly.
We will be at Boys and Girls HS on Saturday September 27th again promoting and selling our work.
Until next time, take care.
Marc L Abbott
Monday, September 08, 2008
Hobbcat Publishing, Inc. & Author Marc L Abbott @ The Brooklyn Book Fair Sunday September 14th, 2008
Hey Everyone!
The fair is fast approaching! It will happening this coming Sunday September 14th here in Brooklyn, NY at Borough Hall. If you have never been to this event you are in for a real treat. Join hundreds of writers and publishers at this outdoor event from 10am - 6pm.
Look for Hobbcat Publishing, Inc. as we will be selling copies of my books A Gamble of Faith and The Hooky Party and join us for the announcement of my new book due out in October entitled Anthorrorgy.
For more information on the fair visit www.brooklynbookfestival.org and be sure to come on down and check us out at booth space 128.
Hope to see you there.
The fair is fast approaching! It will happening this coming Sunday September 14th here in Brooklyn, NY at Borough Hall. If you have never been to this event you are in for a real treat. Join hundreds of writers and publishers at this outdoor event from 10am - 6pm.
Look for Hobbcat Publishing, Inc. as we will be selling copies of my books A Gamble of Faith and The Hooky Party and join us for the announcement of my new book due out in October entitled Anthorrorgy.
For more information on the fair visit www.brooklynbookfestival.org and be sure to come on down and check us out at booth space 128.
Hope to see you there.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Hobbcat Publishing, Inc. & Author Marc L Abbott @ The Brooklyn Book Fair Sunday September 14th, 2008
It’s that time of year again! The Brooklyn Book Fair is coming. Sunday September 14th at Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza. Now in it’s third year, the festival it is a book lovers dream.
Last year Hobbcat Publishing, Inc. made its first appearance at the festival. We sold out of copies of my sophomore book, The Hooky Party, before the day was out. This year we hope to repeat. Come on down and visit us, get your copies of The Hooky Party and A Gamble of Faith and get information on the upcoming novel Anthorrorgy: A Collection of Horror and Suspense Stories due out this fall.
Visit www.brooklynbookfestival.org for more information on the festival. Hope to see you there!
Last year Hobbcat Publishing, Inc. made its first appearance at the festival. We sold out of copies of my sophomore book, The Hooky Party, before the day was out. This year we hope to repeat. Come on down and visit us, get your copies of The Hooky Party and A Gamble of Faith and get information on the upcoming novel Anthorrorgy: A Collection of Horror and Suspense Stories due out this fall.
Visit www.brooklynbookfestival.org for more information on the festival. Hope to see you there!
Monday, August 04, 2008
A MESSAGE FROM MARC L ABBOTT
To the Avid Reader:
In today’s market geared toward urban fiction, there are very few stories aimed toward our youth that contain a strong positive message or characters to go along with it. Amid the sex and the violence, there are no stories that seem to relate to coming of age without a grim and deadly fate waiting for them at the end. You will find just the opposite in my novel The Hooky Party.
With positive characters combined with the mischief of being a teenager, this story teaches our youth the value of taking responsibility for your actions as they make their way into adulthood. The life of a teenager involves issues with friendship, honesty and trust, the things that are important to a teenager’s life. The Hooky Party touches on these issues. The story is built on the concept of what happens when a good plan goes terribly wrong.
When two best friends plan an event which they feel will make them both popular and is well within their rights to do, they discount the possibilities of what could happen if things go wrong. Though they are both excellent students and very smart, like most teenagers they don’t believe that they will get caught nor face any consequences for their actions. Even when the plan starts to unravel, they refuse to back down and push forward.
But when they get caught, they find out that there is no one to blame but themselves. They also learn that friendship, no matter how strong, does have its limit. Even though it is easier to be a follower, the true test of one’s character is to be a leader of your own life. Should I say no to a friend? Will my decisions to go against the flow result in peer disappointment? Who do you blame when a joint decision goes bad? These are some of the questions that get answered in The Hooky Party as our characters learn valuable life lessons.
Though the setting is an urban high school, the teenagers depicted in The Hooky Party are not what you might think. While they are rambunctious, they are also intelligent students, family orientated and caring. Like all teenagers, they tackle the hardships of peer pressure, lean on friends for support and, most importantly, learn from their mistakes.
The Hooky Party is a good read for both teenagers and adults. Parents and teenagers can both relate to the story. It is sure to bring back fond memories; teenagers sometime forget that their parents were once teenagers too. The Hooky Party is a wonderful discussion piece for both.
A delightful urban story about coming of age without the dark and violent undertones consistently associated with urban life; The Hooky Party is a novel for everyone to enjoy. It will make a great addition to your home or school library. For more on this and my other works visit my website at www.hobbcatpresents.com.
Thank you
In today’s market geared toward urban fiction, there are very few stories aimed toward our youth that contain a strong positive message or characters to go along with it. Amid the sex and the violence, there are no stories that seem to relate to coming of age without a grim and deadly fate waiting for them at the end. You will find just the opposite in my novel The Hooky Party.
With positive characters combined with the mischief of being a teenager, this story teaches our youth the value of taking responsibility for your actions as they make their way into adulthood. The life of a teenager involves issues with friendship, honesty and trust, the things that are important to a teenager’s life. The Hooky Party touches on these issues. The story is built on the concept of what happens when a good plan goes terribly wrong.
When two best friends plan an event which they feel will make them both popular and is well within their rights to do, they discount the possibilities of what could happen if things go wrong. Though they are both excellent students and very smart, like most teenagers they don’t believe that they will get caught nor face any consequences for their actions. Even when the plan starts to unravel, they refuse to back down and push forward.
But when they get caught, they find out that there is no one to blame but themselves. They also learn that friendship, no matter how strong, does have its limit. Even though it is easier to be a follower, the true test of one’s character is to be a leader of your own life. Should I say no to a friend? Will my decisions to go against the flow result in peer disappointment? Who do you blame when a joint decision goes bad? These are some of the questions that get answered in The Hooky Party as our characters learn valuable life lessons.
Though the setting is an urban high school, the teenagers depicted in The Hooky Party are not what you might think. While they are rambunctious, they are also intelligent students, family orientated and caring. Like all teenagers, they tackle the hardships of peer pressure, lean on friends for support and, most importantly, learn from their mistakes.
The Hooky Party is a good read for both teenagers and adults. Parents and teenagers can both relate to the story. It is sure to bring back fond memories; teenagers sometime forget that their parents were once teenagers too. The Hooky Party is a wonderful discussion piece for both.
A delightful urban story about coming of age without the dark and violent undertones consistently associated with urban life; The Hooky Party is a novel for everyone to enjoy. It will make a great addition to your home or school library. For more on this and my other works visit my website at www.hobbcatpresents.com.
Thank you
Saturday, July 12, 2008
THE HARLEM BOOK FAIR IS ALMOST HERE! - JULY 19, 2008
The fair is almost here!
Hobbcat Publishing Inc. will be at the Harlem Book Fair on Saturday July 19th. The fair will begin at 10am and go until 6pm. I will be on hand to sign and sell copies of my two novels, A Gamble of Faith and The Hooky Party. I will also be presenting a sneak preview of my next book.
Sale Prices for the books are $12 each. There will be a combo deal available that day if you buy both books together.
Also keep a special look out for our street team who will be out and about handing out fliers and pointing the way to out table. Just look for the people in the Hobbcat Publishing t-shirts and they will tell you where we are.
The Book Fair is located along West 135th Street, Fifth Avenue to Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard. For more information go to www.qbr.com. Hope to see you all there.
Hobbcat Publishing Inc. will be at the Harlem Book Fair on Saturday July 19th. The fair will begin at 10am and go until 6pm. I will be on hand to sign and sell copies of my two novels, A Gamble of Faith and The Hooky Party. I will also be presenting a sneak preview of my next book.
Sale Prices for the books are $12 each. There will be a combo deal available that day if you buy both books together.
Also keep a special look out for our street team who will be out and about handing out fliers and pointing the way to out table. Just look for the people in the Hobbcat Publishing t-shirts and they will tell you where we are.
The Book Fair is located along West 135th Street, Fifth Avenue to Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard. For more information go to www.qbr.com. Hope to see you all there.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
HOBBCAT PUBLISHING INC. at the HARLEM BOOK FAIR 2008
Hello Everyone,
Get ready for an exciting summer in New York. Get out your pens and mark this date on your calendar; Saturday July 19th.
What’s so special about that date? I’ll tell you.
Hobbcat Publishing Inc. will be at the Harlem Book Fair on Saturday July 19th.
Come on down and join us at one of New York’s largest book fairs this summer. Meet me, Marc L Abbott, as I will be on hand to sign and sell copies of my two novels, A Gamble of Faith and The Hooky Party. I will also be presenting a sneak preview of my next book with a special unveiling of…well you just have to come down to the book fair to find out what it is.
The Book Fair is located along West 135th Street, Fifth Avenue to Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard.
I will update you with exact location of our booth as we get closer to the fair date.
Get ready for an exciting summer in New York. Get out your pens and mark this date on your calendar; Saturday July 19th.
What’s so special about that date? I’ll tell you.
Hobbcat Publishing Inc. will be at the Harlem Book Fair on Saturday July 19th.
Come on down and join us at one of New York’s largest book fairs this summer. Meet me, Marc L Abbott, as I will be on hand to sign and sell copies of my two novels, A Gamble of Faith and The Hooky Party. I will also be presenting a sneak preview of my next book with a special unveiling of…well you just have to come down to the book fair to find out what it is.
The Book Fair is located along West 135th Street, Fifth Avenue to Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard.
I will update you with exact location of our booth as we get closer to the fair date.
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