Luddy says "hello cult" 2.0--Full Frontal

Check it out darling, you're also a dentist!
[url]http://www.mc.uky.edu/Cohr/Karen_Novak.htm[/url]

this is also karen novak (linked b/c it's too big)

[url]http://www.loscuernos.com/Karen%20Novak%20111404.jpg[/url]

[QUOTE=Vendetta]Check it out darling, you're also a dentist!
[url]http://www.mc.uky.edu/Cohr/Karen_Novak.htm[/url][/QUOTE]

And a photographer!

[url]http://www.karennovakphotography.com/[/url]

Welcome again Miss Novak.

This is very awesome. I will have to check out your work when I have the time and I'm not stuck in crapistan.

[url]http://www.bloomsbury.com/Authors/microsite.asp?id=159&section=2&aid=0[/url]

Foundcha!

At Amazon you can read the first chapters or first few pages of the books.

*gasp* A published author posts on The Cult!

This is cool. Are you in the Workshop? You should be.

You can also put it down on your writer's profile over at the workshop.
You shouldn't hide in the closet too long, it is good to share stories with you.

Dzudzu has read Five Mile House and I will be once I finish Chinese Takeout (Nersesian)

anywhoo... She dug it, but she never posts around here much. props to you, Karen, she's a picky reader.

I read Five Mile House!

Really good stuff. It's a different style than what I normally read, but I definitely enjoyed it.

I've gotta get around to the other ones!

Finally got drunk enough to check in. I'm a dentist? Do I get tools and crap like that? Do I get access to laughing gas? I know all the words to the song from Little Shop of Horrors. Now....spit!

I am also a real estate agent in Utica, NY. I know that because I tried to register karennovak.com.

Back to the closet...

Thanks for being nice to the naked and shy.

Oh, Luddy,

You're one of us now. What you do in your real life makes no matter anymore.

[QUOTE=rkdaley]Oh, Luddy,

You're one of us now. What you do in your real life makes no matter anymore.[/QUOTE]

Oh. my. I have to go cry.

Been part of many emotional blackmail schemes. Never been part of an "us."

No, really. Gotta go cry now.

[QUOTE=Luddy Dunn]Oh. my. I have to go cry.

Been part of many emotional blackmail schemes. Never been part of an "us."

No, really. Gotta go cry now.[/QUOTE]
dont cry, karen.
you really are one of "us" though. for whatever that means.
hey anyway, whats the deal with luddy dunn?

i just want to say how disappointed i am in the total [b]LACK[/b] of full frontal nudity in this thread, like i was led to believe
shit!

Snuffy can you please stop deleting posts all the time, it's very annoying. No, I did not link to the photo in the previous post; it was another picture.

[QUOTE=stoyan]Snuffy can you please stop deleting posts all the time, it's very annoying. No, I did not link to the photo in the previous post; it was another picture.[/QUOTE]

sure thing :rolleyes:

He's just doing his mod-ly duty.
Like the way he keeps talking about the workshops in his post.

"Hi! Welcome...do you use the workshops? No!? Well get your head out of your ass!!"

[QUOTE=karbunkle]i just want to say how disappointed i am in the total [b]LACK[/b] of full frontal nudity in this thread, like i was led to believe
shit![/QUOTE]

Trust me to paraphrase, Mrs. Brit-Twit Federline: "You can't handle my truth." Pray for that poor child about to be born Chaotic.

[B]Atomos[/B], Luddy is the name of a character in a project I had started after the Estonia wake-up and smell reality call. Part of Luddy's deal is she loves mind-fuck movies. So I rented a bunch of mind-fuck DVD's; Fight Club among them. Fell in love with the film. Found the site. Fell in love with the people here.

[QUOTE=stoyan][url]http://www.bloomsbury.com/Authors/microsite.asp?id=159&section=2&aid=0[/url]

Foundcha![/QUOTE]

That makes me "It." I'll count to 100. Run and hide!

But first, thanks for finding me....

[QUOTE=snuffy]*gasp* A published author posts on The Cult!

This is cool. Are you in the Workshop? You should be. :)[/QUOTE]

I love the workshop. Read a lot of stories, just no time yet to write up the reviews that would be useful to the writer. Scads of talent around this place. Serious scads. I signed up because of the scads. Scads is going to be my official word of the day.

Kare, you came out of the closet. Oh, I could cry. No, really. I'm about to. Very nice. Also, I finally sent off your package the other day, the other day being yesterday, because Im slow and somewhat dim. Er, maybe it was the day before yesterday; you know, slow and dim... I was outta town

Hey, Yaw: my favs so far:

[url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1582344353/officchuckpalaha?dev-t=D3FHEEBA8BTJZL%26camp=2025%26link_code=sp1][b]Innocence[/b][/url] [img]http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1582344353.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg[/img]

[url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1582342911/officchuckpalaha?dev-t=D3FHEEBA8BTJZL%26camp=2025%26link_code=sp1][b]Ordinary Monsters[/b][/url] [img]http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1582342911.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg[/img], which releases in softcover June 30th.

Yeah, yaw, this Novak chick, she's a cool Cultist, and a damned good writer !

kabol, j.n.
Cultist

I'm not coming in here anymore without a box of tissues and a mop.

But I'm coming in to keep tabs on my career....Ordinary Monsters is coming out in paper? June 30th? No one tells me [I]anything[/I].

Holy crap, they weren't going to do that because sales of OM bombed big time bad.

Which means, shit, the books must be selling. I may see a royalty check yet.

Brother J, thank you for the kind notices and you know, keeping me up to date on stuff.

Artist Karen,

Go away. You have a novel to finish

[QUOTE=JKabol]

Hey, Yaw: my favs so far:

[url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1582344353/officchuckpalaha?dev-t=D3FHEEBA8BTJZL%26camp=2025%26link_code=sp1][b]Innocence[/b][/url] [img]http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1582344353.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg[/img]
[/QUOTE]
guess what someone else bought today based soley on this thread !

[QUOTE=JKabol][img]http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1582342911.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg[/img], which releases in softcover June 30th.[/QUOTE]

Man, that cover is hellagood.

[QUOTE=Mr. Brown]Man, that cover is hellagood.[/QUOTE]
i was gonna get them both but the bastards didnt have it
bleh !

Nice. Hella cool.

[QUOTE=rkdaley]Oh, Luddy,

You're one of us now. What you do in your real life makes no matter anymore.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Luddy Dunn]Oh. my. I have to go cry.

Been part of many emotional blackmail schemes. Never been part of an "us."

No, really. Gotta go cry now.[/QUOTE]

Okay Luddy, or Karen, whichever you prefer, you knew when you joined the Cult that there is no exit. People have been known to be ejected from the Cult, but no one is allowed to just up and leave.

In any case, I don't know why you'd be embarrassed at having books published by actual book publishers. I haven’t gotten to read any of them yet, but you’re light years ahead of most of us in the Workshop.

[QUOTE=Chixulub]In any case, I don't know why you'd be embarrassed at having books published by actual book publishers. I haven’t gotten to read any of them yet, but you’re light years ahead of most of us in the Workshop.[/QUOTE]

I know, the cult is like Hotel California with more Sartre and less cheesy So-Cal soft rock--but much better booze and terrific mattresses. As far as the reasons for being embarrassed? It's a more general affliction of response that if I could corral it in story form might make for apt addition to [I]Haunted[/I]. Let's just leave it at that.

But y'all do know how to make a socially inept wall-flower feel welcome at the dance. Just remember that when I go all Elaine Benes on you....

I bought Five Mile House about a week ago off Amazon. Looking forward to reading it.

[QUOTE=sacredchao23]I bought Five Mile House about a week ago off Amazon. Looking forward to reading it.[/QUOTE]

Thank you.

Just want to go on record saying that the novel I am working on right now, fixes all the parts I hated in the previous ones. Five Mile included. You'll know what parts I'm talking about. Apologies in advance.

[QUOTE=Luddy Dunn]Thank you.

Just want to go on record saying that the novel I am working on right now, fixes all the parts I hated in the previous ones. Five Mile included. You'll know what parts I'm talking about. Apologies in advance.[/QUOTE]

For my own part, I've started to write novels since at least age 12 (not counting 'The Three Turtles' ®1973 by Rod McBride, all rights reserved and all that crap).

Typically I get two or three chapters, maybe more and I start to think, 'this is the stupidest book in the history of the English language.' And I walk away.

It's only in recent years that I've broken that pattern at all. The 'Wealth Effects' stuff I've workshopped here is just part of various rewrites to a novel I've been working on in earnest for over three years. And I'm honestly embarrassed at how flawed it is for three years+ of work.

And even after I get it polished up enough to feel like I can approach agents and indie houses with a straight face, even if it gets published, I'm sure it will pain me to know it's out there. With all the things that should have been done better.

I've got notes/sketches for a dozen or so others that have popped up since I started 'Wealth Effects,' stories I've forced to the back burner because if I sidetracked to them, I'd just be repeating the pattern and I'd never come back and finish 'Wealth Effects.'

And next time I've got money for books & CDs, your stuff is on the list. The covers/titles apear to be outside what typically ends up in my basket, but I'm about half way through Alice Sebold's 'The Lovely Bones' and I'm enjoying it. And if I was to judge by the cover, I would have passed it up.

My wish list is always longer than my budget, but I'm also always excited to find a new author I enjoy. Before Sebold I had pleasant surprises in Stephen Graham Jones and Peter Temple. I know Craig Clevenger said of Dan Brown's book that you CAN judge it by its cover, but looking through my library, I see some fine books with cover designs that not only suck, they're misleading.

In fact, I think the 'Haunted' cover is awful. It implies a 'Yellow Wallpaper' feel that is NOT what is betweent he cover. If it was a debut novel, the cover would probably encourage all the wrong buyers and discourage all the receptive readers. And Max Barry's publisher blames the cover art on the hard back of 'Syrup' for its initial lackluster sales, but the trade paperback cover is the pits. I went out on eBay and sought out a hardback with the good art that supposedly sunk it.

And you ought to be able to judge a book by its cover. That's my opinion, based on my career in the graphic arts. There's some great books with covers that fit, and it should be the norm given the resources large publishrs have: 'Mason & Dixon' by Thomas Pynchon,' 'Torture the Arist' by Joey Goebel, 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People' by Toby Young all have great combos.

Then there's the worst crime of all, a book that is lacking, but has a killer cover. 'Lummox' by Mike Magnusson falls in this category. When I read it, I kept thinking it had terrible pacing and plot flaws for a novel. Then it ends up reading as a memoir, but according to its LOC info, it's fiction. As a memoir, it's probably on a par with Chris Offutt's 'The Same River Twice,' which I enjoyed. As a novel, 'Lummox' doesn't make me want to explore more Mike Magnusson.

God, I'm off topic. And I need to get back to work. Anyway, Luddy/Karen, I look forward to exploring your stuff. And if I can get back into the flow of the Workshops, I look forward to trading brutally honest criticism of our works in progress. I used to wonder, where does an author who's got books out go for that give and take? I think the reason guys like Thomas Harris and John Grisham tend to lead with their best work is that once they've got commercial success, they DON'T get the feedback they need. It's a rare breed who can continue to be hard on themselves in the face of big royalty checks.

For that matter, just getting published is such an ego boost (I imagine) for most aspiring novelists, it probably poses a barrier. The fact that you're self-conscious about your previous books would seem to indicate that you worked your ass off on them but feel like you can do better. To me, that's the sign of a genuine artist. There is no end zone.

everyone oughta at least try to improve on what has come before

i think chuck hisself has gone on record saying he cant stand to read fight club anymore for all the flaws and whatnot he sees in it

everyones personal flaws and imperfections are just another way to describe 'style'

Or you can go for the James Joyce approach that mistakes are part of the music. He felt even his typos were inspired and should not be corrected but honored as part of the art. And that explains [I]Finnegan's Wake[/I].

Being accepted for publication of your first novel does feel fantastic, as though your hard work and devotion is finally going to pay off. Not wealth and fame, but modest success and respect. Then you find out being published is only winning permission to buy the lottery ticket. Nothing much is going to change--except that other people will now think of you as a "real" writer. Which still fucking pisses me off. If you are writing and putting it out there and working to get better because being anything less than the best writer you can be would be the ultimate definition of failing--then you are a freaking real writer. The funny thing is after the second or third book, publishing gets kind of dull. The job end of the fun stuff. A way to pay the light bill and the cult dues. I have gotten more satisfaction from the time I've spent hanging out and working around here than I've ever experienced at a reading or signing or any of that ordeal that goes into selling the book.

Even better is that I can detect authentic growth in my skills and my discernment since meeting up with you people. Growth feels better than any other aspect of the process. Getting published is not going to make me a better writer. As you say Rod, success tends to have everyone making less demands on you. I would hope that if y'all caught me being lazy in print that I would get my ass kicked all the way to cult headquarters and back again. That doesn't mean a writer should not take the big risk and maybe take the big fall because of it, but dang....laziness is an insult to your readers; that is unforgiveable.

I agree with you absolutely about the cover selling the book. Unfortunately my sales have yet to give me the clout to have any voice on my covers. Cover art and the first page: get a reader that far in, and you've probably sold the book.

The level of generosity and committment around here is both astonishing and rare. Workshops depend on the miracle of chemistry, and that miracle hit here big time.

I'll have to check out your Wealth Effects elements posted around here. For what it may be worth, that write two or three chapters and then give up and start another two or three chapters? That is how novels get written. Usually takes me 8 to 10 false starts before I find the real beginning, but I can't get there without writing my way to it via the false starts--which I can usually plunder for material later in the book. No such thing as wasted writing.

[QUOTE=Luddy Dunn]I agree with you absolutely about the cover selling the book. Unfortunately my sales have yet to give me the clout to have any voice on my covers. Cover art and the first page: get a reader that far in, and you've probably sold the book.[/QUOTE]

This is my rule when buying new books at full price. I pick it up 'cause of the cover and the title (if I don't know the author). Then I smell it, though brand-spankin'-new books don't smekk as good. Then I start reading the first page in the store and if I wanna flip over to page two, that's it, I'm getting the sucka.

This started with Don DeLillo's UNDERWORLD. "He speaks in your voice, American..."

I think Anne Rice should have poste din here like Luddy Dunn did!

[QUOTE=Mr. Brown]This is my rule when buying new books at full price. I pick it up 'cause of the cover and the title (if I don't know the author). Then I smell it...[/QUOTE]Crazy; I mean, I thought I was crazy; when I picked up David Benioff's new book, a collection of short stories (oh so many months ago), I was semi-excited, then smelled it, and it smelled like shit--literally, I swear (the paper or something)--so I passed on it, because I had other books that I was needing. But, I almost bought it. And, I swear, the smell detered me just the enough amount for me to pass at the time. Like I said, Crazy, as in I thought I was the only crazy one :cool:

UbikRex sent me a book once that smelled really bad. I can't read it because of the smell man. I have to wear a paper mask and gloves or something.

How's the short stories by Benioff? I really liked his 25TH HOUR.

[QUOTE=Mr. Brown]UbikRex sent me a book once that smelled really bad. I can't read it because of the smell man. I have to wear a paper mask and gloves or something.[/QUOTE]

spray it with some of that new fragrance by Geroge Carlin "L'eau D'Homme"

[QUOTE=Mr. Brown]
How's the short stories by Benioff? I really liked his 25TH HOUR.[/QUOTE]I dont know; the pages smelled

Ill pick it up sometime this year, though, Im sure. then, ill maybe remember to tell ya
kabol