Author: authorwilliamcook

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About authorwilliamcook

I grew up on the east coast, where I attended two Catholic seminaries before getting my Master's Degree in Social Work at the State University of New York at Albany. I moved to Oregon in 1989, continuing my career as a mental health therapist. I am now retired and I divide my time between babysitting for my 15 grandchildren and writing.

New Book Release

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The Kindle version of my new book is now available on Amazon for pre-order. Here’s the link: Seal of Secrets. It will be published on December 9, and the paperback version should be available around the same time.

I’m very happy with the cover. Local artist Margaret S. Tsang gave me permission to use her original watercolor “Yaquina Sunrise.” I recommend you check out her other works, some of which are hanging (and for sale) in the Artists’ Studio Association in Lincoln City.

Here’s the back cover blurb: “There is something strange about Jack Wallace, the man Chloe Denhurst has hired to do odd jobs around her house. He never talks about himself, never mentions a family or friends. She sees sorrow in his eyes, and something else, something sinister. When his past comes back to haunt him, Chloe’s own life and the life of her daughter are put in jeopardy. As the mystery deepens, Chloe gets pulled into a vortex of deception and murder.”

I confess that my goal in writing this mystery/suspense novel was to create the literary equivalent of a bag of potato chips. Just as you can’t eat only one chip, my hope is that you can’t read only one chapter. (“I know I have to make supper, have to finish this project, have to go to bed–but I have to read one more chapter first!”) One of the beta readers of the original manuscript wrote back to me, “This plot has more twists and turns than a corkscrew about to open a dusty bottle of a very fine wine!”

I can only hope you feel the same way.

Movie Review: Arrival

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Be assured, this review contains no spoilers. I went to see Arrival yesterday and I’m still thinking about it. It is a cinematic work of art masquerading as a cerebral, hard-core sci-fi film. What it’s not is an action-packed special effects extravaganza aimed at a teenage audience. (Although I confess that I love those movies, too!) You may not park your brain at the door with this one. Its slow, deliberate pace may at first be a little disappointing, but it is ultimately a very rewarding film. I was so moved by the end that I couldn’t talk about it when I returned home to my wife. It’s that kind of movie. It examines language and communication, the  nature of time, love and death, and the dynamics of interpersonal and international conflict. Yep, it’s a big mouthful. Although I love the comic book movies, it is refreshing to be challenged by what true science fiction can be. This is intelligent film-making at its best, demanding that we look at our own lives differently. It is both timely and timeless. And if there is justice in the world, Amy Adams will be nominated for an Oscar as Best Actress.

Winterizing

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Yesterday I completed winterizing the outside of my house. All the patio furniture are now stacked and stowed away. The fountain pump for the small water feature has been silenced for another season. The hoses are drained and coiled like skinny pythons in the tool shed. Insulated covers like plastic breasts protect the faucets from the coming cold.

I wonder if I’m winterizing my soul as well. That lush extravagance of summer is gone, replaced by a spartan attitude more appropriate to frosts and soon-to-be leafless trees. I await the gray rains and the day-long twilights, the signal to turn within, to mine the mind and spirit for the treasures laid up last summer as provisions against December storms.

Winter is the time to meditate. To sit before a fireplace with a glass of port and a good book. To share a beer with a friend in a cozy tavern while the wind howls and the rain pours down. To take in a movie and chatter about it afterward on the car ride home .

It’s a good time to take stock of the year galloping to its close. Have I loved enough, if there is such a thing as “enough” when it comes to love? Have I convinced my wife of my affection for her in my words and my deeds? Have I been attentive to my children and grandchildren, celebrating their successes and comforting their hurts? Have I been appreciative of my days and nights, so I can say without hesitation that I have not squandered the time allotted to me?

People have myriad ways for marking the passage of time. For me, it’s winterizing. On this Election Day 2016, I hope we aren’t facing a Narnia-like winter that lasts for years.

I haven’t winterized sufficiently for that.

A Book Review of “Earth Crosser” by Lewis MacLeod

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“Genius Software Engineer Bertram Koslosky, aged thirty-eight years, would probably have missed his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to destroy the planet if he had not had a gob of vanilla doughnut icing stuck to his thumb.”

So begins the always funny, sometimes laugh-out-loud hilarious, story of a brilliant and quirky group of eccentrics who decide to bring down to earth a mineral-laden asteroid and become trillionaires.

The cast of characters includes Bertie, Mal, and Meebs–disgruntled geeks of Pro Con Enterprises; Jessica “Casabas” Moonflower–“Entry Level Receptionist and Telephone Message Mangler” of said corporation; Valeria Tamoritskaya–low level data screener for the Russian Ministry for International Technical Uniformity (read: for industrial spying); and Sister Brigid Patroness (a.k.a. Naked Bree)–former member of the Death to Serpents! cult in the Arizona desert.

These Asteroid Associates are on a mission which will make them all astonishingly wealthy or destroy all life on planet earth.

MacLeod has done it again. Following close on the heels of his funny and acerbic history of World War II in The Brawler, Earth Crosser presents his send-up of corporate America, industrial espionage, politics, and religion. The writing is fast-paced and the story is wildly unpredictable. I can’t remember laughing so hard reading a book since Dave Barry’s The Lunatics.

My only cautionary note: be careful where you read it. Laughing out loud in the food court at PDX drew some very suspicious glances from fellow travelers.

Check out MacLeod’s extensive bibliography on Amazon. Click here to read a free sample of Earth Crosser.

 

 

Beta Reading and Editing

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I was introduced to the idea of using “beta readers” through the Northwest Independent Writers Association and Willamette Writers. Essentially, you request someone whose judgement you trust to read your manuscript and give you honest feedback about it. In a way, it’s a kind of informal editing, and usually it’s not something you pay for. Most often, it doesn’t look to format editing (punctuation, spelling, grammar), so much as developmental issues (Does the story work?). It helps when you focus your beta reader’s attention on specific questions, such as:

Is my story arc sound? Does it ring true? Did it hold your attention throughout or did it lag in places? Did it build as it should have? Was there a good hook at the beginning, a solid middle, and a satisfying ending?

Are there holes in the plot? Logical inconsistencies? Problems with time frames?

Are my characters believable? Do the descriptions of them work?

Do the conversations sound like the way people really talk?

Obviously, you’re asking a lot of your friend and she has to feel that you want honesty, not affirmations. Be prepared to have some wind let out of your sails. When your beta reader tells you that your favorite chapter is a dud, it can hurt.

So be kind to your beta reader. Don’t hand him a first draft. Hand him a second draft, after you have already spent time reworking and polishing your manuscript.

Do you believe everything a beta reader tells you? Obviously not, but beware of “the forest for the trees syndrome.” You may be too close to your “baby” to really make an accurate assessment. Your beta reader came in from the cold, refreshed, without preconceptions, without all the internal dialogue that’s been keeping you up at night. Listen to her. Take her opinions seriously. The success of your book may depend upon it.

In the end, all my colleagues recommend hiring a professional editor for the final product. That can be very expensive, but I have yet to hear anyone tell me it wasn’t worth it.

First blog post

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I am happy to be writing my first blog on my new website, which may not yet have all the wrinkles ironed out of it. I have just received the second draft of my new novel Seal of Secrets back from my beta reader with many very insightful criticisms. Work on the third draft will start soon. I’m guessing I may be ready to publish within the next few months, depending on how busy the holidays get.

Meanwhile, I have two upcoming signing events that I’m looking forward to. The first will be at the Salem Public Library’s Authorama on Saturday November 12, from 1:00-4:00PM. It promises to be a lot of fun with about 40 independent authors in attendance. Please come and join us. The second will be at OryCon at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront, the weekend of November 18-20. I will be there Saturday N0vember 19. This will be particularly exciting for me since it will be the launch weekend for this year’s short story anthology from the Northwest Independent Writers Association. The book is called Artifact and my newest short story, “The Paleographer,” will be published in it. If you’ve never been to a convention like this, you might want to take a look. It has nowhere near the scope of ComiCon in San Diego, but it can be a real hoot nonetheless. The costumes can be knockouts.

I will try to flex my blogging muscles over the next few weeks to talk about other indie authors, new books of interest, and even some movie reviews. Thanks to all of you for your support.