A grainy photograph but the personality comes through nevertheless.
Happy Tuesday, everyone!
Month: October 2014
“Help! My family hates my pen name!”: The Response
Wonderful Readers! You have proven yourselves to be some of the wisest and most thoughtful people I “know.”
Yesterday I posted a comment from a Wonderful Reader struggling with her family’s objection to her pen name. She had an interesting twist on the issue – and your comments were amazing. For everyone who’s arriving late to the conversation, you can read the original post and the comments here.
I’ll post the resolution soon. But first, I thought I’d post my original response. This was my effort before I had the benefit of your feedback: Continue reading
What if your family hates your pen name? A request for advice!
A very interesting question came in from a Wonderful Reader:
I have a question. My pen name is my grandmother’s name. It took a long time and a lot of thought to chose that name, but now various members of the family (grandchildren and great-grandchildren of all things — she’s been dead for over 60 years and I never knew her) are offended that I’m publishing, even daring to blog in her name. Should I change to make them all happy? Should I write only “nice” things under that name? I’d love to know how you came to your name and what you think.
(She agreed to let me post this on the main page to ask a wider audience for help, though she’s asked to remain anonymous.)
Readers, what do you think? Anyone face anything similar? How did you resolve it? What happened to your relationships with your family? With your writing? With your sense of self?
And even if it didn’t happen to you, what do you think of this? Dead for over 60 years? On the other hand, who “owns” a name? And who are we to hurt people, even if inadvertently? And what does a writer do if they can only write “nice” things?
A very fascinating set of issues here. Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!
It’s the Jacke Wilson Show! Episode 1.1 – The Halloween Episode
Here we go! Episode 1 of THE JACKE WILSON SHOW, an effort that has been seriously hindered by my complete lack of any knowledge about how any of this works. I had a lot of fun! And it’s yet another disaster! Ah well. Someone needs to take these tools away from me. (Or not! Who am I, Laura Miller, angry at the barbarians at the gate? Even the plebes deserve a few toys, don’t they? And a voice? They get to have their say, don’t they? Don’t they?)
Ahem.
Readers, I could use your help! Like I said, I have no idea how any of this works. Take a listen, and let me know what you think! Does it sound okay on your player? In your headphones? Honestly, I did my best. I hope you enjoy it!
Download the mp3 file: The Jacke Wilson Show 1.1 – The Halloween Episode.
Show Notes:
It’s the JACKE WILSON SHOW!
On this week’s show: lusty lizards in space, Leo Tolstoy, a lost scene from Macbeth, a new play for Bryan Cranston and Kate Winslet, Homer Simpson sings a Christmas Carol, a revised Edgar Allan Poe (with even MORE spookiness), and A History of Jacke Wilson in 100 Objects #13 – The Monster. Enjoy!
JACKE WILSON is the pen name of a writer whose books have been described as being “full of intrigue and expertly rendered deadpan comedy.” Born in Wisconsin, Jacke has since lived in Chicago, Bologna, Taiwan, Ann Arbor, Seattle, Mountain View, and New York City. Jacke now lives and works in the Washington D.C. area. Like his writings, the JACKE WILSON SHOW takes an affectionate look at the absurdities in literature, art, philosophy, great books, poetry, current events, hard news, politics, whatever passes for civilization these days, and the human condition (that dying animal). For more about Jacke and his books, visit Jacke at jackewilson.com.
Credits:
- Danse Macabre Hook, Greta Sting, Fanfare for Space, Return of Lazarus by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 - Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
- The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, adapted by Marjorie P. Katz, read by Jacke Wilson Jr.
- The Lost Scene of Macbeth, Lusty Lizards (excerpts), and A History of Jacke in 100 Objects #13 – The Monster by Jacke Wilson
Update: Giveaway Over!
Five lucky winners will get their copies shipped today. Congratulations!
One Day Left! Free Books Almost Gone!
Quick note to remind you that the Goodreads Giveaway is almost finished.
Goodreads Book Giveaway
And when it’s finished? What then? Well, I suppose it’s back to you and me, reader. Amazon does have a discount on the books. The blog is always free. And review copies are still available. We’ll manage!
Goodreads Giveaway: Politicians Are Human Beings. Maybe.
Hello everyone! Some of you may recall the last time I did a Goodreads Giveaway, where I shipped off five free copies of The Promotion. I think it’s fairly common to recap these things, with a mathematical analysis of how many people requested the book, how many reviews it led to, what the impact was on sales, and finally some conclusions about lessons learned. Far be it from me to prevent information from reaching you, my loyal readers! So with apologies for the delay, here’s the list of conclusions I reached from the first Goodreads Giveaway:
Writers Laughing: Gertrude Stein
Stein was stern. Photo after photo, the same expression. Dour. Fierce. Almost combative.
But that’s not good enough for us, is it? We like laughing writers!
And… here we go!
Yes! Of course! The little dog on her lap (or maybe it’s the one up by her head)? One of them is making her laugh!
And here’s a bonus photo. Not quite a laugh, but…
That happy face is certainly thanks to the baby. WHO IS JACK HEMINGWAY. Ernie’s boy.
What a great day. Love Gertrude. Love her even more when she’s laughing. Happy Monday, people!
“Another Well-Written Novella”: Five Stars for The Promotion!
Here we go! Another great review of my book The Promotion, this time by the awesome More Books Than Shoes. And what a nice way for me to celebrate my Sunday. She enjoyed it!
The Promotion is the second novella I’ve read by the talented Jacke Wilson, and I didn’t think it was possible but I actually enjoyed it more than ‘The Race’
Wow! And there’s this picture – The Promotion on her Kindle:
As is so often the case, the reviewer writes a description as good as any that I myself can come up with:
It follows the story of a lawyer who is tasked with the job of recruiting new attorneys to join the firm he works for. From the get go we can see he’s not having the best of times. His wife who became addicted to gambling has left him and his work life isn’t much better. The new job role gives him a sense of purpose, or passion, to try and encourage people to join the business, only after a few odd lunches with two other colleagues Jennifer and Martin, he can’t help but feel that things aren’t going too well.
He becomes obsessed with a woman named Mina Meinl and soon it is all he can think about, almost like one last hurrah, if he can solve the mystery of her, his life will improve. But underlying all of this is the story of someone who has lost his or her way in the world. I’ve seen some people describe this mans decline into madness, but what I got was the slow, subtle cracks of someone falling into a depression.
There’s more too. Head over to More Books Than Shoes to read the whole thing. And here’s the capper:
Another well-written novella, with many layers of thought threaded throughout. If you want something that you can read fairly quickly and keep you intrigued, this is the perfect book for you.
Star Rating out of 5: 5
How wonderful. I’ll be smiling all day. My thanks to More Books Than Shoes for a perfect way to kick off my October. Onward and upward, people!
Are you a reviewer? Do you like free books? Just let me know you’re interested and I’ll happily send you a copy.
Writers Laughing: George Orwell
Okay, the degree of difficulty is off the charts for this one. This is a man who agonized over politics and the English language. Who loved England and democracy but spent his life fighting against oppression and tyranny and the dangers of lazy thinking.
Laughing? George Orwell was shot in the throat while fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Come on, Jacke. You really think you can find a picture of him laughing?
Well, here we go:
Laughing! Right? Okay, maybe it’s no Ray Bradbury…his life was harder, and…
Wait…you don’t believe me? You think that’s just a smile? What are you accusing me of, reader? You think I’m trying to sneak one past you?
Reader, we have a good thing going! Don’t you trust me?
Fine, fine. I’ll give you my evidence. That picture above is taken from THIS picture: Continue reading
Jacke Wilson 