Thank You, Nettie.

I’ve been writing news articles for decades now, and books for a while, too.  I do it because it gives me satisfaction and puts food on my table, and because I don’t have the ability to do anything else–I can’t be an astronaut or a bridge-builder or a U.S. Senator, because I don’t have the skills. Yes, and I do it to feed my ego, too.   A couple of months ago, I self-published an ebook called Finnegan’s Way: The Secret Power of Doing Things Badly.  Of course, I hoped it would bring me tons of money and loads of glory.  Then, a couple of days ago, a woman in Vancouver named Nettie McClain bought the book and reviewed it on Amazon.  She said, for her, it was “a life-changing gem.”  As I read her review, I realized I don’t need tons of money and loads of glory. This is really what I want out of writing. Thank you, Nettie. 

 

 
By
Nettie McClain (Vancouver, WA USA) –
 
 
This review is from: Finnegan’s Way: The Secret Power of Doing Things Badly (Kindle Edition)

This short and sweet little fable has an amazing amount of comforting wisdom in it. I’ve struggled with the fallout from not meeting perfectionistic standards my whole life. This amazing book shows why that approach fails, and how giving myself and others the permission to do things badly works. There are a lot of books out there now about self-compassion, but this little book sums it all up perfectly, as far as I’m concerned, and it’s really entertaining and easy to read, too. I’m so grateful that I discovered it!

 


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Lots of Free Advice

Well, over a two-day promotion on Amazon, nearly 8,000 people did free downloads of FINNEGAN’S WAY: THE SECRET POWER OF DOING THINGS BADLY. The book made No. 33 overall on the Amazon free download list, and was No. 1 for long periods as the free download in the Self-Help and Motivational categories.  I got three new reviews, and I’m hoping the exposure will lead to sales at its current price of  $2.99.  Thanks, everybody!

 


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Fatale-istic: An Essay about Dan Marlowe

I’ve done an essay–actually a short biographical sketch–of the late hardboiled mystery writer Dan J. Marlowe that will appear in Fatale, a graphic novel by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips in March.  Brubaker is fascinated by the life and work of Marlowe and horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, so he has incorporated elements of those stories in the storyline of Fatale.  Brubaker was especially struck by Marlowe’s experience of loss, first losing his wife, then–in his early sixties–losing his memory, a blow to his writing career from which he never really recovered.

 


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A Novel of True Crime

I’ve finally published GRACE HUMISTON AND THE VANISHING on Amazon and Smashwords.  It’s a novel, part thriller, part adventure, about the solution of a true crime case that occurred in New York City in 1917.  I’ve also entered this novel in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest.  We’ll see how that goes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve also published a 12-page article about Grace Humiston on Amazon.  It appears as a 99-cent “ebook.”  It’s called THE CRIME LAWYER: THE TRUTH ABOUT GRACE HUMISTON.

 

 

 

 

 


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The Footsteps Die Out Forever

Got an e-mail yesterday from a man named Mark Moore, who is investigating a homicide case  that has haunted him for years: the murder of three young boys on the Gila River Indian Reservation in the summer of 1976.  The boys’ bodies were found near the railroad tracks southeast of Phoenix.  They had been stabbed to death. Mark went to grade school with Richard Chase, the oldest of the three victims. Mark contacted me because I wrote about the case about a decade ago as part of a series on Unsolved Mysteries in Arizona.  If, after all these years, any of you have any information on this case, contact Mark at markuswelby66@yahoo.com or send me a message.  I’m not sure I have my notes on the case any more.  If I do, I’ll write more about it in this blog and pass the information to Mark.  A very sad echo from the past.  Here’s the Unsolved Mystery story: http://www.azcentral.com/news/famous/articles/0520Unsolved-Boys20.html?&wired


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