This Saturday, December 2nd, I’ll be signing books at Barnes & Noble Fullerton! I’ll be starting at 9:30AM and hanging out through the morning hours. (Or until they say "TAKE A HIKE, YOU BUM!") Come say hi, bring your book, or grab one in-store and I’ll sign it! Anyone who buys a copy can enter to win a FREE poster print of the spectacular cover art! (Originally oil painted by Jessica R. Van Hulle)
This also coincides with B&N's Educator Holiday Shop. All day, Pre-K through Grade 12 educators will receive a 25% discount throughout the store! As if you needed another reason to stop by...
In all honesty, I was gearing myself up today to dive into a post about taking care of one's mental health. It's been a pretty present topic in my life as of late. I don't feel like I have anything insightful to say, really. But a funny thing happened on the way to blogging, and I felt the burning desire to overshare something entirely different and random. Which, funny enough, kinda circled back toward mental health after all. Kinda. Bear with me.
It was 90 degrees out, but this building is constantly freezing. So at least I get to wear fall clothes part-time!
It’s pretty surreal to see it out there. In hands. On family bookshelves. Being used as infant chew toys. Even on a store shelf in London! (I’m 99.9% positive that was my friend just sneaking it on there. Still cool though.)
For anyone who ordered and has NOT received a physical copy of the book yet, please keep an eye on your emails. You should have received a shipping confirmation from Inkshares with a tracking number. If you haven’t received your order, or if you have only received part of your order (for those who bought multiple copies), I would recommend getting in touch with the team at orders@inkshares.com. They are friendly and quick to reply!
The digital copies are now also available to download! You should have seen an email come in this week titled "The Dax Harrison ebook is ready!" If not, you can always download your copy from your digital bookshelf at Inkshares.com. (Click your profile picture at the top right of the screen and select Bookshelf from the menu)
One last thing! Regarding signatures. Yes, backers who pre-ordered and helped fund Dax Harrison were originally promised a book signed by yours truly. Unfortunately, that part of the deal was canceled on the publisher side sometime last year. As I understand, it's pretty costly to ship a ton of books out, let alone shipping them twice. So sending them to me first for signatures just wasn't feasible.
That said, if you reside anywhere near my stomping grounds (in southern California), I would be MORE THAN HAPPY to sign your book! Shoot me a message and we'll make it happen. Also, stay tuned, as I'll be working on some local book signing events and eventually setting up shop at a convention or two.
A lot has happened since the last time I attempted to dust off this old blog. I've started and stopped it multiple times over the years, wrote some nonsense, abandoned it, returned to write more nonsense such as, "no really, I'm really going to blog regularly this time", only to abandon it again...
I am an abuser of blogs. I don't deserve you, blog. Forgive me.
Now I may not write here every day or every week even, but I do aim to throw a little something out there into the universe on the semi-regular. Why? A couple reasons.
A) Because my long-gestating book, DAX HARRISON, will be officially published in two weeks on Halloween! And seeing as I am now expected to be even remotely considered as a PROFESSIONAL PUBLISHED AUTHOR PERSON (I hope you read that aloud in a cartoonishly epic voice), I figure I should have an ongoing author blog. To keep my readers updated on said book, more books/projects to come, and related events such as signings at book stores, appearances, etc.
B) As my podcast is now on indefinite hiatus, I occasionally find myself with the burning itch to blab at great length about movies, TV, books, video games, music, fitness, random amusing thoughts in my head, motivational advice I find, motivational advice I ignore, how much I love my wife, how much I annoy my wife, what life is like in the soon-to-be Mad Max wasteland of southern California, and so on. All of that may be entirely unsuited for a "Professional Author Blog™". I have no idea. I'm making this up as I go. But if all of that sounds groovy to you, stay tuned.
The heavy lifting is done, and now my book is in the hands of a small army of beta readers. Ok, maybe around 7 or 8 people. 10 tops. I honestly don't remember how many I sent it out to exactly. A handful of author friends, an old friend/English major/freelance editor, a couple personal friends, and a family member. As I can't afford professional editing services, their opinions and reviews will help me polish (or spit-shine, your preference) this thing into something hopefully awesome.
I'm patiently waiting to hear back now. So far, I've had two brief and very similar responses:
"I loved it. I'll send you a detailed review later today."
"I'm almost done! I have notes but I'm loving it so far!"
People keep adding me on LinkedIn lately. I practically forgot my account existed (much like Google+). So to properly present myself to the masses, I ask...
Is there any professional way to state the following: "Despite my resume, including the tech job, education, and proven skills based on said job and education, I'm really only in this industry to pay the bills. In fact, what I really give a damn about is writing stories, making music and occasionally acting when the opportunity presents"
If anyone can come up with some professional jargon to convey that, I'll happily update my profile. :)
Off the top of my head, this following is probably a much more accurate snapshot of who I am, though I don't think much of it applies to a profile, let alone a LinkedIn profile:
Name: Antonio, but my friends call me Tony
Address: Where I put my stuff
Phone/Contact: I get enough spam callers, thank you
Education/Experience: Mostly self-educated
"What do you mean by that?"
Well, officially I spent 4 years in high school, a couple years after that in community college figuring out how to make a living (but mostly trying and failing to date women), and about 8 months at a tech school where I earned an Associate's degree in Computer Networking, graduating Cum Laude with a 3.8 GPA. I would've graduated with a perfect 4.0, but I became severely bored with some busy work assignments (never had the patience for those) and didn't turn them in.
Beyond that, I've been watching and analyzing movies since I was 5 years old, leading me to pursue acting, filmmaking and the art of storytelling in general. Became somewhat of a high school musical theater star along the way, taught myself some photo/video basics, filmed and edited home movies and sketches with friends, taught myself Adobe Premiere and Photoshop, taught myself to play guitar and piano (planning on starting violin this year, because why not?), wrote songs and performed in coffee shops for awhile, wrote a rock opera (which remains about 90% completed and yet to be recorded), made some money for awhile doing wedding photography and videography, acted in a few small student short films, wrote a full-length feature screenplay, decided to turn it into a novel, secured funding to publish it as a novel, and am currently finishing the manuscript so it can be edited, marketed, and finally published as a novel. Planning to get back to acting and music eventually (at the very least, complete the unfinished music projects before they drive me insane), but now that I already have ideas for novel #2, it may be awhile. Basically, I've made an unofficial career out of creativity, which has landed me little to no profit. However, with the amount of experience under my belt, I consider "creativity" more of my professional industry rather than my real day job.
Career Goals:
Officially, continuing in the technical field and exploring opportunities for advancement
Unofficially, being whatever monkey pushing buttons I need to be to continue making a living, so I can pursue my real passions on my off-time, survive in modern society and not spend life on the street begging for food. Don't get me wrong, I take pride in being the best monkey pushing buttons I can be. But, not because I care one iota about TPS reports. I will continue working in said button-pushing occupations until one day (hopefully) I can transition into earning a livable income on my creative pursuits alone.
Sidenote: I can't tell you how many times I've been told that I not only resemble but also have similar mannerisms as Ron Livingston.
There. That's a much more accurate resume of my professional experience, goals and skill sets.
