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At Least There Are a Lot of Guns in It

Meanwhile, over at Jen’s Book Thoughts, the eponymous Jen just said some nice things about The New Men:

Much of the well-researched history was fascinating; not your average history class facts… I felt as though I was learning about a whole world I never knew before…

While The New Man isn’t written as a suspense novel, there is a strong tension in the plot as colleague turns on colleague…

I found The New Men to be an enlightening read and would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the auto industry and/or early Twentieth Century American history.

Extra thanks to Jen for forgiving The New Men for not being a mystery novel featuring a pistol-packing woman in stilettos and stockings. In hindsight, I pretty much blew it on that one.

I’m Blushing — Patricia’s Wisdom on The New Men

Patricia’s Wisdom says,

THE NEW MEN is very well written, and I believe the writer captured lots of the feelings people were experiencing … What an amazing time period to be a part of and living within, and the author has mixed the facts and the fiction in just the right portions to tell a terrific story.  I could not put the book down.  After the first hours read, I was hooked and so did the next read in 6 hours straight into the next day!   THE NEW MEN is that good.

Missris Says Kind Things

 

About The New Men, Missris says this:

It’s not exactly a light beach read, but rather a closer look into a social experiment by the Ford Motor Company that most people don’t know much about. It also raises interesting questions about the role of a company in the lives of its workers, which is something that definitely still has relevance today, whether or not we realize it. … Overall, I found the book interesting and well-researched.

Still, there goes my promo idea to offer sunscreen and a Model T beach towel with every copy.

More Kind Words — Life Is Story

Jen Roman said these nice things about The New Men on Life Is Story:

Filled with historical notes and an interesting storyline, The New Men educates readers while entertaining … I thoroughly enjoyed this story of a fictional family living as a real one might during the start of America’s industrial age, and I am sure others who have similar interests will find it as engaging as I did.

Thanks, Jen!

Why Hello, Brazil!

Okay, so this blog gets visitors like Rodney Dangerfield got respect. And, unsurprisingly, those few readers it does get almost all access it from within the US.

But for whatever reason, the second most represented nation by a notable margin is (or at least seems to be) Brazil. And this has been true since before the World Cup, so it’s not as if I’m simply starting to get visits from people who suddenly find themselves in need of guidance on how to be an underdog.

So I’m curious. Is this some sort of VPN artifact? Is there some Brazilian Danny McGrath giving a lot of thought to whether I’ve earned a spot on his kill list? (If so, sorry, Danninho!) Something else altogether?

Yeah, Steven Hawking looks at the heavens and wonders; I look at my blog’s stats page and do the same. There’s a lesson in there, I’m sure.

 

UPDATE: As of Aug. 6, 2014 the overwhelming majority of page views (90.3%) is still from the US. But Brazil remains the strong second (5.1%), well ahead of the rest of the pack (third place has a mere 0.7%). My operatives continue their investigations.

Bibliotica Says Kind Things

As you know, The New Men has begun a coast-to-coast blog tour. Since it’s currently taking a break to sip Dom Pérignon at 30,000 feet in the Corinthian leather seats of its G6 (and is far too lazy to deal with mundane tasks like bogging anyway), it falls to me to let you know that it’s earning its perks so far.

The first blog tour review is in, and it’s a very kind one from Melissa at Bibliotica:

From the opening notes … to the very last page, I was never bored. In fact, it would be fair to say that I was riveted, because I read this book last weekend, cover to cover, in one night…

Sometimes gritty, sometimes poignant – often at the same time – The New Men is a period piece that manages to comment on contemporary culture without feeling as if it’s doing so…

Blog Tour

The New Men will be doing a blog tour this August.

Apparently, this doesn’t involve my doing anything other than occasionally remarking to people that it’s happening and pretending to understand what it entails.

It seems to boil down to the fact that my novel has a more active intellectual and social life than I do. I wish I could at least feel surprised by that.

Details closer to August (and/or upon greater comprehension).

 

 

 

Begging So Urbane it Could Pass for a Simple Request

If you haven’t yet read The New Men, make sure you do so once you’re out of the hospital and before you have to go back.

(And, no, I’m never going to get tired of that stupid joke.)

If you have read the novel, please consider writing a customer review, especially on Amazon. Especially if you liked it, but even if you found it kinda meh. I’m belatedly learning that, for a variety of reasons, customer reviews are hugely important for books released by small presses.

Just a few sentences is all it takes–and there’s no need to get fancy. Just say what you would have wanted to know about the book when you were deciding whether or not to invest your time and money in it.

Obviously, this is a highly self-serving post on my part. But I do want to stress that this applies well beyond my own little novel. If you’re reading a book from a small press and you like it or the press, the few extra minutes you spend writing a review will be genuinely helpful. Far more helpful than the same time spent reviewing a book from a big press.

Think about it like being one of the first people to review a new, local restaurant on Yelp. People in the neighborhood have no idea what to expect when the place first opens up, so if the early reviews are good, people will give it a shot and the restaurant has a chance to take off. If there are no reviews or if there are only three brutal ones, that restaurant could be dead in the water.  In contrast, reviews #362-371 of a twenty-year-old Olive Garden probably aren’t going to move the dial much in either direction. Nobody reads #367 and yells out, “Hey, Dave. Dave! Did you know Olive Garden has bread sticks? Fornicate me sideways–bread sticks!!! We are totally going tonight, dude.”

 

 

The New Men Goodreads Giveaway!

So if you’re not swayed by the overwhelming consensus of the medical community that buying lots and lots of copies of The New Men will make you immortal AND the considered opinion of sociological experts that your doing so is the only thing that can save me from a lifetime of loneliness (a long, immortal lifetime), then, okay, you hard-bargaining so-and-so, maybe you should sign up for a chance to get a copy for free…

WAYZGOOSE PRESS IS GIVING AWAY COPIES ON GOODREADS!

If you have a Goodreads account, all you have to do is a click a button to be entered for a chance at a free copy. (If you don’t have an account, it looks like you have to sign up, which is free.)

You’ll have to scroll down a bit until you get to this part of the screen:

Screen Shot 2014-06-23 at 10.54.50 AM

 

Buy Lots and Lots of Copies of The New Men

Because doing so is probably good for your health somehow. I mean, I don’t have any evidence to that effect, but it stands to reason.

Also, as always, I’m having a hard time meeting women. But my new instructor at the Tony Montana Academy for the American Dream explained to me how selling a lot of copies of my book would turn all that around.

So, there you go, you could get healthy, read America’s Next Top Novel (featuring the divine Miss J.*), and save me from dying alone. Or not. Your call. Whatever seems right.

 

* – Not actually featuring Miss J.