THE AUTHOR’S ADVOCATE
The DPP Authors’ Newsletter
EDITION III
November 21, 2005
REMINDER: If you haven’t sent me your book’s copyright date yet, please send it to me ASAP to DigitalPulp Pub@aol.com. Thanks, Nicky
"A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness…It finds the thought and the thought finds the words."
Robert Frost
YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST MARKETING REP!
It’s important who you meet- after all, if you meet forty or fifty people, the one person who will produce your first film [or publish your book] might just be there.
-Martin Scorsese
You Never Know Who You May Meet at Thanksgiving Dinner…
Or over the holiday weekend (even if you don’t live in the U.S., or you don’t partake in celebratingThanksgiving)…And, if you meet no one new, well, then you haven’t lost any opportunities either! Take a break from thinking about marketing and know that at least one of your books is assured to be marketed by DPP! Also…
Marketing Tips are Moving…
To the DigitalPulp Blog: http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/ (beginning the week of November 28). The Tip Headline will be listed on all of our subsequent newsletters with the DigitalPulp Blog link. We are making room in the newsletter for a new format- Oh, boy! Oh, boy!
FEATURED AUTHOR-Of-THE-MONTH…
Author! Author!
I am pleased to announce that, from here-on-out, we will be featuring a DPP author once a month in the Authors’ Advocate. This new format will allow for each of us to get a glimpse into each of our authors’ work and how they work, and perhaps, how and from where they get their inspiration. I am always curious, and often inspired, by hearing other writers’ thoughts on why they write and how they write. I hope that this new addition to the newsletter does the same for you.
Patrick Stafford
PASSION!
Many words are often used to describe the creative process. Perspiration, inspiration, hard work and misery are a few! Frustration, drudgery and obsession also come to mind. But for me personally, no word better encompasses the whole process than the word passion.
Passion is a process unto itself. It entails developing, having and feeling the strong desire and unquenchable thirst for accomplishing something--for setting a goal and believing in it with every fiber of your being. And pursuing it until completion. No matter how arduous the journey, how difficult the challenge or how many obstacles are encountered along the way, if one is truly passionate in his beliefs and passionately determined to succeed, he will.
The passionate writer writes passionately. It's as simple as that. And the story he has to tell he is passionate about telling. There are of course many essential tools to the trade and craft of writing. But none more important, in my humble opinion, than passion. For even before a writer sets about writing his passionate tale he must be passionate about thoroughly learning the tools and skills of his trade. A dispassionate effort at formal or self-education will invariably render a dispassionate result. And its byproducts: disappointment, rejection and failure, can also be expected.
For years I had a passion to write about the Vietnam War. My passion began the very first time I termed it a war and not a "conflict" as popular media has too long called it. For a war was fought in Asia. Warring armies engaged in bitter and violent combat, and awesome weapons of destruction were employed. And thousands were maimed and slain and left destitute. So from the passion of my own personal experience and that of so many who served during the Vietnam War I was impassioned to write Asian Darkness. The process was a long one and rife with many disappointments and challenges. But never was I discouraged from completing my writing goal nor ever dispassionate about the purpose of my writing. It all began with the following poem:
MY SON
The DPP Authors’ Newsletter
EDITION III
November 21, 2005
REMINDER: If you haven’t sent me your book’s copyright date yet, please send it to me ASAP to DigitalPulp Pub@aol.com. Thanks, Nicky
"A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness…It finds the thought and the thought finds the words."
Robert Frost
YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST MARKETING REP!
It’s important who you meet- after all, if you meet forty or fifty people, the one person who will produce your first film [or publish your book] might just be there.
-Martin Scorsese
You Never Know Who You May Meet at Thanksgiving Dinner…
Or over the holiday weekend (even if you don’t live in the U.S., or you don’t partake in celebratingThanksgiving)…And, if you meet no one new, well, then you haven’t lost any opportunities either! Take a break from thinking about marketing and know that at least one of your books is assured to be marketed by DPP! Also…
Marketing Tips are Moving…
To the DigitalPulp Blog: http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/ (beginning the week of November 28). The Tip Headline will be listed on all of our subsequent newsletters with the DigitalPulp Blog link. We are making room in the newsletter for a new format- Oh, boy! Oh, boy!
FEATURED AUTHOR-Of-THE-MONTH…
Author! Author!
I am pleased to announce that, from here-on-out, we will be featuring a DPP author once a month in the Authors’ Advocate. This new format will allow for each of us to get a glimpse into each of our authors’ work and how they work, and perhaps, how and from where they get their inspiration. I am always curious, and often inspired, by hearing other writers’ thoughts on why they write and how they write. I hope that this new addition to the newsletter does the same for you.
Patrick Stafford
PASSION!
Many words are often used to describe the creative process. Perspiration, inspiration, hard work and misery are a few! Frustration, drudgery and obsession also come to mind. But for me personally, no word better encompasses the whole process than the word passion.
Passion is a process unto itself. It entails developing, having and feeling the strong desire and unquenchable thirst for accomplishing something--for setting a goal and believing in it with every fiber of your being. And pursuing it until completion. No matter how arduous the journey, how difficult the challenge or how many obstacles are encountered along the way, if one is truly passionate in his beliefs and passionately determined to succeed, he will.
The passionate writer writes passionately. It's as simple as that. And the story he has to tell he is passionate about telling. There are of course many essential tools to the trade and craft of writing. But none more important, in my humble opinion, than passion. For even before a writer sets about writing his passionate tale he must be passionate about thoroughly learning the tools and skills of his trade. A dispassionate effort at formal or self-education will invariably render a dispassionate result. And its byproducts: disappointment, rejection and failure, can also be expected.
For years I had a passion to write about the Vietnam War. My passion began the very first time I termed it a war and not a "conflict" as popular media has too long called it. For a war was fought in Asia. Warring armies engaged in bitter and violent combat, and awesome weapons of destruction were employed. And thousands were maimed and slain and left destitute. So from the passion of my own personal experience and that of so many who served during the Vietnam War I was impassioned to write Asian Darkness. The process was a long one and rife with many disappointments and challenges. But never was I discouraged from completing my writing goal nor ever dispassionate about the purpose of my writing. It all began with the following poem:
MY SON
They stole him from me to send him off to war, And there he stayed to fight and die till it was done. It's bad when governments steal sons from you, And he was my son. They said this war had to be fought And that it was for a just and noble cause. So, since I was patriotic and voted for them, I stood by their laws. But it always seems to be the young who go And against whom the scales of death are swung. It's bad when governments send young men off to die, And my son was young. For what matters to them of a million deaths When war is the tender of life they promote? You can be sure when their reelection comes up, They won't get my vote! For the enemy is now my chosen leader, The enemy called peace that all governments abhor! And you can be sure they won't get any more of my sons, Till they end all war.
Oh they may think they can get away with murder And do any damn thing they feel must be done, But they won't take what I love away from me again, And I loved my son.
From this first entry as a war poet my passion guided and directed me to pen 99 other poems to complement and complete my journey through the jungles and badlands of South and North Vietnam. Along the way I found that I had also inscribed a tribute to warriors in general and to all the military men and women who fought and bled in Southeast Asia. Asian Darkness is a salute to them as well as a commentary upon almost every conceivable subject that the Vietnam War gave birth to. Moreover, my book is a salutation to every writer who has ever taken pen and paper to create from scratch a work of art or commentary. And did so through the process of true inspiration and tireless passion!
Patrick P. Stafford is a resident of Grants Pass, Oregon and resides there with his novelist father, Elsan Stafford. Patrick has written for AccessLife.com, IQ Magazine, Neighborhood America, Amateur Chef Magazine, Careerbay.com and Healthcare Traveler, and has sold poems, articles and editorial pieces to both online and print publications over the past 30 years. He recently had a book of poetry published online at the Writer’s Closet and a poetic tome dedicated to Princess Diana published in print in 2002.
PUBLISHER’S PROMPT
Another New Addition
For me, sometimes getting started is one of the most difficult tasks of my craft. As writers, we must continually start over and over. If I waited for pure inspiration to take hold, I might sit for a very long time in front of a blank computer screen. Writing prompts have been a useful tool for me to just get something on the page. They have allowed me to free myself of the destination and to simply enjoy the journey. They have prompted new thoughts, feelings, and ideas that I didn’t even know I had. And they sometimes just give me a jolt to sit down and write and get me going so that I can fully give myself to whatever piece I am currently working on- to just get to it or to approach it from another angle, a new perspective.
Each week, I will highlight a prompt in the newsletter. You can use it or not use it. If you decide to play with the prompt, and you’d like to share it, please send it to me (DigitalPulp Pub@aol.com) and I will post it in the following week’s Authors’ Advocate.
Writing Prompt
Use the following prompt(taken from Judy Reeve’s A Creative Writer’s Kit) however you like: Returning takes too long
WHAT’S GOING ON AT DPP…
Home Sweet Home
Our move is complete! We are a proud, happy, busy-working company with a fantastic office space to boot! We are located in bustling (as bustling as you can get in the desert) downtown Palm Springs! Come visit and have your choice of coffee shops to write in and be inspired! (I’ll send you our new address and phone number in a separate e-mail)
Happy Thanksgiving
Short week, Short newsletter!
Will leave you with some quotes to feast upon…
Got no checkbooks, got no banks. Still, I’d like to express my thanks- I got the sun in the mornin’ and the moon at night – Irving Berlin
O Lord that lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.” – William Shakespeare
God gave us our relatives; thank God we can choose our friends. – Ethel Watts Mumford
Write on,
Nicky
Oh they may think they can get away with murder And do any damn thing they feel must be done, But they won't take what I love away from me again, And I loved my son.
From this first entry as a war poet my passion guided and directed me to pen 99 other poems to complement and complete my journey through the jungles and badlands of South and North Vietnam. Along the way I found that I had also inscribed a tribute to warriors in general and to all the military men and women who fought and bled in Southeast Asia. Asian Darkness is a salute to them as well as a commentary upon almost every conceivable subject that the Vietnam War gave birth to. Moreover, my book is a salutation to every writer who has ever taken pen and paper to create from scratch a work of art or commentary. And did so through the process of true inspiration and tireless passion!
Patrick P. Stafford is a resident of Grants Pass, Oregon and resides there with his novelist father, Elsan Stafford. Patrick has written for AccessLife.com, IQ Magazine, Neighborhood America, Amateur Chef Magazine, Careerbay.com and Healthcare Traveler, and has sold poems, articles and editorial pieces to both online and print publications over the past 30 years. He recently had a book of poetry published online at the Writer’s Closet and a poetic tome dedicated to Princess Diana published in print in 2002.
PUBLISHER’S PROMPT
Another New Addition
For me, sometimes getting started is one of the most difficult tasks of my craft. As writers, we must continually start over and over. If I waited for pure inspiration to take hold, I might sit for a very long time in front of a blank computer screen. Writing prompts have been a useful tool for me to just get something on the page. They have allowed me to free myself of the destination and to simply enjoy the journey. They have prompted new thoughts, feelings, and ideas that I didn’t even know I had. And they sometimes just give me a jolt to sit down and write and get me going so that I can fully give myself to whatever piece I am currently working on- to just get to it or to approach it from another angle, a new perspective.
Each week, I will highlight a prompt in the newsletter. You can use it or not use it. If you decide to play with the prompt, and you’d like to share it, please send it to me (DigitalPulp Pub@aol.com) and I will post it in the following week’s Authors’ Advocate.
Writing Prompt
Use the following prompt(taken from Judy Reeve’s A Creative Writer’s Kit) however you like: Returning takes too long
WHAT’S GOING ON AT DPP…
Home Sweet Home
Our move is complete! We are a proud, happy, busy-working company with a fantastic office space to boot! We are located in bustling (as bustling as you can get in the desert) downtown Palm Springs! Come visit and have your choice of coffee shops to write in and be inspired! (I’ll send you our new address and phone number in a separate e-mail)
Happy Thanksgiving
Short week, Short newsletter!
Will leave you with some quotes to feast upon…
Got no checkbooks, got no banks. Still, I’d like to express my thanks- I got the sun in the mornin’ and the moon at night – Irving Berlin
O Lord that lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.” – William Shakespeare
God gave us our relatives; thank God we can choose our friends. – Ethel Watts Mumford
Write on,
Nicky
