I just wanted to announce real quick that if you’re an NFL fan who loves the draft, I’d love to talk to you during the draft on my YouTube channel. I’ll have a friend on with me. We’ll mostly be talking about the first round, but I’d be happy to talk about my books or writing as well.
Please stop by and say hello.
In anticipation of tonight’s festivities, we made two mock drafts each. One is what we think the teams will do. The other is what we think those teams should do.
As is usually the case with me, I’m constantly trying new things. One thing I want to try is to get my YouTube channel off the ground. This means I’m using a lot of different tools, so I had an idea.
I’m revealing the cover for Betrayed via a Google Meet video conference that will be posted on Facebook and Youtube (at the same time if I can pull it off).
I’m hoping you’ll all decide to attend.
What will I be doing?
Well naturally I’ll be doing the reveal, but here are some other thoughts:
Conversation with Carlos, the artist. My first hope is that Carlos will be available to talk about the work and his process. I’ll reveal the cover after the conversation, and anyone interested can talk to us about our work or the cover.
I also want to do a Q & A. In order to do that though, I need Q’s to A, if you follow the joke. If you’d like to help an independent author out, please post any question you’d like to ask of me in the comments below or email them to me. You can ask whatever you want, but I reserve the right to choose which questions I answer.
I plan on the event lasting 20 minutes. It will be Saturday, April 10 starting at 2 p.m. I hope you all can make it! Please comment below if you plan to be there.
Right now, this is all in the idea phase. My intention is to do between 2 and 3 videos per week. One will be general “Writing Advice;” one will be general “book talk;” and the last is bringing back a favorite. My plan is to bring back my book cover of the month. This time, I’ll be looking at covers and talking about why I think they work. I’ll create polls for people to vote in and announce the winners. This is going to demand some time, and I’ll have to see how well I manage it. But it’s something I’ve been mulling over, and I want to give it a shot. It should take less time than the original format because I’ll be highlighting seven covers each week and using those to do the polls. So the time it took me to find covers is the only time I’ll need because I’ll be doing it live.
You can get a head start by heading over to my (very puny and unproductive) YouTube channel now and subscribe (don’t forget the notification button). I actually plan to release my first set of videos starting next week. I’m probably biting off more than I can chew, but you’d all help me be motivated to keep at it by viewing, liking, and sharing the videos as they come out.
Once I finalize the general plan for the cover reveal on April 10, I’ll share the Google Meet link for you to join.
Band photo taken from Google somewhere to endorse them.
So I’m between conventions and drafts (though the alpha draft for Betrayed is almost done), that means things are a bit quiet on the Weech front. What that does is give me a chance to offer my humble support for a group of young people I think should get more attention than they currently do.
The band’s name is First to Eleven. From what I know about them, they have been together for quite a while (since 2009). They were a School of Rock group that has been doing covers since at least 2016. Here’s their 100K subscriber video.
I first stumbled into them when I heard their cover of Sunflower. I thought they were a pretty okay cover band. I didn’t think much more about it. I thought they had a lot of talent, but they hadn’t brought it together yet.
Image of Audra Miller is taken from her Twitter page for review purposes.
The lead singer, Audra Miller, is ridiculously talented. Her voice is effortlessly beautiful. In fact, a lot of the reason it took me a while to think they were ready is honestly because I think it took a while to get a vocal style and song list that challenged her. But when she’s at her best, she shows her potential to be a true star front woman. No, I’m not stating she’s the best female vocalist of all time, but I’d have no problem comparing her to Hayley Williams, who Miller is a big fan of. What I know is, I like Miller’s voice for the same reasons I like Williams’s voice. Is one better than another? People can debate that all day. Miller has the right mix of range (the number of octaves and notes she can hit) and power (how much energy she can put into her songs). If this band were to go on America’s Got Talent or some other show of that sort, I’d vote for them. If just Audra went, I’d also vote for her, but I think she’s supported by an amazing group of young me.
Image of Matt found on Google for review purposes. (Dude, it’s hard to find your picture man! you all need to update your page!)
Guitarist Matthew Yost is, without-a-doubt, the second coming of Slash. I think that highly of him. At their age (I don’t think any of them is even 20), their talent leads me to think of them the way I think of some of the great singer, guitarist combos have come about. The right agent and the right songs can easily launch this band into the stratosphere, and I what I like most is that as talented as they are together, they make one another better. Yost really is skilled. He plays rhythm guitar with an unselfish, understated reliability, but when he’s given the chance for a solo, it’s sick! Also, he’s just fun to watch jump and head-bang around. You can see he loves what he does just watching him.
This doesn’t mean that Sam isn’t a great drummer or the bassist, Ryan, isn’t good, but it’s hard to stand out when you’re a drummer or a bassist. They don’t often get solos or front stage.
The thing that held me back (and I’m still waiting to see) is that they’re a much better cover band than original band. They’ve said on social media that they are working on more original material, and I’m very interested to hear it. They have some originals out, but those songs need to be remastered, and a number of them just don’t come together the way their newer covers do. This makes sense as the more they cover and experiment, the more quickly they’ll find the sound I think will make them stars.
That’s not to say all of their originals are bad. In fact, I’m a huge fan of their song Eighteen (I’m very angry this doesn’t at least have a performance video on Youtube). I think that song is a preview of who they could be in terms of style, musical talent, and sound. In fact, I also like Carried Away.
I’ve been watching the band’s Youtube page for about a year now, and I really think you should check it out, particularly if you are a fan of Paramore.
I’m sure they’d appreciate a subscribe and a few likes on their Youtube page, and I know they’d appreciate it if you downloaded a few of their songs (covers or originals).
With little to report on the writing front, I wanted to take a few minutes to offer a genuine endorsement for a band I think has the potential to really be something. With your help, they can get their.
The B2B Cyber Convention just wrapped up. I’ve been super busy these past few days, but I wanted to take a moment to share some things (one of which was truly amazing).
The first is a story I’d like to share with you all.
I’m a creature of habit. I do my laundry on the same day. I eat at the same place every Friday. I work the same schedule every day. I like routine. The thing about routines though is you tend to have this expectation that every day, week, and moth will work out exactly the same. Most times, when there’s an interruption to my routine, I’m actually quite difficult to deal with. But sometimes, it’s just wonderful.
Every other Friday, I go to the same place to cut my hair. I eat at the same place as I do every Friday. I check to see what movies are out that I might want to see. I stop by the book store in the mall just to see what may have gotten released without my knowledge. That’s when I head over the my hair place.
This particular Friday, I arrive to find the woman who does my hair isn’t available for awhile. I don’t think much of it. I arrange a time later that evening with her. I’m about to head out to knock a few items off my to-do list when someone taps me on the shoulder.
One of the other employees caught my attention and pointed to the woman he was working with. The woman smiles and points at me.
“Aren’t you that author?”
(PAUSE)
You see, my whole life, I’ve always wanted to be, “That Author.” That identification may be on the top three list of things I want to put on my tombstone. When The Journals of Bob Drifterwas first published, my sister bought me a personalized pen. When she gave it to me, I told her it was a life dream of mine to have someone approach me and ask for my autograph.
So when Karen asked me that question, she quite literally made one of my life’s dreams come true.
(RESUME)
A picture of me and Karen after the autograph!
I don’t really remember much after that. My euphoria made it pretty hard to think straight. I said yes. She said that she’d recognized me from my book (Journals). Since I’m a regular at Rafet’s (the place I get my hair cut), I thought to plop a copy of the book there so people could read it while they wait for their haircuts. Now, that book has been there since Bob got published (two years now). Turns out, at least one person had been chipping away at it!
So we chatted for a while. She told me the book really grabbed her attention. We exchanged contact information, and, yes, I gave her an autograph. I originally gave her an autograph on a sheet of paper (which I tell my students to always have on their person). The establishment actually gave her that copy of the book, so I later signed that one and grabbed a selfie with Karen.
The world is a wonderful place sometimes. A guy can just be going about his day, and suddenly God smiles on someone. The little things are usually more special than the big. That moment will fuel my dream to be a “successful” author for quite a while.
So to those of you a little earlier in their journey than I am, I say you have to remember it’s a marathon. You have to work. It’s not an overnight thing. This isn’t the realm for instant success. But if you keep at it, and you’re consistent, you’ll get these little moments that mean so much. My sales are still right about where they normally are, but I found a fan and a new friend. If you’re reading this, Karen, I say again, Thank you!
The first cool thing was how many more authors I met. I got to hang out more with Joshua Robertson, who I met a few months ago and got to know a bit better when his book Anaerfell was up for Book Cover of the Month. I also met so many other cool authors: My internet is really acting up, so I can’t really link them all like I want. But just a few are: Heidi Angell (she’s not THAT kind of angel), Richard White, A.L. Mabry, Suzanna J. Linton (a fellow Dragonriders of Pern fan), Tim (again, my internet isn’t letting me find his last name), and Joe Compton. I PROMISE I could go on for days. I don’t know how many panels or group chats I did. What I DO know, is I’ll be adding a page to this website soon. I’ll add those videos, because they’re fun for readers, writers, and authors trying to figure out marketing.
Angela B. Chrysler and I had an idea at about the same time. I’d been trying to figure out a use for Youtube, and so she created Nerd Rage, which will be a monthly Youtube event we do. We’ll film them the last Saturday of every month. There may be a time or two we can’t all make it, but for the most part, there’ll be a handful of us just needing out about whatever topic Angela pulls out of a hat. (No, I mean that literally.) If you can’t wait for me to get around to loading what videos I’ve already been a part of, you can look at those and everything else here.
Which leads me to my last thought of the day. I’d mentioned that one of the events I was taking part in was a covers war. I’m very proud to announce that Caught won the cover war for horror and thrillers! I have to admit, I campaigned pretty hard to win. I was a big fan of my cover, and I wanted it to get recognized. It turns out, a bunch of my Facebook friends and a few of my Author/Wordpress friends (Hi JR! Hi Corey!) came to offer me support! Look, it’s basically just bragging rights, but it’s like I said, the little things make all the difference sometimes. So I wanted to end this post with a huge thank you for that support in giving that cover some love. Thank you all. Now, I have a short story to revise, another short story to write, two books to write and a series to get started on. All by 2018. So…I’m off.
I had an idea a while back. I love this blog, but the primary function of my posts are analytical in function. I love it, and I’m honestly a very analytical person, but I love geeking out too. So I figured it would be fun to create a Youtube channel designed to cater to the more “fan” side of me. That’s why I named the show FanTalk. I’ve done two episodes so far. I plan for them to be weekly episodes.
I’ll offer top 5 or top 10 episodes. I’ll talk about movies I just watched or TV episodes that caught my eye. It’s different because I’m really just having fun with it. It’s new, and there’s work to be done, but I wanted to share it with you all. Feel free to head over here and have a look. I hope you like what you see, subscribe, and comment.
Just a quick update this weekend. I hope you had a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
That’s not to say all of their originals are bad. In fact, I’m a huge fan of their song 
The B2B Cyber Convention just wrapped up. I’ve been super busy these past few days, but I wanted to take a moment to share some things (one of which was truly amazing).
That was how my weekend started! I posted on Friday about the 
Which leads me to my last thought of the day. I’d mentioned that one of the events I was taking part in was a covers war. I’m very proud to announce that 
M.L.S. Weech 