I wanted to do something special for my thirty-sixth birthday. Something to really celebrate turning a new page in my life. This is, after all, the first birthday I've had as a published author! On top of that, I'm only about three weeks from being married to the person who inspired me to finish my first novel, so this is definitely an exciting time in my life!
So, in the spirit of "me", today I have the pleasure of hosting Mr Benjamin X Wretlind, author of the newly released "Sketches from the Spanish Mustang", as well as the best book I've read this year, "Castles: A Fictional Memoir of a Girl with Scissors". And when I say it's the best book I've read this year, I mean it. And I've read a LOT of books. He's an incredibly talented writer with a phenomenally powerful voice. If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you stop WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING and go here IMMEDIATELY! And while you're at if, pick up a copy of his new release, "Sketches from the Spanish Mustang." I'm sure you'll be a fan, too!
So, in the spirit of new chapters(har, har), I give you Benjamin X Wretlind!
First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jason! It's not often you get do a blog tour, and even rarer to get to post on someone's blog on their birthday!
One of my favorite songs by the modern Big Band group Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is called "What's Next?" Everytime I hear that phrase, I think of the song, and the title of this post has me singing it to myself.
If you haven't heard, Sketches from the Spanish Mustang was released early on 6/27 (thanks to Amazon and Barnes and Noble) and I'm running away to fresher air since my little town of Colorado Springs is on fire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1zrKLYaqtY
Even though that's not much of a video to look at (did you look at it?), it's got a catchy tune. So, you have to be wondering now . . . what's next?
Sketches from the Spanish Mustang is out the door, and I'm moving on. I have about 3,212 different ideas that are constantly floating around my brain waiting to be snagged by the writing spirit. Rather than focus on all 3,212, however, I've narrowed it down to two.
First up will be a rewrite of the first novel I ever wrote, a magical realism piece that I feel deserves a bit of an epic feel to it. A Difficult Mirror should be ready to go in the Winter, and whether that means December or February, I can't say just yet.
Here's the "blurbage" for the novel:
The novel is also, I should say, the first of three.
As I rewrite and rework A Difficult Mirror, I'm also going to be writing a literary thriller, currently titled Driving the Spike.
As I have it plotted out, the novel follows the lives of three brothers who each go their separate paths but come back together in a marriage of opposing forces for a common cause. It's a novel that's spent a long time in that "thinking" part of my brain, and if you read yesterday's post about theme, you'll may have a feeling that I have something to say. I'm not a political person, though, so don't think this is really going to be partisan or petty.
It's going to be . . . awesome. Driving the Spike will make you think, and that's what I love to do.
That's pretty much the next year in a nutshell. I do have other tasks to accomplish, of course. The marketing of Sketches from the Spanish Mustang and my first released novel Castles: A Fictional Memoir of a Girl with Scissors. I'm also going to work with Jason here on a different approach to the Indie world, one that will focus on quality. We'll both have more to say on that subject soon enough.
Until tomorrow, when I announce the winner of the autographed copy of Sketches from the Spanish Mustang and the $50 Amazon.com gift card . . . .
Thank you all!
BIOGRAPHY
Benjamin X. Wretlind, the author of Castles: A Fictional Memoir of a Girl with Scissors and Sketches from the Spanish Mustang, has been called "a Pulitzer-caliber writer" with "a unique American voice." Aside from novels, he has been published in many magazines throughout the past 10 years.
SKETCHES FROM THE SPANISH MUSTANG
In Sketches from the Spanish Mustang, a haunting, heart-warming and often brutally direct exploration of the lives of seven people in the mining town of Cripple Creek, Colorado, a woman must come to grips with the failings that cost the lives of her husband and child. Bestselling author Michael K. Rose says: "Mr. Wretlind has penned a tale of such emotional and literary depth it will haunt the reader long after the last page is turned."
So, in the spirit of "me", today I have the pleasure of hosting Mr Benjamin X Wretlind, author of the newly released "Sketches from the Spanish Mustang", as well as the best book I've read this year, "Castles: A Fictional Memoir of a Girl with Scissors". And when I say it's the best book I've read this year, I mean it. And I've read a LOT of books. He's an incredibly talented writer with a phenomenally powerful voice. If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you stop WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING and go here IMMEDIATELY! And while you're at if, pick up a copy of his new release, "Sketches from the Spanish Mustang." I'm sure you'll be a fan, too!
So, in the spirit of new chapters(har, har), I give you Benjamin X Wretlind!
First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jason! It's not often you get do a blog tour, and even rarer to get to post on someone's blog on their birthday!
One of my favorite songs by the modern Big Band group Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is called "What's Next?" Everytime I hear that phrase, I think of the song, and the title of this post has me singing it to myself.
If you haven't heard, Sketches from the Spanish Mustang was released early on 6/27 (thanks to Amazon and Barnes and Noble) and I'm running away to fresher air since my little town of Colorado Springs is on fire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1zrKLYaqtY
Even though that's not much of a video to look at (did you look at it?), it's got a catchy tune. So, you have to be wondering now . . . what's next?
Sketches from the Spanish Mustang is out the door, and I'm moving on. I have about 3,212 different ideas that are constantly floating around my brain waiting to be snagged by the writing spirit. Rather than focus on all 3,212, however, I've narrowed it down to two.
First up will be a rewrite of the first novel I ever wrote, a magical realism piece that I feel deserves a bit of an epic feel to it. A Difficult Mirror should be ready to go in the Winter, and whether that means December or February, I can't say just yet.
Here's the "blurbage" for the novel:
All too often, the most difficult thing to look at is the mirror in front of you. While it’s easy to just walk away, Harlan Reese and Marie Matthews quickly find that option isn’t available. Four travelers lost in a strange land face a past that has become a painful reality. Four-year-old Justine is lost to the world, and there are forces that would rather it stay that way. When Marie meets a strange man on a deserted road and a body is found mutilated in the desert, a deep resentment teeters on the edge of release. Someone drew a line in the sand, and when Harlan, Marie’s ex-lover, walks into a forest in central Arizona looking for his daughter, that line will be crossed. In a world between Heaven and Hell, their journey across an unforgiving land to find the way home with Justine by their side is wrought with pain and triumph. A Difficult Mirror is a novel for anyone who has faced their own mirror and conquered their fears. It is a story of resentment, failure and love woven together in a fantastical world too close to our own.
The novel is also, I should say, the first of three.
As I rewrite and rework A Difficult Mirror, I'm also going to be writing a literary thriller, currently titled Driving the Spike.
As I have it plotted out, the novel follows the lives of three brothers who each go their separate paths but come back together in a marriage of opposing forces for a common cause. It's a novel that's spent a long time in that "thinking" part of my brain, and if you read yesterday's post about theme, you'll may have a feeling that I have something to say. I'm not a political person, though, so don't think this is really going to be partisan or petty.
It's going to be . . . awesome. Driving the Spike will make you think, and that's what I love to do.
That's pretty much the next year in a nutshell. I do have other tasks to accomplish, of course. The marketing of Sketches from the Spanish Mustang and my first released novel Castles: A Fictional Memoir of a Girl with Scissors. I'm also going to work with Jason here on a different approach to the Indie world, one that will focus on quality. We'll both have more to say on that subject soon enough.
Until tomorrow, when I announce the winner of the autographed copy of Sketches from the Spanish Mustang and the $50 Amazon.com gift card . . . .
Thank you all!
BIOGRAPHY
Benjamin X. Wretlind, the author of Castles: A Fictional Memoir of a Girl with Scissors and Sketches from the Spanish Mustang, has been called "a Pulitzer-caliber writer" with "a unique American voice." Aside from novels, he has been published in many magazines throughout the past 10 years.
SKETCHES FROM THE SPANISH MUSTANG
In Sketches from the Spanish Mustang, a haunting, heart-warming and often brutally direct exploration of the lives of seven people in the mining town of Cripple Creek, Colorado, a woman must come to grips with the failings that cost the lives of her husband and child. Bestselling author Michael K. Rose says: "Mr. Wretlind has penned a tale of such emotional and literary depth it will haunt the reader long after the last page is turned."
