It's Christmas in July and we're running a sale on my ebooks! The Nick Files are 99 cents each! Halloweenies is 99 cents! Novel Concept is FREE! Check it all out at my Author Page on Amazon!www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00A4NSMBC
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From 1999 to 2004-ish, I was one of the contributing writers for Garrison Keillor's renowned radio show "A Prairie Home Companion." I learned a lot of things there, mostly how to spell 'prairie." It was a solid gig and I'm proud of my work there. But, like any other job, there were...things...  Breaking the timeline here to go with the holidays. Easter's coming up and as it turns out, I didn't write a lot of Easter themed material. I guess it never pulled me in the way Christmas and Halloween do. But doing this deep dive into my old work, I brought up this thing that I had written and frankly had forgotten about. That prompted me to do a PC search and I pulled up one or two other bits. Again, I had forgotten this sketch. It's an odd little bit. I see I was doing a PETA parody, though I'm not sure what triggered it. Then I have that very solemn animal speech in the middle. Don't know where that came out of. And I'm guessing I the term "vegan" hadn't been coined yet, based on one line. I may have been inspired by a Looney Tunes cartoon, where Elmer Fudd is hunting the Easter Bunny and the Easter Bunny tricks Bugs Bunny into completing the route. We'll post it under the commercial...  With a holiday coming up, it's time to plug a book! Sure, it's got nothing to do with Easter, but what are you gonna do? It's "Novel Concept" the epic comedy adventure about a young, aspiring author who learns about all the unknowable things when you're writing what you know. Laughs, thrills and adventure all in one book? That's a Novel Concept! It's available on Amazon! Get your copy today! And your friend's copy tomorrow! P.A.U.L.A.I've been looking back on my adventure in Hollywood, culling pages from my journal...  So, as it turns out, my big reason for joining the WGA Activities committee, to get a workshop going, was misdirected at best. I was on the wrong committee. Another committee, the Programs committee, would do something like that.
So, “Novel Concept” got its first review from an Amazon customer. It was an amazingly positive review. My first reaction was…relief. Someone “got” the book. They enjoyed the book. This person is a complete stranger to me. I don’t really try to get friends and family to buy my stuff. That’s not why I do it. My goal is to get strangers to buy it. You can’t make a living from your mom and dad buying your output (my constant FB postings on the matter notwithstanding).
Sure, my other books got some pretty solid reviews but there was something about this one. He approached like a real critique. He compared me to some of my favorite writers. In fact, as he referred to me by my last name in the review, I got excited because that’s how reviewers refer to real authors in their reviews (I wonder if I would have been as thrilled by the procedurals if the review had been bad?). I posted and tweeted this review out to the world, ad nauseam. Will it help? I’d like to think so. It validates what I was writing. It means someone other than me enjoyed the tale. Now, the trick; getting a second person to jump on the bandwagon… Thanks Dr. Pat. With the release of my latest book, Novel Concept, I had the urge to explain myself, I mean, examine the creative process and how this story came to be (see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4).
With the release of my latest book, Novel Concept, I had the urge to explain myself, I mean, examine the creative process and how this story came to be (see Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3).
With the release of my latest book, Novel Concept, I had the urge to explain myself, I mean, examine the creative process and how this story came to be (see Part 1, and Part 2).
I’d print out the pages and edit them. Then rewrite those. Then I wouldn’t. Start and stop. Rewrite, then let it lay fallow. Go until I hit a wall, then walk away from it. Go work on other stuff. Get involved with Pee-Wee Herman. I admit it, I’m lazy. And without a firm deadline, I took my dear, sweet time with it. Finally, after a couple of years, I typed the words, “The End.”
The next step, of course, was sending it out to publishers for rejections. Check. After a couple of dozen of those, I let it sit for a while. Before a techno-tragedy had me put it aside for years. With the release of my latest book, Novel Concept, I had the urge to explain myself, I mean, examine the creative process and how this story came to be (see Part 1).
With the release of my latest book, Novel Concept, I had the urge to explain myself, I mean, examine the creative process and how this story came to be (see Part 1)  Writing a book was not on my bucket list. I was going to write MOVIES! Or SKETCHES for TV!!! That was it. Not a TV series, no prose, articles or matchbook covers. All through college and post-graduation, my attention was drawn to the shiny movie screen and flickering TV image. There were spec scripts to mail out and sketches to hoard away (because by this time there was only one sketch-comedy show on TV and “Saturday Night Live” was a tough nut to crack)...
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Dan FiorellaFreelance writer, still hacking away. 
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