A GUIDE THROUGH THE WILDERNESS

(Or why are publicists super cool?)

 

(This post was written by Berk in answer to the above question from our blog tour host, Amie Borst. You can read this post on her blog at http://bit.ly/Z33rYu.)

 I do not remember ever being lost. In my youth, I roamed the trackless wastes of the Mojave Desert surrounding Trona, California, but those waste lands weren't trackless to me. No matter what new byway my friends and I explored, I always knew how to get back to where we started. I have an accurate sense of general directions, north, south, east and west, and more importantly, I think visually, so as our old truck or dune buggy bumped and jarred over the uneven terrain, pictures of the landscape were continuously stored in my brain—a looming joshua tree, a scraggly rock formation, a twist in the road, a set of animal tracks. All were duly recorded as pictures that my mind could easily recall later for reference purposes.

123RF

When we had explored as much as we wanted, shot through our ammo, eaten all our Hostess cherry pies, gotten as dirty as possible, and generally had a great time, my mind pictures guided us unerringly home. I always knew which bend in the road to take, which direction to go.

Unfortunately, when I signed a three-book contract for the Pitch Green series with Jolly Fish Press, those homing skills did not cross over into the untamed wilderness of social networking and book promotion. I had entered into an alien world with landmarks and signposts that I didn’t even see, or when I did, I didn’t understand. Up to that point in my life, I might have glanced once or twice at my wife's Facebook page, and while I had heard the words “Twitter” and “Blog,” I did not think those things would ever be part of my world.

Suddenly, I was in a new land with unfamiliar terrain, and I was lost. I could not visualize the road, or how all the roads fed into each other, or even which way was up or down, let alone north or south. While there were many crisscrossing, bumpy roads in this new wilderness, there was no need for a rifle with lots of ammo or a box of dynamite, and though a Hostess cherry pie still helped smooth the adventure when the way got especially rough, I was woefully ignorant of the real weaponry that I would need in this strange, alien wilderness.

Enter Kirk Cunningham, publicist for Jolly Fish Press, and I discovered how cool a publicist could be for newbie authors like Andy and me. In what I know now were tentative first steps, he helped us set up our Facebook and Twitter accounts, gave us a logo from the JFP design department, and directed us toward Blogspot. As we took our first tentative steps down these strange roads, he stayed near to coach us in our new adventure and to warn us of the dangers along the way. Whenever we began to fear that we were lost, he was always there to gently calm us with the wise counsel, "If you don't understand, just Google it." Kirk has been a faithful and trustworthy guide through an dangerous and wild country.

beawolf / 123RF

So, what are publicists good for? In our experience, the publicist is a fountain of clear water in the desert, a source of invaluable information, expertise, innovation, encouragement and a nudge
(sometimes a shove from behind) when necessary. By forming a Facebook group binding the Jolly Fish Press authors and management together, Kirk created another avenue for encouragement, blowing off steam, sharing information and ideas, and supporting each other. Of course, behind the scenes, Kirk is also doing important groundwork which we only occasionally glimpse in the news we get of publishing sub-contacts, media contracts, contest information, as well as overseas, film and TV contacts, and much more.

When it comes to promoting our books, Andy and I don't pretend to be savvy or to understand where all the social media paths might lead. But from what Kirk tells us, we’re on a path that will allow us to keep writing books. That's all we care about. Thanks, Kirk! You’re super cool!

IT WAS A BLAST!

            The instrument panel was ready before me, set for take-off.  Several rows of browser windows studded the computer screen opening onto twitter screens, Facebook pages, Amazon.com or just Google, waiting for research.  My trusty water bottle (I wasn't sure if I'd be able to leave my seat for hours) waited on the desktop as well as some munchies in case brain food was called for.  Close at hand, a notepad and pen sat side by side, ready for quick notes or reminders.

            Our publisher, Jolly Fish Press, had the idea to launch a Book Blast with the goal of bumping Pitch Green into the Top 100 on Amazon!  For one full day, all day long, we and everyone we could recruit would tweet, tweet, tweet and post about Pitch Green.

            8:45 am.  In fifteen minutes, the Book Blast for Pitch Green would begin.

            Could this really work?

            I must admit that thought crossed my mind.  Being pretty new to social media, I had sometimes wondered if anyone out there actually read what we wrote.  Did most of our tweets just sail out into Twitter Space undetected as they boldly went where no one has gone before? Was anyone listening?

            I couldn't wait--I jumped in!  But others were already before me!  I was amazed. They were tweeting and posting about the Book Blast, inviting others to join, saying nice things about Pitch Green and giving links to Amazon where the Kindle and paperback editions were now available.  Emails told Andy and I that family and friends, even ones from long ago, were Facebook posting about the Book Blast.  One of my sons even created a twitter account so he could tweet too.

            Fellow authors from Jolly Fish Press congregated at times on our group Facebook page, comparing notes and announcing the latest Amazon statistics for Pitch Green (as well as  instructing me how to find them myself).  Keep going we encouraged each other.  Tweeps I didn't know began passing on the news.  Where they heard about it, I had no idea.  I felt as if I was connected with the whole world.

            All of a sudden, this was fun!

            And humbling. As I watched Pitch Green  rise higher and higher on the Amazon charts, I pictured so many making an effort to tell the world about our book.  I felt grateful.

            I did indeed stay glued to my computer screen practically the whole day.  Finally around 11 pm, my wife and I compared notes on the day's happenings.  By then, Pitch Green had risen in Amazon rankings almost into the 10,000's for total book sales, and 35th in the Kindle category of Young Adult bone-chilling horror!

            What struck with me most, was that this world of social media was indeed a Community, a place where real people connect and help each other.  I made new friends, enjoyed talking and working together with old ones, and others reached across oceans and the next town to contribute.  Our thanks to all.

            IT WAS A BLAST!

 

 

 

We Like Dynamite

This is a post Berk wrote for Kayla Shirley.  Here is the link to her blog:

http://bookblogs.ning.com/profile/KaylaShirley

Now, here is the post:

THUNDER IN A CLEAR SKY

(Or what do teenagers know?) 

The night sky was deep black, cloudless and filled with stars.  Though a thin crescent moon was just starting to come up over the Searles Mountains, it gave little light.  The lights from the chemical plant burned as brightly as ever, but Trona, California, is such a small town, located so far out in the desert, there is almost no light pollution.  This was a perfect night for star gazing, except for one small distraction.

 

Floating hundreds of feet above the town, a small, bright reddish-white light burned fiercely in the sky, swinging gently in the breeze and drifting slowly to the south-east.  The time was about 9:30 pm, and if anyone happened to be outside, watching the sky, this would have been a strange sight, especially when the small light was suddenly engulfed in a brilliant, bright-white flash.  The flash filled the sky for less than a second, and then was gone—the small light was gone with it.  For several seconds, there was nothing, but the deep black of the cloudless sky, when suddenly a roaring rumble blasted across the town, followed immediately by a shock wave that rattled windows and seemed to sock you in the chest as it passed.

Was there a storm brewing with lightning and thunder?  Anyone stepping out onto the porch, looking for clouds, found a sky that was totally clear and cloudless.  There was no storm.

In preparation for the launch of our new book, Pitch Green, Berk and Andy, a/k/a The Brothers Washburn, have occasionally been questioned about whether in reality teenagers would really know as much about guns as do our protagonists, Camm & Cal, in Pitch Green.  In fact, not only do our protagonists know a lot about guns, they also know a lot about high explosives, enough to detonate a dynamite blast in the sky high above the town of Trona.

 

 

For those who grew up in a city, or even suburban, environment, this may seem completely incredible, but for many of us who grew up in the desert, or any isolated rural location, it is not surprising that teenagers would be comfortably familiar with the use of firearms and even high explosives.  In a sparsely-settled, country setting, guns and dynamite are common tools used on a regular basis in farming, mining, road building and other rural occupations.  In fact, it would be strange if Camm and Cal did not know how to use guns and dynamite.

Trona, California, is a real mining town, located in a desolate area of the Mojave Desert, not far from Death Valley.  Andy and I grew up in that region in the 1960s and ‘70s.  We spent many days exploring hundreds of square miles of isolated desert and high-mountain country.  In fact, we sometimes went days without seeing any kind of civilization, including a paved road.

 

 

During those teenage years, we rarely went camping or exploring without bringing our rifles and pistols, with lots of ammo, and we always carried dynamite with plenty of fuse and blasting caps.  There is a real science to a good explosion, and we were continually perfecting our technique.  A well done dynamite blast makes most of the pyrotechnics that we see on TV or in movies look pretty silly.  There is a big difference between a fake explosion and the real thing.

In Pitch Green, Camm and Cal know what Berk and Andy knew as teenagers, so they know their guns and high explosives, which is important knowledge that will come in handy as they fight the intra-dimensional predators, coming through the Searles Mansion, looking for easy prey in this world.  Our heroes are not city kids, and they are not afraid to use whatever weapons they might have at hand as they face down monsters, who gladly eat ordinary humans.  Don’t be surprised if somewhere, sometime, our heroes set up a dynamite blast in the sky.

After all, that’s what we did when we were teenagers.  Starting with a stick of dynamite, we made thunder in a clear sky, and we didn’t have any fancy equipment or advanced technology.  We did it using only common everyday items that any teenager can readily find in the course of a normal day.

 

           If we did it, Camm and Cal can do it too.  Like I said, there is a real science to a good explosion, and Camm is especially strong on science, while Cal has a long-term interest in weapons.  Together they make a formidable team, doing things that any teenager could do, and, for the benefit of our adult readers, they’ll probably even explain how it’s done.

BERK W. W.

DEVELOPING CHARACTER, OR AM I REALLY INSANE?

I wrote the following blog for Jenniffer Wardell, and it was first published on her blog site at:

http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com/ 

 

 

She has an awsome blog and I would recommend it to everyone.  Well, here's what I writed about:

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is the technical name for what we laymen refer to as a “split personality”.  It is a controversial diagnosis with some experts believing it is not real, or maybe even therapist induced.  (Isn’t Wikipedia wonderful?)  I bring this up, because I sometimes believe I may have a form of DID, though I have never seen a therapist.  (I was going to say, “Where is the fun of having a mental disorder if you get it fixed?” but then I worried that someone with a real mental disorder would be offended, and yes, I think that people with mental disorders are the most likely to be reading my stuff.  Whatever.)

 

When I’m writing, I sometimes believe that I have multiple personalities within me, all battling to get out, or at least take control of the writing process.  And, most of these personalities, wait, no, all of these personalities are younger than me; healthier than me; and without a doubt, thinner and better looking than me.  The sixteen year old personality is especially keen to take over.  He must not have caught a look of me in the mirror yet.

It is from these disparate and distinct personalities that I form the characters that I write about in my novels.  To some extent or another, everyone I write about, or maybe I should say, everyone I write for is deep down inside my id somewhere. (Damn, I am esoteric!)  So, when I write about different people I am really just writing about some part of myself.  I am the young, good looking, high school football star Cal; and I am also the middle aged, overweight, balding, mean and obnoxious Mr. Samuel. (Both characters from Pitch Green.)

In real life, I am not young or good looking, but neither am I mean or balding.  I’m only a little obnoxious.  But both of these characters are inside of me, and I only need to bring them out and put them in the story to write about them.  I am not writing about people I observe, though I love to observe other people.  I am writing about myself.  No matter how different or unique each character is from the others, I’m there.

Of course, this begs the question: “What about the female characters you write about?”  (My sons will all stop reading this right exactly at this point.)  If I were really cool, and politically correct, I would claim to have female personalities along with the male personalities.  But I am only cool, not politically correct, and no matter how deep you look inside of me, you will not find a woman, or even any woman-type being.  My wife will confirm this.

This does not mean I cannot write for the women I write about.  Women are people, (that sounds so patronizing) and we overlap enough as people that I don’t have a problem writing from a woman’s perspective.  That is, as long as I have women, like my wife and daughters, who read what I write and tell me when I have it wrong.

This means, analogous with the way I write for the guys, when I write for women, I am looking out of their eyes at the world that is being created for them.  So, if I’m not part woman, (and there are a few bullies from my high school days who would claim that I am), the women that I write about are part me.  (I told you I was esoteric.)

The way this works, evidently, is that the guys I write for are all looking out my eyes as I write for them, but as I write for the women, I am the one looking out of their eyes.  Weird, huh?  But, that is the way it works, and for me, it works pretty well.

Whether or not this means I have DID, I don’t know, though it is probably indicative of a need to at least go to therapy.  Yea, well, I’m still not going.  Why mess with all those extra personalities?  I need them when I’m developing new characters.  After all, that’s how I write.

 

Happy Book Birthday, PITCH GREEN!

HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY!

March 16, 2013

 

PITCH GREEN is officially released today!
 

The countdown ticker says 00:00:00:00        

 

The official announcement: 

 

Jolly Fish Press is happy to announce the highly anticipated release of Pitch Green, the first installment in the Dimensions in Death series by The Brothers Washburn.

 

The occasion calls for some shameless celebrating! 

 

 

Praises for  PITCH GREEN

"The Brothers Washburn are masters  at writing for Young Adults.  Every character is believable, every description is vivid, and every moment is a surprise.  The story was the perfect mix of frightening and intriguing that made it impossible to put down."  

—Celese Sanders, columnist, The  Daily Independent & Taft Midway Driller

“One of  the many aspects that makes this debut novel a success is the new sophistication that the  Washburn Brothers bring to their writing.  Yes, the audience is meant to be Young Adults, but it is so well conceived and the prose is so excellent that any adult would find this story a rewarding read . . .Books like this will spur young readers to become enchanted with the whole realm of  literature.  Parents and teachers alert!"

—Grady Harp, Top 50 Amazon Reviewer

Pitch Green is a zestful new entry in the Stephen King,blood-and-squishy-eyeballs school of horror.”

—Elaine Lovitt, Top 100 Amazon Reviewer

“PitchGreen is a very fast paced YA horror story that will keep you on the edge of your seat,  you will not want to put it down.”

—Jody Joy, Jody’s Book Reviews

 "Pitch Green is full of not only horror but a mystery aspect that leaves you glued to the  pages. The characters are amazing.”

—Kayla Shirley, Kayla’s Place

"If you  love a scary story, Pitch Green is sure to satisfy. . . I would  recommend Pitch Green to any fan of YA horror."

—Alice Anderson, editor, Bella Online

“Although this is basically geared towards young adults, I admit I got the heebie jeebies and  goosebumps reading it . . .”   

—Jennifer Jordan, Gimme The Scoop Reviews

 “This book had great characters, a great mystery, and so much nonstop action! It was hard to put down.”

—Nori Morganstein, Nori’s Closet

 

We are anxiously awaiting the release of the book trailer for Pitch Green.  Can't wait! Visit PitchGreen.jollyfishpress.com for more information.

 

About the authors:

BERK AND ANDY WASHBURN, aka “The Brothers Washburn,” are both lawyers by profession, writers at heart. They grew up together roaming the wastelands of the Mojave Desert, where most of the series is set. Both brothers returned from lengthy and successful careers in the wastelands of the law to write YA horror stories based on the wastelands of their youth. They currently live north of Denver, Colorado 
The Dimensions in Death series is merely the beginning of the ingenious and spine-tingling world of the Brothers Washburn. Be on your guard, people, there is a new Grimm in town.

 

 

PITCH GREEN HAS A WEBSITE!



          I couldn't resist posting this cool flyer that the design team at Jolly Fish Press put together.  So many elements of Pitch Green lurk in its images. 

         

          Pitch Green even has its own website now, which is fantastic and pretty spooky by itself!  Don't worry, it is safe--just keep glancing behind you.  Check out some of the tabs--if you'd like to read an excerpt you'll find one there!  We invite you to visit Jolly Fish Press and the official website of  Pitch Green.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blog Tour is Here . . . with Giveaway

Today is the BIG DAY!  The blog tour for the release of Pitch Green begins.  Check our Events Page above for where we will be stopping by to visit with our great blog hosts. 

Our hosts have amassed reviews, interviews and blog posts on an amazing variety of angles--all relating to Pitch Green, but each one individual to our interviewers.  Some taxed our brains (!) but all are fun.

As part of our blog tour, Jolly Fish Press is launching a Giveaway.  The Giveaway will last from March 10th to March 30th.  Come share in our excitement. Enter below to win a $25 Amazon gift card.

Pitch Green will be released on March 16, 2013-- a circled, red-lettered, and neon day for us.  The countdown clock is ticking its last ticks.

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Berk   &  Andy