The Shilling (Not a Kubrick Movie)

So, the one thing I don’t really do well in my adult life is self-promotion.  I don’t go touting myself on YouTube or anything like that.  You either know me or you don’t, like what I do or you don’t.  I tend to let the work speak for itself…and then I had someone I know be surprised this weekend to find out I write stuff…figured it out by reading one of the VB blog posts I’ve made.

Well, I figured then that since I just did a post with a list of what I’ve done to this point writing on volleyball,  I should probably put up a blog with a list to all the stuff I’ve written that you can go out and pick up and read.   Do I benefit?  Sure–in most cases.  You can read everything to see what I mean.

And if you wind up reading any/all of these, please put a review up (especially if it is a good one).  Books that get multiple reviews wind up being put on ‘suggested readings’ lists more often–which gives me a chance to write more–including the free stuff…like what you’re reading right now. 🙂

VOLLEYBALL:

The Human Side of Coaching:  When I wrote this back in 2013, I’d noticed that most coaching books (regardless of sport) were always about finding the perfect drill or technique to win.  Very few addressed the reality that sports are about people.  Fewer still included advice to new coaches and the real problems they face–things like how to deal with a multi-sport athlete or working with overbearing parents.  Everyone who’s read it has liked it and said it’s worthwhile.  The only problem is that the publisher, Championship Productions, has never paid me a dime of the royalties I’m owed for it, thus I won’t get anything from this if you buy it, but the writing’s worthwhile.  I promise that.

Like Heck She Isn’t a Volleyball Player: This is a collection of essays I wrote on volleyball (though usable for coaching other sports, too) that started with an essay for the American Volleyball Coaches Association.  That was an argument that coaches get caught up in height and looks rather than realizing there are a ton of people who can play ball but don’t “look” like VB players.  The essays cover a lot of ground–from what a coach thinks during a close match to dealing with mental health issues.  Since I could, I made sure the price was wayyyy affordable–$4.99.  There’s really no excuse to not read or buy this. 🙂

POETRY:

Poems and Meditations on War:  This is a bunch of poems written on the subject of war.  Most are serious in nature–it’s hard to be light about something that results in death.  It’s short, only 90 pages or so, but it’s no more expensive($3.99) than other chapbook-sized poetry collections and just as important–right now, if you have Kindle Unlimited, you can download it/get it for free.  

The Fifty-Thousandth Pitch:  Seriously, I’m not really trying to get rich on all this.  This is a 91-page collection of poems, all on the great sport of baseball.  A few were published in magazines, etc.  There are all sorts of poems–forms you’ve never heard of before (pantoums…though I’m not sure I could write one of those any more…).  The full version–you can get it for ONE FREAKIN’ BUCK under normal circumstances.  Right now, free on Kindle Unlimited.

NOVELSNOVELS:

Until the Goodnight Smile:  It’s the first novel I had accepted for publication.  It’s the story of a single parent/teacher dealing with his spouse’s death while dealing with the monotony of teaching high school.  Is it based on me teaching high school?  Absolutely.  Many of the characters are similar to individuals I knew back them.  The thing is–school wasn’t the inspiration for writing this book.  That came from me reading some classic Russian literature: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.  That’s the story of a guy in a Soviet prison and one day in his life.  If you’ve ever been trapped as a teacher in a school with crappy administrators–you’d see the similarity right away.  It’s a good story, but it’s not my best writing.  When I read it, I see an earlier me–a little rougher with my style.

The Five Days of Osan:  I’ve got a lot of historically based stuff I haven’t had accepted for publication.  With Osan, I was outright told a couple times that nothing based on the Korean War would ever sell–so I said screw it and put it out there on my own.  This is based on real life and the story of Task Force Smith, the first Americans sent to fight in that war–sent in totally unprepared.  I added in a fictional part of the unit to tell the story–and it is told from the view of a fictional writer, making it seem closer to true history than fiction.  It’s nothing like his work on Vietnam, but was totally inspired by Tim O’Brien’s If I Die in a Combat Zone.  It’ll run you under five dollars–but if you like war stories or heroes, you’ll definitely like it.

Kandahar: A Novel:Ahh, reviews.  The funniest thing is the one review of this on Amazon was put up before the book was put out.  The reviewer doesn’t like the guy who owns the publishing company…I got to be the target of that relationship.  Then again, the book publisher doesn’t send royalties, so maybe that reviewer’s got some good reason for disliking the publisher (and there are typos–but not a massive number).  The plot isn’t actually about ‘Apocalypse Now’–the inspiration was the real Conrad work, Heart of Darkness.  That’s an important difference.  Still–the similarity to the stupidity of American policy in Afghanistan is there–and Kandahar is more about the odd relationship between the tribes of Afghanistan, the Pakistani military, and the complete lack of American cultural understanding than anything else.  Also of note–there are a lot of Alexander the Great’s army’s descendants in Afghanistan…that bit of trivia was the original trigger point for the novel.

The Last Post: First, go to the link–look, you can get it for under $10.  You can read a bunch of it for free with Kindle Unlimited.  You’re not going to be out a ton.  With that said–this is up there with Osan for quality of work.  It starts off on D-Day and in the first days of June 1944 and looks like a regular war novel.  It then changes and you’ll say “Oh, this is just like ‘The Dirty Dozen‘ and then it changes again–and turns in to more of a gothic horror novel, something inspired by H.P, Lovecraft.  It’s nice when readers contact you and say “That was creepier than hell.”

So what are you waiting for?  Everyone should read.  Why not start with someone you know?  Then put up some reviews and help a guy out?  Heck, maybe I’ll steal your name and have your character become a serial (or cereal) killer in something I write in the future.