Dennis Spielman

Crack – Crack – Crack

On December 24, 2013

I wrote a short scary story because ’tis the season and all for scary ghost stories. It’s somewhat inspired by the ice storm we had recently and a comment a friend mentioned about the sound the icy tree branches made. The story is less than 500 words, so read and enjoy.

Stay warm and stay safe.

Crack…crack…crack…

Catherine rolled over and lifted the comforter to better bundle herself, ignoring the crackling of the tree branches falling from the weight of the ice. She snuck a peak of the clock. It read 3:23. She closed her eyes.

Crack…crack…crack…KA-BOOM!

Catherine bolted up. The room felt darker to her. She looked over at the clock. It was blank.

“Figures,” Catherine mumbled as she plopped back down on the bed.

She tried to steady her breath. Her heart still pounded from what she told herself was only the transformer exploding. She began to wonder how long it would be before the power returned. Then she began to worry how cold it would get. The place she lived in wasn’t well insulated. She lived in what was similar to a studio apartment, but was a small building behind a house her friend owned. She rolled over to her side, closed her eyes, and tried to go back to sleep.

She wished her fiancé was there and not at work at the hospital. She placed a pillow behind her back to make it at least feel like he was there with her, comforting her back to sleep.

Crack – Crack – Crack.

Her face crunched together and she tried to figure out the new crackling sound. It wasn’t the ice, she thought. She knew the sound of the ice. She knew it well. She attentively waited for the sound again.

CRack – CRack – CRack.

Catherine felt a glow of light in the room. She rolled over and looked at her clock. The power was still off, but she saw a reflective blue light on the wall. She sat up and looked around. On the wall facing the bottom of the bed was a glowing blue crack. It was about a foot tall.

CRAck – CRAck – CRAck.

The crack stretched taller and wider, while remaining a crack. Catherine rubbed her eyes. The crack was still there.

CRACk – CRACk – CRACk.

The crack had stretched even further, expanding to the ceiling and floor. The room became frigid. Catherine wrapped the blanket around herself. She slowly approached the glowing crack on the wall. She blinked, trying to get her eyes to adjust to the brightness.

“This is weird,” Catherine said.

With herself wrapped up in the blanket, she poked the crack.

CRACK – CRACK – CRACK.

The crack unfurled, vacuuming her blanket in and dragging her with it. She screamed, but the crack vacuumed the sound too. When Catherine was gone, the crack turned purple and then shrank into nothing.

Secret Santa 2013

By Dennis

On December 20, 2013

In Real

This year I participated in Reddit’s Secret Santa Gift Exchange for the first time. My Secret Santa was game for pretty much anything, so in keeping with my Keep It Local gift giving I’ve been doing this year, I sent him several Made in Oklahoma items.

The items were a Flaming Lips candy, Flaming Lips art magnet, a Link button, Bigfoot coffee, my murder mystery party game book, and if all else failed, there was bubble wrap. While looking for local gifts, I took pictures of items from shops and I’ve been posting a series of gift ideas on Uncovering Oklahoma. The articles have been big hit on the site.

The Secret Santa gift I received today was the Forth Doctor’s scarf.

As you can see, it looks great on me! I’m going to wear it around and people will recognize it and will instantly want to be my friend. And we’ll be friends! Scarfs are cool. I wear scarfs now.

The Book Signing

By Dennis

On November 17, 2013

In Real

Yesterday was my first book signing event! I had been looking forward to the event for a long time. It was a huge dream of mine come true. I was at Full Circle Bookstore in Oklahoma City mainly promoting my novel, The Crashing of Heaven and Hell. Instead of doing a diary post about it, I thought it would be more helpful, and not to mention more interesting, if I wrote an advice article about what I learned.

Group AND Solo

A little background on the signing first. I was part of Full Circle Bookstore’s monthly event, New Ink. The events coordinator explained New Ink helped authors gain more exposure by combining forces, making the signing into a party. It was also a great networking opportunity to meet other authors and share advice. I learned there were pros and cons to the the group and solo signings from them.

Group
+ Greater exposure
+ Networking
– Sharing Buyers

Solo
+ Focus is on you
– Requires more publicity work
– Can be boring/lonely

I honestly can’t flat out say group events are best for new authors and solo are for established. The best approach is to do both.

Prepare for Down Time

Unless your super famous, prepare for some down time. My girlfriend was with me, along with books and my iPhone, to keep me company. Good to have company to watch the table while you use the bathroom.

Have Promotional Materials

Have promotional materials at the table! This I figured before hand. People may be interested in the book, but they may not able to buy at the moment, prefer to read a sample first, or want a digital edition. I had postcard sized flies printed up and gave those out to people. I also gave away free bookmarks.

Other authors did other things.

Lara Henley, author of Jessie Discovers Christmas, gave out candy canes.

Steve Kime, author of Rollin on Route 66, had a photo album of his bike ride along Route 66.

Earl Crago and William Lady, authors of Prince Of The Prism, had an impressive easel with a poster.

I should also mention Debra Braudrick, author of And Evil Dwelt Among Us, had a wood caring on display a friend of hers made.

Promote Other Works

I know not everyone is into sci-fi/fantasy, so I also promoted my date idea book and murder mystery party game book too. Multi-sell!

Friends Don’t Equal Fans

I was part of a conversation awhile back with a friend, Cristela Carrizales, who is an actress, and she made a good point about friendship. I’m going to do my best not butcher what she said but basically she only expects companionship from her friends. It’s a solid expectation.

Don’t expect all of your friends to make an appearance, especially if most of your friends are the creative types. It’s impossible to go to everyone’s watch party/book signing/art opening/play/game/concert/etc. While they may not come, keep in mind, they are proud of you. They are your friends – not your fans.

Don’t Get Discouraged

The biggest advice: don’t get discouraged. It takes some hutzpa to do a book signing. I only sold one copy, which was to someone I knew. I don’t think any of the authors there sold more than a few copies, if any at all. (There was a big college home football game, OU vs. Iowa State, that didn’t help matters.) But you know what? I had good time. I got to meet some interesting people, learn a few things, and had fun celebrating afterwards.

If you want to see more photos of the event, I uploaded them to Facebook.

To everyone who came out and visited me or brought a copy at any point I want to say, thank you.

Uncovering Oklahoma Adventure Time

By Dennis

On November 15, 2013

In Real

Yesterday was the start of my work vacation. I had vacation time I had to use up before the end of the year, but I had no plans to travel anywhere for it. So I’ve decided to spend the time working on projects, acting like a successful writer. My time so far has been spent on the 2014 Edition of Uncovering Oklahoma’s Date Idea Book. It’s coming along nicely, once I decided on the layout. Only several pages have been built, but it’s moving along quickly.

This morning I got to preview the Microsoft Store that will be opening tomorrow in Penn Square Mall. I was invited along with a few other bloggers to the sneak peek. I was honored to be there. The store looks great. The first product that caught my eye was the 3D printer they had in the store. I had never seen one in person. I got introduced to the Surface, which does some pretty cool stuff. I even got to play the XBOX One for a few minutes. The store had demos for Windows phones, Surface tablets, XBOX One, and Windows PCs along with a community space people can use for free for group meetings and parties.

After the Microsoft Store, I roamed around the mall and traveled to several places, taking pictures for the date idea book. Here’s a few of the interesting ones. I’m going to let the pictures do the talking now.

The "Walk-In" Freezer at Empire Slice House

The Men's Bathroom at Empire Slice House

I have many more pictures, however, those are best suited for the date idea book. I’m about to leave to go take more pictures.

Be sure to come to my book signing tomorrow!

Blog Tour Recap

By Dennis

On November 8, 2013

In Real

From October 28 through November 4, I was featured at various blogs for The Crashing of Heaven and Hell. Here’s the recap of all of the stops.

Tome Tender Blog Spot: “The day Dennis Spielman was born, there must have been a generous helping of imagination dished out, because the world he has created can only be related to our reality in a very general way!” This first stop featured a glowing review that made my day when I read it.

Dream Reader: Dream Reader featured the promo post with a brief review. “I found the story to be fantastical yet containing all the typical struggles we all face. The book was slow moving at points and difficult to follow occasionally, yet remained intriguing until the end.”

The Book Tart: The Book Tart and I did an extremely fun interview. Go read it. It’s awesome.

Talk Supe: Talk Supe featured promo content and a guest blog post I wrote about inspiration. There was going to be a review, however, my book ended up on the did not finish pile because of the heavy use of footnotes. (Great feedback I am taking into consideration for future stories.)

Sylv Jenkins: The last stop with Sylv Jenkins featured another guest blog post I wrote, “How to Keep Muses From Killing You.”

Overall, the tour was fun. It would’ve been nice to have some more stops. I received some great feedback and gained a few fans.

Saturday, November 16, 2013 from 3:00pm – 5:00pm I will be at Full Circle Bookstore (1900 NW Expressway, Oklahoma City, OK) for my very first book signing session! Event details here. I’ll be sure to post pictures from the event.