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See These Bones: Chapter 2

Posted on 2019-10-152019-10-27 by Chris Tullbane

I bounced between foster homes for a few years after Mom died, never staying with any family more than a couple of months. Not until the Jacobsens—Norm and Sue, because apparently it’s a cosmic law that ordinary people have really stupid names.

For some reason, these two God-worshipping hero-vid junkies actually gave a damn. Wasn’t like it had been with my real parents, but Norm didn’t seem likely to up and murder Sue either, so I wasn’t going to complain. Norm, Sue, and little Damian… the perfect pretend family.

Yeah, Damian. It’s like Dad wanted to screw me over from the start.

Anyway, the Jacobsens spent six months tearing down my walls, six months sitting through night terrors and angry spells. Convincing me that they cared. That they’d be there for me through anything.

Then I turned nine.

Then Mom showed back up.

Then we all learned that Dad wasn’t the only Crow in the family.

Behind the scenes of a live-action book trailer

Posted on 2019-10-102019-10-10 by Chris Tullbane

I hope you all enjoyed Chapter 1 of See These Bones! I’ll post Chapter 2 next Tuesday, but today, I wanted to take a quick detour and discuss the making of our live-action book trailer. If you haven’t gotten a chance yet, you should watch that trailer… otherwise, none of this will make any sense….

See These Bones: Chapter 1

Posted on 2019-10-082019-10-27 by Chris Tullbane

As I mentioned last week, I’ll be counting down to the November 5th release date for See These Bones by sharing chapters from the book. Chapter 1 is a short one, but I think it gets everything started on the right foot.

See These Bones… the book trailer?

Posted on 2019-10-032020-08-31 by Chris Tullbane

“The trailer’s the thing, by which we’ll prick the interest of the potential readers!”
-Hamlet, sort of

In last week’s cover reveal, I talked about a cover’s importantance in attracting potential readers. That’s not a bold or divisive statement, by any means. Unfortunately, a good cover on its own is rarely enough. Thanks to modern technology and digital storefronts like Amazon, there are a lot of books being published every week. Many of them even have cool covers, because… again… everyone knows how important that is.

So how do you make your book stand out even more? Well, that’s where marketing comes in… and where I start to flounder. Author interviews, book reviews, give-away contests, calls-to-action for your 50k+ Twitter followers… it’s all designed to get the word out about your book and to convert some of those people into new readers.

See These Bones: Cover Reveal

Posted on 2019-09-242020-08-31 by Chris Tullbane

A picture is worth a thousand words. A cover is worth way more than that.

The irony of being a first-time author is that some of the most important keys to a successful launch have nothing to do with your writing at all. It’s not enough to write a good book… you have to convince people to actually read that book too.

Worse, you have to convince them to pay for it.

Step 10: Profit

Posted on 2019-08-272020-08-29 by Chris Tullbane

Late August is upon us, and if there was any good and justice left in the world, I’d be unveiling the cover for See These Bones and talking about the forthcoming release.

Narrator: There was no good and justice left in the world. Both had taken an ill-timed vacation to Mars. Don’t nuke Mars, Elon!

Instead, I’m still where I was last month, which says dire things about my anticipated fall release. In lieu of shiny book-related treats to share, I decided to instead whip up a guide to self-publishing, leveraging my vast stores of non-existent experience and a passing familiarity with the general concept of humor.

July Status Update

Posted on 2019-07-302020-08-29 by Chris Tullbane

With literal hordes of grasshoppers descending upon Las Vegas like a biblical plague (minus the destruction), one thing is abundantly clear:

It’s time for another status update.

So let’s get to it!

Voice: It’s not just a TV show featuring that one tattooed dude

Posted on 2019-05-282020-09-19 by Chris Tullbane

As one of the many residents of “Writer Twitter”, I participate in a fair number of writer-centric hashtag games. Some are great ways to introduce yourself to fellow authors, some provide an opportunity to dig into what makes your manuscript work (or not work), and others are just there for silly fun. Last week, #TheMerryWriter…

303 Days to the Apocalypse – A Traditional Publishing Rejection Timeline

Posted on 2019-04-302019-05-07 by Chris Tullbane

Hello everyone, and welcome to (the last day of) April! I had plans (big plans!) to share a post today about character and finding your voice, but those plans were scuttled by the arrival of a long-awaited email from the agent I’d been talking with about See These Bones.

Long story short: she decided not to offer representation.

Instead of spending this post weeping into my (non-existent) beard, I wanted to share a timeline of the experience, from initial contact to ultimate rejection.

March Madness

Posted on 2019-03-252020-08-29 by Chris Tullbane

As 2019 seems to be the year of epiphanies, here’s my latest: moving is a pain in the ass and unconducive to productivity.

One very mad month later, we’ve fully moved in to our new house, if you ignore the small piles of boxes in certain rooms and the multiple-item-checklist of found issues that we’re still waiting for our builder to address. Despite the craziness of vendors/trades constantly dropping by unannounced, I feel incredibly fortunate to be in this beautiful new house.

The next step? Actually furnishing it. 😛