Ghosts: Mr. Nicholson

G H O S T S
Tap tap tapping.

You hear a tap tap tapping behind the door over there.

Oh curious souls are we.

Shall we take a look at what's in that room...

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by Scott Nicholson
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I’ve largely avoided the “writer speak” stuff that’s a tempting topic when you’re a writer and you have to write about something. But it’s lazy, and precious, and conjures up images of inspirational books like “Bird by Bird” that can make you feel like a writer without having to do anything.

Writers are generally pretty boring. That’s why movies and TV shows often have writers as characters, because writers have all this free time to solve murders, stake out the local vampire nest, or infiltrate a terrorist cell. Because writers don’t have real jobs that would take up most of their day.

Personally, I get offended every time I see another writer on TV, or worse, starring in a book. These characters are always either a bestseller or a hard-working writer who just got that big break. Yeah, the kind of writers everybody hates. Stephen King has been guilty of this several times, possibly because it’s the only reality he knows.

I’ve used the writer-as-protagonist in a few short stories, and except for the crazy, paranoid writer in “Do You Know Me Yet?,” the writers usually are just dabblers who will never make a living at it. Writers also make terrible action heroes, though they come in handy if you need someone to return to their old home town and snoop through old newspaper files and unearth history. Usually the clips or headlines will be shown, in what Mystery Science Theater 3000 called “the backstory database.” Digging up files or clippings, or the ever-useful diary, saves the real writer of the novel from having to work hard and make his writer character actually do some exploring.


My one foray into letting the writer be part of the book is As I Die Lying, which is billed as the worst novel ever written. It’s written by Scott Nicholson writing as Richard Coldiron, though it was actually written by an evil, soul-hopping spirit. Read the book and it will all make sense. Or maybe not.

My own writing life revolves around typing, formatting, organizing, and what the whiz kids like to call “platform building.” Since I struck out on my own as an indie in January, I’ve worked 10 times harder than I did while publishing in New York. It’s not just that there is so much more to do now; I am excited to freely follow my vision and publish as many works as I can compile. There are no artificial restrictions on my production, like there was back in the old book-a-year days when the contract basically wouldn’t let me publish anywhere else and I was merely part of the bigger wheel.

Now the typical day might be two or four pages of writing, a dozen tweets, maintenance of my various blogs, a little reading, some formatting, and getting files to comic artists, layout artists, proofreaders, or the upload sites. There have been times when I’ve been publishing two or three books in the same week, since it’s dumb to let old stories sit around idle. I think it’s pretty cool that a morning can be “Answered e-mail, had coffee, published a book.”

Writing is a lot of hard work. But the rest of it is even harder. You have to possess a certain peculiar set of talents and personality disorders to pull it off for the long haul. It requires the arrogance to think you have something important to say and the humility to realize you will never be finished, perfect, or widely known.

Maybe that’s the reason many writers drink themselves to death or blow their brains out. As for me, this is the kind of insanity I can live with.

~end

The Writing Life by Scott Nicholson
http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/
© 2010. All rights reserved.

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Scott Nicholson is author of 12 novels, including the thrillers:

Speed Dating with the Dead

Drummer Boy
- on the amazon for $2.84

Forever Never Ends
--> signup for this ebook giveaway

The Skull Ring
- on the amazon for $2.39

As I Die Lying
- on amazon for $2.99

Burial to Follow
- on the amazon for 89 cents

They Hunger

His revised novels for the U.K. Kindle are:

Creative Spirit

Troubled
--> signup for ebook giveaway

Solom

He’s also written four comic series, six screenplays, and more than 60 short stories. His story collections include:

Ashes
- on amazon for 89 cents

The First
- on the amazon for 89 cents

Murdermouth: Zombie Bits
- on amazon for $1.99
- my review

Flowers
- on the amazon for 89 cents
--> signup for book giveaway

Under his alias (L.C. Glazebrook) he has this sweet piece...

October Girls: Crystal & Bone
- interview with Crystal and Bone at Larissa's Bookish Life
-->signup for ebook giveaway

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W I N
A
K I N D L E
F R O M
S C O T T
To be eligible for the Kindle DX, simply post a comment below with contact info. Feel free to debate and discuss the topic, but you will only be entered once per blog. Visit all the blogs on the tour and increase your odds.

Scott is also giving away a Kindle 3 through the tour newsletter and a Pandora’s Box of free e-books to a follower of “hauntedcomputer” on Twitter. Thanks for playing.

Complete details at http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/blogtour.htm

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by Scott Nicholson
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Other deals and steals of Scott's Kindle editions at the amazon:

The Red Church - for 99 cents

Write Good or Die - for 99 cents

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AND, check out these amusing Scott-isms:

<-- Interview with this dude, the Digger at The Neurotic Book Affair

How to Catch a Ghost at Luxury Reading.

Love Scenes: Kissy Face or Full Monty? at Fantastic Books

The Mating Habits of Monsters at Wag the Fox

Hillbilly Horror at Lost for Words

Read more Scott goodies at various blog tour stops.

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* if it's your first time here, WELCOME and feel free to check this month's giveaways on my sidebar for...

-+0+o+ October Trix-n-Treatz schedule +o+0+-