Denniger Bolton, Wednesday 23rd guest on “Writing on the Air”

Tune in this Wednesday, 23rd of December on WRITING ON THE AIR, KOOP Radio 91.7 Austin, Texas, to meet local crime / mystery novelist, Denniger Bolton. So far, Denniger has written three novels in the the B.B. Rivers Mystery series, published by Javelina Books.

He has a fourth book coming out soon, and several new projects in development.

I’m very excited to have Denniger on the show, and I hope you will tune in to Koop Radio! You can also listen in from anywhere around the globe by going to Koop.org and clicking on the live stream. If you miss it, the show should be up on this website a few days after broadcast.

Among many other very interesting subjects, we will be talking with Denniger about his creative process. How he goes from a simple idea: two kids are murdered at Hippie Hollow, for example; to a full out romp of a mystery novel: Hippie Hollow, Murder on a Nude Beach which just happens to be his first novel in the B.B. Rivers Mystery Series.

We will also be discussing Mr. Bolton’s upcoming projects, a self-help book on how to self-publish & all the nitty gritty involved in the book business, and how Denniger goes about it.

That and so much more!

You should definitely tune in on Wednesday 23rd from 6 till 7 pm.

The hosts will be Mr. Dillon McKinsey, Dr. Dora Robinson, and myself, Francois Pointeau. Unfortunately, Lee K. Davis will not be present, as he will be traveling back home to visit his family for the holidays.

If you simply cannot wait till Wednesday to meet Denniger, you can meet him in person, as well as many other really cool authors such as Robert Stikmanz, Gary Kent, Gabrielle Faust, F.K. Needles, and many many more, at the Keep Austin Bizarre Christmas Bazaar. This starts today Friday 18th, and lasts till Monday 21th.

Francois Pointeau

PS: Don’t forget about New Belleville Press books: Beer Songs for the Lonely, by F.K. Needles, and Neurotica by Elva Maxine Beach. You can purchase them at one or more of these wonderful retailers: Alibris.com & Authorsbookshop.com & Book People & Oat Willies & Sonny’s Vintage, those last three in Austin, TX & Left Bank Books, in St. Louis, MO.

Gary Kent at Book People on Wednesday July 15th @ 7pm

Gary Kent sent this note to his email list yesterday, and I just wanted to share it with everybody:

“Okay, here’s the deal. I’m getting damned tired of all this Gary Kent’s book stuff, aren’t you? So, then, this is the last, absolutely last, from me—reminder: The Release of Shadows and LIght, Journeys With Outlaws In Revolutionary Hollywood is unleashed on the public, Bookpeople, 603 S. Lamar, Austin, Texas, Wed., July 15, 7 P.M.

If you plan on being there, let me warn you, Austin is going to be hot…temperature wise, I am saying. So dress comfortably…wear underwear, but scantily so….

There will be drinks (white and red wine, sodas, water, etc.), and munchies. The evening begins with a guitar duet, Chris Kent and Pat Hammonds laying down a little gut-bucket blues, then the entertainment segues to the marvelous Bianca DeLeon, master of the South West Border Ballad, singing a set of her original and electrically eclectic songs…” I will then, will read from my book and cause you to chortle, snort, (no, not marching powder, you damned hippie leftovers !), and guffaw. This will go on for what will seem an interminable time, and then, we will all adjourn while I sign the two or three books you, the audience, deem to purchase. You will be free to co-mingle, co-habit, co-sign, co-depend– whatever—as you wish. If you wish, at that time, you may change your shoes, or your pants, if they are growing uncomfortable. 

Once inside the store, you should be safe, as a group of Hollywood Stuntmen and Filmmakers par excellance will be on hand to cover your back. These hardy folk are John “Bud” Cardos (Kingdom of the Spiders, The Dark, etc.) Don “Irish Frankie” Jones (Girls In Chains, The Forest, Lethal Pursuit) Rex Cumming (The Pyramid, Walker Texas Ranger), Bob Ivy (Phantasm, Bubba Ho-tep) andChuck Bail (The Stuntman, Cleopatra Jones and The Casino of Gold, Freebie and The Bean, etc.). 

If you are unable to attend these incredibly mirthful but dangerous festivities, be advised that you may order Shadows and Light, Journeys With OUtlaws In Revolutionary Hollywood from Amazon .Com, Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc. 

Great! Done! Check! Fini! See ya’ there, then…Gary

P.S.:To whet what remains of your appetite, an up-to-the-minute quote from Marc Savlov, film writer, The Austin Chronicle:
“Kent proves himself to be a born anecdotalist. His arguement that the American Independent film was really born with Cassavettes’Shadows is a keeper, and his reminiscences of shooting at Spahn Ranch with the Manson family lurking around the set are downright creepy-crawly” Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle, July 19, 2009.”

SALA writers’ group newsletter

Hello Everybody!

On Friday, June 12th, SALA met at Cafe Caffeine as planned. We had a very productive meeting.

Present were Denny Bolton, Lester Morris, Gary Kent, & myself – Francois Pointeau – Gail Folkins made a very brief visit.

Until Gabrielle comes back, I volunteered to be the secretary & thus takes notes. Gabrielle! Hurry back! I don’t think I’m very good at this

So what I’ll attempt to do here, is give a more or less accurate description of what happened during our meeting. I’ll outline the major points covered. However, please realize that we didn’t go from point A to point B and then to point C … we kind of meandered around, eventually finding our way to a few answers, decisions, and realizations. We also listened to several entertaining tales by our friend Lester. Ask him about that special sacrificial rock in Stonehenge.

We wanted, at least I insisted on this, to figure out what SALA is about? To give ourselves a bit of direction, so that we all know what our goals are as an organization.

We came up with three principals:

1) Selling our members’ books;
2) A constant professional exchange of information;
3) And finally: Encouragement!

Denny, who’s been at the Farmer’s Market every single week, let us know that the peeps at the Market will no longer let us sell Go Local cards. This a bit of a problem. Go Local donates 20 cards per month that we can sell at 10 bucks a pop, and thus raise 200 buckaroos to pay for the booth at the market. The market costs $280 per month or $70 for two tents each week. Go Local will still donate 20 cards per month, but now we need to find a different place / venue to sale them.

Go Local’s myspace: www.myspace.com/golocalaustin
Denny, do they have a regular website?

Denny will not be going back to the Farmers’ Market until the fall. We will however keep receiving the GL cards. We should think of ways to sell these cards to raise funds for SALA.

Which brings me to the second major point of Friday’s meeting! Why do we need to raise funds?

Answer: So that we can keep the promise of our Three Principals!

We brainstormed on how we could sell our members’ books more effectively. I mentioned that throwing a party is always a good thing. If we bring all of our social resources together, we can probably throw a huge bash. Mixing mediums, as in having our books and us reading from our books, sure, but also live music, stand-up comics, performance artists, jugglers, et cetera, as well as refreshments such as beer, wine, and finger food. We thought that maybe having one big event per year would be a good idea. One huge SALA event that will become a yearly happening.

We need to raise funds so that we can organize events! So that we can continue to have a presence at the Farmers’ Market and / or other such venues where it costs MONEY to have a booth so that we can sell YOUR BOOKS.

We talked about possibly attaching ourselves to an existing festival, such as a movie or music festival that already has a following, and starting a small lit festival for and by SALA.

Anyway, that brings us to the next point: Monthly Dues! 5 bucks per month starting in July 2009. The money will go to organize events so that we can sell books.

We stressed the important point that we need to think OUTSIDE the box, here. What I’m trying to say: Ideas welcomed! Please comment! Write back! Send ideas!

Gary discussed his upcoming book: “Shadows and Light, Journeys With Outlaws In Revolutionary Hollywood” to be out July 15th with a big party at Book People, and an after-party at Gary’s place.

You can learn more about Gary here: http://www.garykentfilmmaker.com/ or about his publisher here: http://www.daltonpublishing.com/our_books/shadows-and-light/.\

Personally, I can’t wait to read Gary’s book!

Gary talked about his experience getting published. The journey with the small publisher, the distributor, and the frustrations thereof as well as the positive notes.

We need two more volunteers:

1) Treasurer – your duties would be to manage the money, collect the dues, deposit them into SALA account, balance the budget. You need to be able to ad and subtract and keep books for this position.
2) Event Organizer – your duties would be to … you figured it out: organize events! This calls for a social person with an ease in making connections, an attraction to organizing great parties, a knowledge of local venues, bands, et cetera.

Last but not least, we are going to buy a booth at the Texas Book Festival. That’s a cost of 600 dollars! Who wants to be at the Texas Book Festival? If ten of us go, that’s 60 dollars per person. If 20 of us go, that’s 30 bucks per person … and so on. Please send Denny an email on whether or not you’re interested.

Thanks!

Thanks To Sonny’s Vintage Music and Clothing Store

The staff at Sonny’s Vintage Music and Clothing store have sold more copies of both “Neurotica” by Elva Maxine Beach, and “Beer Songs for the Lonely,” by F.K. Needles, than anybody else in town. They can barely keep the books on their shelves. If they keep up at this pace, I’m going to have to print a lot more books!

We, here at New Belleville, are HUGE fans of Sonny’s Vintage Music and Clothing store!

Sonny’s Vintage
Bluesmusic.com
Sonny’s Myspace page

Go say hi to them! And tell them Francois from New Belleville Press sent you!

Open Doors at Independence Brewing

And last but not least, INDEPENDENCE BREWING CO. holds open doors at their brewery every first Saturday of the month. Thank you Amy & Rob.

Visit Independence Brewing for more information:

I will not be there in September because I’m having a birthday, and I will be messing around in the Llano river at my friends’ place drinking lots of beer–you guessed which one–and trying to catch some catfish for a big catfish fry on Sunday!

However, NBP will be there for the first weekend of October. Hope you will too.

Support Your Independant Bookstore!

Austin, Texas, residents: NEUROTICA is now at Book People! Yeah! It’s in the General Fiction Section. BEER SONGS FOR THE LONELY is in the Poetry section. So, please purty please, go to Book People, go to the Help Desk, bug the employees, write a customer review, ask several employees about our books, keep mentioning NEUROTICA as if in a trance … you get the picture: MAKE NOISE, and connect it to our books.

Soon, our books will be available in independent bookstores all over North America and beyond. We’re working really hard on it.

What’s your favorite independent bookstore? Tell that particular bookstore how awesome we are, and send us the store’s contact information. Give them our contact information as well: our URL and my email.

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