Online videos are quickly becoming an effective way for authors to promote their books. Best-selling author Michael Connelly has just posted a video on his website that depicts two scenes in his upcoming book The Brass Verdict. The next video will be released next month. You can watch the video below. It gave me all sorts of ideas for making a video for Room for Two and my forthcoming novel.
Swimming 1 Abel 0
While running the other day, I tweaked a muscle in my left calf. Though rather painful, the injury wasn’t very serious. It would simply require a week of no running to heal.
In the meantime, I had to find a replacement cardio activity. Yesterday, I decided to give swimming a try. I figured I had strong arms, legs, and lungs, how hard could it really be to swim for 30 minutes? Besides, when Marathon Girl is working through a running injury, she can swim non-stop for an hour or more without a problem. If she can be Super Woman, why can’t I be Super Man?
I forgot that there can only be one adult superhero per family.
Thirty minutes after I started, I dragged my wet butt out of the pool completely exhausted.
It would be nice to insert a story here about how far and fast I swam and that was the reason for barely being able to exit the pool under my own strength. But I can’t.
Here’s the sorry truth: I ended up swimming 20 lengths during the 30 minutes with a short break between each length.
Yeah, it was that difficult.
Swimming is nothing like running or strength training. I worked muscles I didn’t even know I had.
When I got home last night Marathon Girl asked how my swim was.
I told her.
She did a good job keeping a straight face and telling me I did a good job for not having done any serious swimming in 15 plus years.
Today my shoulders are very sore (in a good way) and I had to take it easy on my weight exercises that involved those muscles. Even though it was a very tiring and humbling experience, I’ve decided to swim once a week in place of a scheduled cardio or strength training workout.
At the very least, I hope to be able to keep up to Marathon Girl if we ever go swimming together.
Draft 1
I just finished the first draft of my next book. It’s taken three months of late nights and turning every free moment into writing time to finish it in this soon. But the first draft is complete.
I’m off to bed.
I really need some sleep.
Ruby Red Laptop
What I bought Marathon Girl for her birthday.
And to think that Marathon Girl wasn't much of a computer perons when I married her.
Eight Years and Counting
Eight years.
That’s how long it’s been since I stood in front of the mirror aghast at the marshmallow shape my body was taking.
Eight years.
That’s how long it’s been since I tied a worn pair of running shoes to my feet, drove down to the local high school and discovered I couldn’t even make it once around the track once without gasping for breath.
Eight years.
That’s how long it’s been since I decided to change my life, cut out soda and junk food from my diet, and get myself in shape.
The results of eight years of hard work?
I can run with Marathon Girl for an hour (pushing a double wide stroller while I’m at it), bench my weight (a big accomplishment since my body came with almost no muscle mass), do over 100 sit-ups without breaking a sweat, run 7:30 miles without getting tired, and am extremely happy with the way my body looks. (As is Marathon Girl.)
But the best part? Running into people (no, not literally) that I haven’t seen in roughly eight years who don’t recognize me because of the changes to my body.
Yeah, that last part is the icing on the cake.
Make Cake Not War: The Songs of Sean Keogh
For those in (or who will be in) the New York City area, my brother's songs will be preformed by cast members from Cry-baby, Wicked, and Saved June 29. Information below is an article from Playbill News. Make Cake Not War: The Songs of Sean Keogh June 29
By Adam Hetrick June 24, 2008
Cast members from Cry-Baby, Wicked and Saved will take part in Make Cake Not War: The Songs of Sean Keogh at the Laurie Beechman Theatre on June 29.
Keogh, who has penned the musicals Rainy Day People, Be Like Joe, and Playtime, is the inaugural recipient of Vermont's Weston Playhouse New Musical Award.
Announced to perform in the 7:30 PM concert are James Snyder (Cry-Baby), Matt Castle (Company), Ben Liebert (Wicked), Britta Ollmann (A Catered Affair), Alex Brightman (Glory Days), Robin Lee Gallo (Spelling Bee), Douglas Ullman, Jr. (The Fantasticks), Jason Michael Snow (Saved), Jessica Burrows (Dr. Zhivago), Julia Burrows (Happy Days), as well as Kelli Bartlett, Michael Maricondi, Jill Kerley, and Ryan Speakman.
Christopher D. Littlefield is the musical director for the evening of songs exploring "single mothers, cookies, antidepressants, cake, rock stars, Barbies, and love," according to press notes.
Make Cake Not War features additional lyrics by Kyoung-Ae Kang and Heidi Heilig, as well as additional music by Erato Kremmyda.
There is a $10 cover and $15 food/drink minimum for Make Cake Not War. Reservations are available by e-mailing musicofseankeogh@gmail.com.
The Laurie Beechman Theatre is located within The West Bank Cafe, 407 West 42nd Street.
Glad We Didn't Elect This Guy
The city I live has been around for a little more than 10 years but has become known throughout the state for a lack of roads and corrupt politicians. For once it looks like our city dodged a bullet. The candidate that lost the mayoral election in November just pleaded guilty to fraud and racketeering charges.
Former Eagle Mountain mayoral candidate Richard Culbertson and his wife, Kathleen, pleaded guilty on Thursday to fraud and racketeering charges.
Richard Culbertson pleaded guilty to three counts of communications fraud and one count of pattern of unlawful activity, all second-degree felonies. Richard Culbertson faces from one to 15 years in prison for each count, served consecutively or concurrently. If the sentences are consecutive, he faces a maximum sentence of 30 years. He was also ordered to pay restitution and a maximum fine of $74,100.
Kathleen Culbertson gave a tearful plea of guilty to three counts of communications fraud and one count of pattern of unlawful activity, all charges reduced to Class A misdemeanors. She faces a maximum of one year in jail for each count and $18,600 in fines, along with restitution.
The Culbertsons were charged in a mortgage fraud case in which they allegedly used their daughter's and son-in-law's names to buy a home.
The couple's attorney, Greg Skordas, said the plea deal is not new, and he believes the deal was worked out quickly so the Attorney General's office would be able to move forward with mortgage fraud charges in other cases. The office has developed a task force for mortgage fraud as a result of the spreading mortgage fraud cases in the state.
You can read the rest of the article here.
Peggy Noonan: A Life's Lesson
Peggy Noonan, one of the best speechwriters who has ever lived and one of my favorite writers, had some poignant commentary in The Wall Street Journal today. Though writing about Tim Russert’s death, she had some good points for all of us to keep in mind as we go through this life.
In a way, the world is a great liar. It shows you it worships and admires money, but at the end of the day it doesn't. It says it adores fame and celebrity, but it doesn't, not really. The world admires, and wants to hold on to, and not lose, goodness. It admires virtue. At the end it gives its greatest tributes to generosity, honesty, courage, mercy, talents well used, talents that, brought into the world, make it better. That's what it really admires. That's what we talk about in eulogies, because that's what's important. We don't say, "The thing about Joe was he was rich." We say, if we can, "The thing about Joe was he took care of people." …
I'd add it's not only the young, but the older and the old, who were given a few things to think about. When Tim's friends started to come forward last Friday to speak on the air of his excellence, they were honestly grieving. They felt loss. So did people who'd never met him. Question: When you die, are people in your profession going to feel like this? Why not? What can you do better? When you leave, are your customers—in Tim [Russert]'s case it was five million every Sunday morning, in your case it may be the people who come into the shop, or into your office—going to react like this? Why not?
I’ve always believed the sum of our lives is how we treat the others and whether or not we leave the world a better place than we found it. Hopefully our lives can have the same impact that Russert’s did on those who knew him.
Random Thoughts June 2008
This has to be the coldest summer I’ve ever experienced. As of June 15 we still haven’t turned on our air conditioning. Some people may like cool weather in June but it makes me want to bolt for cities like Houston or Phoenix. Even my kids are asking when we can go back to Arizona so they can swim. Even though the weather’s on the cool side, it is warm enough that I can run with Marathon Girl every Saturday morning.
They’ve won seven of their last eight games, but the Detroit Tigers still suck.
Does anyone have $3 million they can lend me? There’s a company I want to buy.
Through my online store, I’ve now sold books to customers in 48 of the 50 states and six countries. Yahoo!
Hearing about the dating lives of friends and family make me glad I don’t have to deal with that anymore and so lucky that I have Marathon Girl.
This post made my day.
I’ve never gone wrong by following the feeling in my gut. Thankfully, Marathon Girl’s there to make sure I actually follow it.
New running shoes make me feel like I’ve accomplished something – especially when I see how worn out my old shoes are.
I need a new pair of weightlifting gloves.
I still haven’t paid $4 for a gallon of gas. I figure I can fill my tank one more time before that happens.
Every time I receive an email from political candidates running for office in Utah, I wonder why the campaigns can’t hire a good copywriter or at least find a volunteer who can write. Not only are emails from most candidates dry and boring but many make me less inclined to vote for someone who has difficulty writing a clear, concise sentence or organizing their thoughts in a logical manner. At least the emails from the McCain and Obama campaigns are well written and somewhat engaging.
Speaking of bad writing, the Drudge Report linked to an article about Sen. Hillary Clinton taking a month off work to recuperate from her presidential campaign. It contained this gem: “Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a stalwart supporter of Clinton’s presidential bid, would say only that she and former President Bill Clinton “wanted to go somewhere private and far away where she could rest.” Who’s the “she” in that sentence? Hillary or Diane?
You Love Me! You Really, Really Love Me!
Both Ali and Lisa gave me the Arte y Pico award – an award for creativity, interesting material, contributions to the blogging community, and killer biceps. (Okay, I made the last one up even though I do have them.) Both nominations took me by complete surprise so I didn’t have time to prepare an acceptance speech where I thank my agent (don’t have one – yet), webmaster (that would be me), editor (uh.....), publicist (I'm taking applications), and my wife (the lovely Marathon Girl).
Anyway, upon acceptance of this award, apparently I’m supposed to nominate five other people I think deserve it, post some rules, and other things. (This reminds me of some great viral marketing. I think I’ll have to come up with a Keogh award and start giving it out – just to see what happens!)
Here are my five nominations. (What? Only five? And Ali and Lisa, you would have been included on this list but since you already have one….)
• Land of Lauralot. Laura only posts about once a week but her posts are funny, insightful and always worth reading. I think she works for the Utah Arts Council. • Fresnel Media – Ember is a tenacious reporter and always works to get the best story. If I ever have another radio show, I want her to produce it for me or, at the very least, do a lot of investigative reporting for the show. • Jon – He’s a creative geek. Check out his movie commentary podcasts. They’re great. • Sean Keogh – my brother who’s hard at work composing musicals in New York City. I expect to see at least one of them on Broadway one day. • Chicago Jo – Always worth reading about her busy life. She’s a great writer too. Her latest post on wedding rings is great.
So there you have it.