The Chronicles of Huttle: Progress Report

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Progress Report

Thanks to all the backers of my successful Kickstarter campaign, which concluded a couple of months ago. Since then, I've had the book edited, done extensive rewriting, had the cover and interior designed, and today I delivered to the designer the last of the corrections to the galleys. So, within the next few days we should be sending the book to Createspace. I'll get a proof from them and see if everything's okay. Then it's done, and all of my patient backers will receive their signed books.

Next step is promotion. I solicited reviews on Goodreads, and those blurbs will be on the back cover. But I consider this first wave of books more of a promotional tool. I'll use it to solicit reviews from established sources, and to get blurbs from name writers. Today, I wrote letters to Jonathan Coe, Gary Shteyngart, Martin Amis, and Christopher Buckley, and TC Boyle, all of whom I admire greatly. It's something of a long shot, but I'm hoping they'll blurb. Once I get the books in hand, they'll go out to these writers, and a few others. I'll also send out review copies at that time.

The beauty of POD is that I can make tweaks and changes. After all of the proof-reading I've paid to have done, and done myself, it would flabbergast me if there's a typo. But there probably are some. I can fix those. I can add quotes from prominent writers or reviewers.

I'm also interested in doing readings in Ventura County and in the Bay area, where there were a lot of Kickstarter backers. If all the backers invite just a few friends to the reading, I should have a full house. I'm thinking I'll have a laptop on hand, too, and ask my backers do write a one sentence Amazon review on the spot. Getting noticed is all about reviews.

I'm also hoping, with the assistance of my fine son Drew, to set up a reading in New York, thinking I'll be out there to visit him sometime in May or early June.

Lastly, I went to fiverr.com, looking for promotional items I can buy. I commissioned an a cappella song about the book, and I'll post it when I can figure out how.

Ciao

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The Pyongyang Paradox

Where the spy novel and novelist intertwine After decades of writing utilitarian copy for trade magazines, Tom Huttle believes that he is on the path to a glamorous new life when he completes the first chapter of his novel, The Pyongyang Paradox, featuring dashing hero Buck Samson. The novel might give Tom the confidence he needs to pursue the woman of his dreams, and fulfill his abiding conviction that he is destined for a life of action and romance. Tom gets more excitement than he bargained for when the explosion of a top-secret satellite sends him to Buck Samson’s fictional world, just as Buck takes over Tom’s pedestrian life. For Tom, living a life of relentless peril and intrigue is a far cry from writing about it, and Tom’s normal world may not be ready for the likes of Buck Samson. A rollicking blend of espionage, romance, and science fiction, The Pyongyang Paradox is laced throughout with Chris Westphal’s quirky brand of dark humor and psychological insight.

The Spy Who Loathed Me

Hollywood, 1982. Struggling sitcom writer Tom Huttle has the ideal side gig: writing personality profiles for an insurance company’s newsletter. If only he knew that the company is a CIA front. When a CIA agent is murdered, Tom is the key suspect—at least in the eyes of bumbling FBI Special Agent Terrance Tillberry. If Terrance weren’t hopelessly in love with undercover KGB agent Petra Tarasova, maybe he would see that Tom has no idea what’s going on. But this is Hollywood. Nothing is really what it seems.

Huttle to the Rescue

The Emperor of Japan is a pyromaniac, living in the orange groves of Echo Valley. Tom Huttle, his house destroyed by a frozen ball of piss from a passing airliner, is in Baltimore to collect a writing award, while his wife and her bawdy traveling companion are kidnapped by Arab terrorists while on an Egyptian holiday. It’s up to Tom to save the day—and he might be able to do it, if only Cairo CIA Station Chief Harry “Hump” Purvis didn’t believe he was at the center of a plot to conquer the world. Fast-paced, twisted, and always surprising, Huttle to the Rescue skewers everything from post Cold War political paranoia, to sexual taboos, to our fascination with youth, beauty and celebrity.

Deadlines: A Jack Teller Mystery

As editor of the Empire City Dispatch—a struggling twice-weekly newspaper in coastal Oregon—former investigative journalist Jack Teller thinks he’s found refuge from his traumatic past, until he discovers the body of the outcast scion of the region’s most powerful family, Jesse McLennon. Tragic events closer to home force Teller to delve more deeply into Jesse’s life and death. Teller quickly finds himself in conflict with the McLennons, who will stop at nothing to maintain their positions of power and respect. Dark and brooding, Deadlines evokes the mist-shrouded Oregon Coast as Jack Teller is drawn into a plot of deception and revenge, and reckons with his own troubled past.