An author friend, Valerie Biel Johnson, stated a book club in a pub in Columbus, Wisconsin several months ago.  The idea was to support local authors by having the author sell books in the pub and at the monthly meetings the author would talk with readers.  Valerie called the club Books and Beers.

I was the third author to speak to the book club on Thursday, August 6th.  When Lynette and I entered the pub it was packed, people were standing four deep at the bar.  When we visited in July there were only four folks having dinner and they left once the book club meeting started.  About 15 attended the book club meeting.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to talk over the noise of the patrons and began to worry that the book club meeting and my presentation would be canceled.  I searched for Valerie and couldn’t find her.  About 6:45 Valerie arrived and we searched for the pub owner, Sandye to ask for a place for the club to meet.  Sandye told us that earlier in the day she and her husband, Aaron, decided to close the pub – TONIGHT!

Word of their closing spun around town and well wishers were there for their last beer and a bit of pub grub.  Sandye suggested the group meet in a room upstairs.  The upstairs office was hot and musty smelling as if it hadn’t been cleaned in the last century.  Our small group of seven persevered for an hour and I autographed books.

We all returned to the pub after the meeting.  A couple introduced themselves to me, they had been waiting in the pub, and no one told them our group had moved upstairs.  I had a nice conversation and autographed their books.  The party went on to closing.

The next morning I received an e-mail from other Sun Prairie friends who had arrived late the previous night and also weren’t told the book club had moved upstairs.  It happens.

I still sold more books in a single month that I have ever sold at an independent bookstore in a year and a half.  Entrepreneurs always struggle and working as an independent author I empathize with their challenge and obstacles to success.  Thank you Sandye and Aaron will miss the Hydro Street Brewing Company.

That evening Valerie began the search for another location for the foundling book club to meet.  She is an ambitious and creative indie author and I’m confident that in September the book club will have a new location. 

   

  

I am fortunate to have a small following of fans.  For me a fan is a person who has read both Murphy’s Troubles and Out of Darkness.  I even have a few fans that don’t want to purchase my books on Amazon but purchase them directly from me because it’s more personal and of course I always write something in the cover and sign it.  Please understand, I don’t have many that fall into this restricted definition of a fan.  Of those that are fans, I listen to them when they comment on each book.

Two of my fans have made the exact same, surprising comment.  They feel that Out of Darkness concentrates too much on Ian’s love life.  One fan thought that Ian was too amorous and that Irish men don’t behave that way (this fan is 100% Irish male).  Another fan said there was just too much sex in the book.

Really?  Too much sex?  Trust me; this book is not 50 Shades of Grey. 

I did want to show how a middle age man can fall deeply in love with a woman of the same age and how their life experiences mold the unique love they develop.  Certainly one aspect of a love relationship is physical intimacy and I didn’t want to avoid that in my book.  To be honest, I don’t like writing sex scenes.  I once took a class at UW Madison Continuing Education on how to write a sex scene in a novel.  It’s not about body parts; it’s about intimacy, sharing, innocence, vulnerability, laughter, joy, etc. etc.

I also wanted to demonstrate in Out of Darkness that having an honest, open, empathetic love relationship was healing and helps Ian fight his depression.  Love brings balance and a new perspective into Ian’s life.

 It’s not about the sex but good sex is a part of any healthy, balanced, loving, relationship.  What is most curious to me is that these comments came from men.  Who would have guessed?           

An author friend of mine, Valerie Biel, recently started a book club called Books with Beers in a Columbus.  Her idea was to support both local business and local authors.  The book club is held at the Hydro Street Brewing Company on a Thursday evening of each month.  Each month a local author is invited to make a presentation and sign books.  The pub owners agree to sell books and give the entire proceeds to the author.  That’s right – the pub owners don’t take a consignment cut.  Pub owners, Aaron and Sandye appreciate the business on a Thursday night and don’t feel the need to take a cut from book sales. 

Valerie presented at the first event in May, which is right, because she is the marketing genius behind the whole idea.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend because of a theater commitment.  I attended the event in June with author Silvia Acevedo.  There were 15 attending, larger than any book store presentation I’ve made.  The discussion was lively and it was an entertaining evening.

I was invited to leave books for sale in July prior to my presentation on August 6th.   As I was putting together the display following Silvia’s event a woman at the bar bought both Murphy’s Troubles and Out of Darkness.  When I asked her name in order to autograph the books she explained they weren’t for her but a friend who likes Irish history.  This is a pub in Columbus, Wisconsin.

This past weekend I received an e-mail from Valerie, they sold out of books and needed more.  I rushed another allotment of books to the pub on Monday.  I have now sold more books at the Hydro Street Brewing Company than the total number of books I have on consignment at three independent book stores.

Ya gotta love Wisconsin.  Please support my friends:  www.valeriebiel.com and www.hydrostreetbrew.com.

Most sources advise independent authors to make our books available in e-book format at the same time the trade paperback is published.  I’ve been successful in ignoring that advice for more than 18 months.  I’ve reached Create Space where my books have been published and for $75 they will reformat the book and make it available on Amazon.  The only downside is that is the only platform that accepts the create space format, Smashwords for instance, uses a different file format.

I acknowledge the logic of making my books available in every format imaginable in an effort to appeal to both physical book readers and e-book readers.  As a newbie author the lure of having a physical book to promote is intoxicating.  I just didn’t have the energy to pursue whatever was needed to transform my first book into an e-book on various platforms.

I’ve worked with Christine Keleny of CK Books to publish the second in the Murphy series novels, Out of Darkness.  Christine asked if I wanted to publish both a trade paperback and an e-book.  I explained that I hadn’t made Murphy’s Troubles available yet in e-book format.  I asked if she thought it was worthwhile to publish Out of Darkness in both formats at the same time.

Christine was appalled that Murphy’s Troubles wasn’t an e-book and insisted that Out of Darkness should be published in both formats at the same time.  Sensing my reluctance Christine offered to undertake the work and quoted an exceptionally reasonable price.  It would take me the next six months to learn how to change file formats and I’m not at all interested in technical work like that.  I accepted Christine’s offer.

In a matter of days Christine sent me files to publish both Murphy’s Troubles and Out of Darkness on Amazon and Smashwords.  I confess that I don’t understand how to use Smashwords to attract readers.  I’ve given myself the job of learning Smashwords marketing this year. 

Thanks to Christine I’m now thoroughly modern.  To contact Christine to learn about her business and her writing go to www.ckbookspublishing.com.  For my books go to www.Amazon.com/author/rexowens or www.smashwords.com.

Out of Darkness

Rex Owens, author

CKBooks, publisher

Historical fiction, 400 pages

9780983298489, $14.95

Four of four stars

Reviewed by Inkspots Reviews

Complex relationships and human frailties compliment a rich, multilayered cultural, geographical, and political backdrop in Out of Darkness, the second book in Rex Owens’ Murphy series, a deeply rewarding and enlightening exploration of tenuous 1990s peace efforts in Ireland.

Owens brings back Ian Murphy, the conflicted and hard-drinking, yet vulnerable novelist from 2013’s Murphy’s Troubles. He’s joined by a mixed cadre of some familiar and many delightful new characters.

The story picks up in May 1998, soon after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and following a referendum in which citizens of both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland vote to keep Northern Ireland part of the United Kingdom, and call for an end to decades of violence, including the disarming of paramilitary groups.

Murphy’s abrupt flip-flop in Murphy’s Troubles, from being the longtime author of a secret training manual for the Irish Republican Army to helping to write the Good Friday Agreement, has left him reviled on both sides of the political aisle.

“Because of my work on the Peace Accord, I was considered a hero,” Murphy muses in the first few pages of Out of Darkness.  Yet, “the Provisional IRA announced months ago that I was a traitor for betraying the Cause, which we Irish had shed blood over for the past thirty years. Was it possible for one man to be both?”

But those political issues diminish in importance – at least temporarily -- when Murphy meets Mairin McCarthy, a librarian at University College Cork, where he lectures on Irish literature, history and culture when he’s not writing best-selling novels.

With Mairin at his side, Murphy begins to battle long-neglected demons, including alcoholism and depression. He begins to step away from the reclusiveness that had defined his adult life, and begins to think about his future path, that might include writing his memoir. At the same time, he relishes a closer relationship with his sister and niece, who have relocated from Belfast to Cork.

All of that is potentially shattered, however, when Murphy is asked to perform one more, critical act of service toward peace that would require him to move to Belfast. How he responds to the request could profoundly affect not only the lives of those living in Northern Ireland, but also his own personal destiny and his relationship with Mairin.

Owens demonstrates a masterful command of Irish political history, which while fictionalized is thickly intertwined with real events, such as the August 1998 bombing in Omagh, Northern Ireland, by the separatist group the Real IRA. The Omagh bomb killed 29 people and injured more than 200 others.

As masterfully, the author strikes a fine line between simplifying the politics enough to hold the interest of those not intimately familiar with them, while infusing enough to hold the interest of those with a deeper passion and understanding.  

The author also, masterfully, breaks up the politics and related intrigue via an abundant, continual interjection of personal, cultural and geographical color, most notably heavy regional references to food and drink, particularly distinguishing between northern and southern Irish tastes.

There are also soul-searching, scenic mountain and seaside hikes, questions about religious redemption, romantic getaways, lots of malt whiskey drinking and exploration of the demons released by Murphy’s incessant consumption of it, hand-mixed pipe tobacco smoked by peat fires, and an understanding of mature love that finally envelops Murphy at the age of forty-eight.

Finally, there are insights that will be most meaningful to fellow writers. “The Peace Accord was my first nonfiction writing, and it would be my last. I lived in a world of fiction that I created, with only the characters I breathed life into keeping my company,” Murphy muses. “My relationship with all my characters we intimate. I understood their history, their motives, what they cared about.”

Like a first-rate Irish stew, Out of Darkness blends all the ingredients necessary for a great politically-inspired novel steeped in danger and intrigue, while also charting one man’s deeply introspective journey toward personal peace. 

With that perfect mix, the Murphy series just keeps getting better.

-Inkspots Reviews 

Attending the 2015 Oshkosh Irish Fest was a learning experience, a challenge and a smashing success for book sales.  The fair grounds are small and estimated attendance for the four day event was about 2500 but was hampered by rain for two of the four days.

Friday night attendance was surprisingly light.  I was to speak at 7:00 p.m. and just as the first words were leaving my lips the premier band for the night started playing – a full 30 minutes early.  It takes a lot to unnerve me, but the blast of sound almost knocked me off my chair.  My tiny audience hung in with me and I got through my 30 minute spiel, they applauded – for endurance, not content.  We sold two books that evening to an older woman who didn’t understand how debit cards worked; she thought she had a credit card.  I gave her my address and just asked her to send a check.

Saturday afternoon it poured rain which drove the attendees into the cultural tent where we sold books.  I had a table to myself and put up two huge posters of both books.  As folks strolled by I watched their eyes and if they rested on either book poster I would ask:  “How would you like to read a great Irish story?”  We sold out of books that afternoon and took orders for ten more books that I promptly mailed out Monday afternoon.  I’ve never sold out before.  NEVER.  What a thrill.  My presentation was at 5:00 p.m. and I only had four in the audience.  Later that night Lynette pointed out that half the audience purchased books after my presentation (she’s a pro at seeing the silver lining).

Sunday we didn’t have any books to sell, we could only take orders.  My presentation was at noon.  For the second day in a row the lady from Green Bay spoke to long and robbed 10 minutes from me.  The MC actually went on stage, took the mic from her and introduced me.  She still didn’t leave the stage.  I walked up to her, placed my hand gently on her back and told her she had to leave.  Finally, she left.  In the back row and large family was having their own discussion as I was talking.  Their rudeness made me very angry.  I told them they were being rude and asked them to take it outside the tent.  Lynette wasn’t happy with me.  I was people tired and my tolerance for their inconsideration burst.  It happens.

I hope to receive an invitation to the 2016 Oshkosh Irish Fest; I learned a great deal about connecting with people in that setting and sold a record number of books.  From my viewpoint, the presentations are problematic but probably necessary.     

Ireland Struggles Post – Good Friday Peace Accord

New fictional novel by Rex Owens:  Out of Darkness

 

The novel, Out of Darkness, is a compelling narrative of the personal journey of an ex-IRA member and his rocky road to redemption.  Once part of the now-defunct IRA, author Ian Murphy feels the need to account for his role in the conflict:  writing the “Green Book,” the survival manual used by IRA fighters and the lives those fighters took to further their cause.

After the bloody bombing in Omagh, Sin Fein turns to Ian, asking him to confront the IRA hold-outs and persuade them to end the violence.  Even though Ian succeeds, he feels he needs to do more.  In the fall of 1998 the British government is determined to build walls in Belfast to separate Catholics and Protestants.  The walls are a symbol of continued British intervention in Northern Ireland.  Sinn Fein leaders again recruit Ian, this time to convince the people of Belfast that new walls are not needed.  Ian fails and is forced to look within to complete his quest for redemption.

Out of Darkness is book II of the Ian Murphy series, book one, Murphy’s Troubles is available on Amazon or from the author.

Out of Darkness is available at: www.amazon.com/Out-Darkness-Murphy-Rex-Owens

For my first novel, Murphy’s Troubles, I self-published on Create Space, which is wholly owned by Amazon.  One advantage is that Amazon automatically lists the book.  I wanted complete control of the entire process and Create Space allows that or there are services that can be purchased through Create Space.  Authors are also assigned a personal publication assistant to give advice and answer questions about the process.   The assistant can be called anytime and you are guaranteed a response within 24 hours.  I got to know my publication assistant very well.  My learning method is to ask a lot of questions and my assistant was always helpful and understood the stupidity of my questions.  I devoted four months to doing nothing but working with Create Space to publish that first novel.

It was a learning experience but I didn’t want to repeat it.  I read several writers’ magazines and learned about a new model for independent authors called assisted publishing.  In this model an independent company offers an array of publication services for fee.  One stop shopping for the author.  I contacted one firm in Minnesota and received a quote of $10,000 to publish my second novel.  It took me several days to recover from sticker shock.  The company representative demanded a response the same day I received the quote, I refused to respond.  Several days later I responded that I would need to raise $8000 from crowd funding to accept their offer – never heard from them again.

I decided that using Create Space independently was the path for me.  I contacted the copyeditor I worked with on Murphy’s Troubles to have her copyedit Out of Darkness.  I shared my experience with the Minnesota company and she told me she had started her own publishing company.   I asked her to prepare a quote for me.  She gave me a detailed quote and I was pleasantly surprised at the difference in price.  In addition to publishing the trade paperback she will release both Murphy’s Troubles and Out of Darkness as e-books.  It helped that she offered a 25% discount because we had worked together previously.  I didn’t need to do any crowd funding to work with her.

I agreed immediately and Out of Darkness will be published by CK Books publishing in June.  To learn more about my publisher go to:  ckbookspublishing.com.      

My first novel, Murphy’s Troubles, was released in November 2013.  I knew I had an opportunity for holiday sales so I devoted all my activity to marketing.  My emphasis was to market locally by having author discussions at our local library, the coffee shop, and an article in the local newspaper.  One of the questions always asked at the author presentations was:  are you going to write another book and have you started writing it?

The little voice inside my head screamed – are you kidding?  I’ve been working on this book for over ten years – off and on, the last three years intensely.  No, I’m not ready yet but yes I will definitely write another novel.  Fortunately, my internal editor squashed the little voice inside and I would politely respond that yes I want to write another novel but am not quite ready yet.

By February of 2014 I was ready to begin thinking about the next book to write.  At that time I had no idea what I wanted to write about.  I started a few books, two or three maybe – writing about three chapters and deciding it just didn’t feel right.

One evening I had a dream and the protagonist in Murphy’s Troubles told me he wasn’t done with his story.  It may sound bizarre but that’s exactly what happened.  I began researching what happened in Northern Ireland in the months following the vote on the referendum approving the 1998 Peace Accord.  It was a rocky road.  In August 1998 a group of disenchanted IRA members formed a new group called the Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA).  The RIRA refused to accept the Good Friday Agreement and vowed to continue the violence. 

In addition, the British government didn’t trust the citizens of Belfast, fearing that violence could/would/was likely to erupt at any time.  Their solution was to build more walls separating Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods.  These two historical events became the plot to continue Ian Murphy’s story.    

Today is my official, public coming out.  I am revealing that I was born on April 1st and my Mom was 39 years old when I was born.  The day I was born my brother was 16 and my sister was 13.  That makes me the “whoops” baby.  Later in life I joked with both my brother and sister that effectively I was an only child.  By the time I was old enough to remember them they were both in college.

When I tell people I was born on April 1st they ask – Really?  I generally respond – You think I’d make that up?

I grew up in a small town neighborhood on Lincoln Street.  Hard to get more middle glass than that.  My next door neighbor’s Dad was a butcher, across the street was a salesman and an electric line worker.  My best friend’s Dad worked for the city and farmed part time with his brothers.  All of the Mom’s in our neighborhood stayed at home to run the family, my Mom did too.

My parents enjoyed giving me birthday parties for both friends and family.  I have some great pictures of wearing a cowboy outfit, my first bike and other best in the whole world birthday presents.

All of my life I’ve had the disadvantage of being gullible and overly trusting.  Every year my friends pulled April fool’s jokes on me.  I never once figured it out before they pulled off the prank successfully.  It was all good fun and we all had a big laugh, even though inside I felt it was at my expense.

Later in life I researched how the day became known as April Fool’s Day.  It’s all about the calendar.  The original ancient calendar was the Julian calendar which celebrated New Year’s Day on April 1.  Pope Gregory for reasons unknown changed the date of New Year’s to January 1.  The Holy See degreed in 1582 that the world would use Pope Gregory’s calendar which we now call the Gregorian calendar.  Word traveled slowly in 1582.  Those who either refused to adopt the new calendar or didn’t know about the change were given fool’s errands on that day.

Gotch ya! Happy April Fool’s Day!  The whole calendar story is a hoax.  But I really was born on April 1st.