Face-lift: The Visibility Trick

Book one of A Mr. Doberman Adventure series just got ... I hope ... a little bit better. I have replaced the former description with a shorter and sleeker one that shows up better on the physical book (as its auto-adjusting font is larger, now 😏). Plus, I've got a shiny new blurb!

Shout out to P.G. Sundling, author of None of the Above series. He will probably never read this blog (Unless he is one of the four of you already here. Hold on, I'll check. Is he you? Is he you? Is he you? Is he you? OK. He officially isn't.), but: thank you, good sir.

The shiny new description and the shiny new blurb are reproduced in full below. You are welcome to give me input, of course. (I know you won't! 😘)

Absent-minded alien professor-type Mr. Doberman had established a nice little niche for himself at Oswald Academy, School of Magic. One he was quite fond of, thank you very much. You see: he is singularly gifted at the finicky, notorious “Invisibility Trick,” an advanced Mindful Art. Most recently he used it to become a homebody in Paris, North Dakota – a dangerous, impractical place … of boxy metal deathtraps and uncouth porcelain chairs. Of compassion, and chaos. Of tiny bipeds who make untenable demands.

Thank goodness that experiment is over!

Except two Earthlings in particular keep bleeding into his less fettered thoughts. Uncoordinated little rascals though they are, they seem to have found a cavity in the upper left-hand quadrant of Mr. Doberman’s torso. Which is weird. Because that area has never felt vacant before…

Now, before the closing of the fist, Mr. Doberman must answer a question he would once have found absurd. Torn between the world he knows and an incarceration of his own design, will he risk magic–perhaps expiration–to become a husband and a father again?

“An intriguing piece of experimental literature that made me re-examine what unconventional means… the book had me thinking about it well after I had finished reading.”

-P.G. Sundling, author of None of the Above series.

W officially IP

That's lingo we authors use. 😏. After existing for a month or so in the pre-contemplative stage, I came up with two directions and managed to choose one. That's right. A new work (W) is officially in progress (IP).

What I decided not to do, yet, is write a YA novel/la. Sorry, daughter mine. I'll have to get on that before you age out of being interested...

And that's all I'm going to say for now. Consider yourself teased.

(Do you like the new website look? 👀. Methinks me like. Drop a comment if you feel the same or different, if you are indifferent to feeling, if you are alive, if you feel alive, if you know who I am, if you stumbled on this page by accident, and it looks awful, or if you think Christmas is a humbug or might be. Not for any other reason, please. I'm trying to collect reasonable data here.)

That Happened

I gave my Blogspot a facelift today, and it might still be terrible. So how did I try to make it better just now? I typed a sentence out in which 2 of the first 6 words register as misspelled.

Guys, I'm not sure I know how to internet.

It would be great if pure customization were possible, here. And if I were an artist. And I could do that well. For now, just buckle up for changes that are happening. As always, welcome to Costco. I love you.*

*Is that still my 2013 profile you see on the right? It is! I don't want you to know in which city I'm currently residing! I've got kids and sh-... err, horse manure!

The Social Media Experiment of Christopher Beyers

I like that title. It has kind of a “The World According to Garp” feel. (And no, Google or whoever you are. I do not mean Gary.)

While there have been many social media experiments, 🔬, this is the only one that has been conducted by a Christopher Beyers, just like while there are many worlds, there has been only one accorded to by a Garp.

Wait. That’s not right.

Anyway, I recently branched out into Threads trying to sell books. And I’ve very quickly discovered the intense backlash to generative AI on Threads by my fellow author/poet/artists.

Which is great. I share that vibe.

Except apparently the em dash—which I’m using right now, to illustrate a point—is a “tell” that you are an entrepreneur and/or disgusting cheat, depending on which side of the AI debate you’re on (the human side, or the side of the stupid, dirty, content-stealing robots). That’s discouraging. I knew if I looked hard enough I could find some em dashes in The Second Coming of Christina. As in, in the first draft, written in 2013 in this three-ring spiral-bound notebook (shown in the picture below). I didn't have to look hard. Found one on page 4 (!!)*. And the thing is, I didn’t realize three-ring spiral-bound notebooks came with generative AI functionality.

Oh well. I guess if I’m ever accused of being a robot I’ll have to assess the age of the person making the accusation and the inflection of their voice. Then I can decide whether I should be flattered or if that was just the worst slur imaginable.

Also shown in the pictures below are all of my Threads ghost-posts I've thrown into the void over the past 24 hours for self-promotion. (Ghost posts are like regular posts, except they go even deeper into the void after 24 hours. From there they can only be retrieved by, I don't know, the CEO and the FBI?**) I’ve really enjoyed ghost-posting, I have to admit. And the void has been kind to me! After two months on social media I’ve sold … one additional books. I meant book. 📚 

Hmm. Maybe being a ghost isn’t the most profitable form of existence.

*You might have to squint. Text reads, "...-not since Jake left-..."

**And, yes: I am now preserving these impermanent posts that are actively scheduled for expiration. And, yes: I had to screen-shot them from my phone and e-mail them to myself to access them through my computer to do it. And, yes: that is a lot of effort to save something from deletion that I (still) fully intend to delete. And, yes: that's sort of ironic.