Unabashed

Every day this week I’m going to post one of the first five chapters of my book, Modern-Day Mythica here. I hope you find it entertaining; feel free to quip, critique, make suggestions or comment at will. When it’s over, let me know what you think.

This isn’t a book that’s promised, or even submitted, to any publisher. I’ll just say my options are open right now as to what to do with it. (Lack of commenting will not make me very eager to release any more of it, btw.) Linking is also, of course, very welcome.

Disclaimer: There is a bit of violence and some crude language, but there are characters in the story who are crude people, so. And I guess I’m supposed to add that this is a work of fiction, all characters are fictional and not based on any real person, anywhere.

I’ll activate the following links as the chapters come online.

Chapter One: Gregg
Chapter Two: Joe
Chapter Three: Griffin
Chapter Four: Martin
Chapter Five: Hillock

Don’t forget the Mythica wiki companion website.

written by Matt Mitchell

I found an amazing thread about self-publishing on, curiously, a music web site. In it they make a comparison between indie film and music to self-publishing writers. It’s from ‘05, but definitely worth a read. Excerpt:

1. Both those mediums (indie film/indie music) have a tolerance, or appreciation even, of human flaws in the work — poor singing, sloppy guitars, handheld cameras. There’s almost an ethos where people are refreshed to find these little flaws in indie upstarts. When it comes to writing, however, I don’t think your ordinary person has as much tolerance for such imperfections. (I’m not saying you have bad writing, of course, but I’m making generalizations about the overall editorial, design, and print results I’ve seen in other self-published works.)

2. I think Juggles already touched on this, but writing can be a very solipsistic experience. Whereas music and film are typically very collaborative creations that are experienced in public settings (festivals, concerts, theaters, etc.), with writing there’s the perception that it’s all done alone in a room somewhere, with the end result being consumed alone in another room. It’s harder to break that sense of isolation and create a viable audience or sense of community around an individual’s book

written by Matt Mitchell