I was always a math and science kinda guy in school.  Math made sense and science was logical.  If you went back and looked at my high school yearbook, probably half the inscriptions read something like:  “Thanks for helping me get through chemistry.”  People wanted to sit next to me in those classes, but no one ever fought to sit next to me in English class.

English wasn’t my thing, especially when we had to memorize.  I suck at memorizing.  I’ve only truly memorized one thing in my life— the poem “El Dorado” by Edgar Allan Poe.   

 I can still recite it from memory:

          Gaily bedight, A gallant knight, in sunshine and in shadow…

This poem has been stuck in my head since 10th grade English class where I had a teacher that thought the only way to teach literature was to make her students memorize it.  Somehow, I managed to pass that class and only completely memorize the one poem.  The only other passage that I still remember, somewhat, is Marc Antony’s speech in “Julius Caesar”:

 Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;

 I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

And that’s all I can remember verbatim, but like “El Dorado”, that speech has stayed with me.   I remember how Antony stirred up the crowd through a bit of double-speak and reverse psychology.  Throughout the speech, his arguments seem to support Brutus and the rest of Caesar’s killer, but in reality, they do just the opposite.

If only we struggling writers could channel a little Shakespeare to help with our marketing efforts.

I think Marc Antony would make a great  book publicist:

Friends, readers, fellow writers, lend me your ears;

I come to berate the Kingdom of Haven series, not to praise it.

Independently published books should be ignored;

And traditionally published books will be praised by the powers that be;

So let it be with this series.

The noble book establishment

Hath told you the Kingdom of Haven series should be ignored:

And this is an honorable establishment.

The Kingdom of Haven series hath brought tears to my eyes,

Yet the book establishment says it should be ignored,

And this is an honorable establishment.

The Kingdom of Haven series hath made me laugh,

Yet the book establishment says it should be ignored,

And this is an honorable establishment.

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men lost their reason.  Bear with me;

My heart is buried on Amazon with The Kingdom of Haven series,

And I must pause till it come back to me.

 

Okay, that’s your cue to run amuck in the streets (Or maybe on the internet).  Go and get a copy of The Order of the Wolf or Stenson Blues on Amazon or Kobo.  Book 3, The Eastern Factor, will be coming your way in January.