Fletcher Bell's Blog

Three in a Row is now available through Amazon and Smashwords. Barnes and Nobles should be up later today.          

Amazon

Smashwords 

I am very pleased with this!

Thanks @davin!

The other day, while editing I need to know an esoteric detail – Do campus police in Indiana wear plain clothes or a uniform. I looked on a couple of website where I found several pictures of campus police detectives in uniforms and plain clothes. I could also call up the police force of the University I am at and ask them but those folks have busy lives doing important things. So I asked on twitter and what do you know, one of my local friends said she had worked with local campus police detectives and told me all about what they wore and when.

So if you have a detail or question you can't find an answer for try asking on twitter. One of your followers might know the answer or even be an expert in that area.

Now that I have the teaser posted, I thought I would post some images that invoke the same feeling, mood and look of what I was going for with the first chapter.

Enter Forest Exit by *signmeupscotty on deviantART

This image has the colors and trees that I love. The parallel lines of the trees is contrasted with the explosion of autumn leaves.

Forest of Mysteries by =Ibilicious on deviantART

The road in this picture invokes that feeling of a seldom used trial through a thick wood and I once again love the colors.

I left the tarp down the road by ~ArtThinkz on deviantART

It is almost like this picture is from the teaser. The blue tarp in the woods by a road took my breath away when I first saw it.

All beautiful works and I thank the artists for sharing them.

Note: While writing Three in a Row, I creating a playlist of songs I would listen to over and over again. This list grew organically from songs that reminded me of events in the book or evoked similar emotions.  By about the middle of the writing process, the writing soundtrack was pretty much set and I didn't listen to anything else. You can find all the songs here but these posts are about individual songs.
Song: 3 Libras

Artist: A Perfect Circle

Album: Mer de Noms

 



 

 Synopsis: Like other tracks in this collection, there is acoustic guitar mixed with strings here but Perfect Circle manages to create a hard driving song without distortion or screaming. Maynard James Keenan's voice quivers in just right way to show both anger, resentment and hurt. He keeps reminding us he is throwing the obvious and we are missing it. Then the resignation of the line "apparently nothing at all" sets the song off on another path. The theme of not seeing the obvious runs deep through Three in a Row and theis song captures that feeling so well.

Lyrics:

threw you the obvious and you flew

with it on your back, a name in your recollection,

thrown down among a million same.

difficult not to feel a little bit disappointed

and passed over

when I've looked right through

to see you naked and oblivious

and

you don't see me.

but i threw you the obvious

just to see if there's more behind the eyes

of a fallen angel,

eyes of a tragedy.

here i am expecting just a little bit

too much from the wounded.

but i see through it all

see you.

cause i threw you the obvious

to see what occurs behind the eyes of a fallen angel,

eyes of a tragedy.

oh well. apparently nothing.

apparently nothing at all.

you don't see me.

you don't see me at all.

 

Links:

A Perfect Circle

I wear a couple of different hats. I am perusing my Phd, write mass-market technical books, and am now venturing into self-published fiction. When I was young, like a lot of people, I wanted to be a writer. I had these grand visions of huge lines at book signings with people telling me how their book changed their life. When I finished my undergrad so many years ago, (University of Waterloo '93) I moved to Toronto with the idea I was going to write novels and live in a city. I had two very self-indulgent poorly-constructed novels written and knew I could do better.

Months past and I had not written much of anything and the cupboard was getting bare so I went to work. A number of very strange, wonderful ad heart-breaking things happened and now I am in Bloomington, Indiana.

I publish in academic journals and present at academic conferences. This is both my job and my passion. I have an endless need to figure things out, particularly around media and deception.  Reputation and name branding are very important in the academic field so I use the name Mark W.Bell.

While working on my PhD my wife and I wrote Second Life for Dummies and then I was asked to write a book about using free tools to make websites and so Build a Website for Free was published in 2009 and sold very well. It is an near indescribable feeling of walking into any book store and finding a book with your name on it in the shelves. So many people in the self-publishing area lack that and wish they all could have it. Showing my son where my book is in a book store is a high point!

So why self-publish the detective fiction and young adult literature I am planning? I have publishing contacts with several companies and a quality near-finished product. I should be contacting agents and submitting query letters. But that is not where the action is. The self-publishing arena powered by nook and kindle, distributed through social media and an endless well of creativity is extremely exciting. I can't wait to see where this great adventure leads.

Note: While writing Three in a Row, I creating a playlist of songs I would listen to over and over again. This list grew organically from songs that reminded me of events in the book or evoked similar emotions.  By about the middle of the writing process, the writing soundtrack was pretty much set and I didn’t listen to anything else. You can find all the songs here but these posts are about individual songs.

Song: Feeling Gravity’s Pull

Artist: R.E.M.

Album: Fables of the Reconstruction

Synopsis: A stark guitar rift acts in contrast to a whispered opening. The guitars clear harmonics ring out like a bell when the bass and drums come in hard with a slow crunchy grove. Then the chorus opens up the entire song like the sky and light in the lyrics. Michael Stipe’s voice slowly becomes a growl and the cello part creeps in to the mix slowly to become more and more dominant at the end.  The reference to Man Ray ties it into an artistic vibe that leaves you moved and changed.

Man Ray’s les amoureux – It’s a Man Ray kind of sky

Lyrics:

I fell asleep and read just about every paragraph

Read the scene where gravity is pulling me around

Peel back the mountains peel back the sky

Stomp gravity into the floor

It’s a Man Ray kind of sky

Let me show you what I can do with it

Time and distance are out of place here

Step up, step up, step up the sky is open-armed

When the light is mine, I felt gravity pull

Somewhere near the end it said

“You can’t do this”, I said “I can too”

Shift sway rivers shift, oceans fall and mountains drift

It’s a Man Ray kind of sky

Let me show you what I can do with it

Step up, step up, step up the sky is open-armed

When the light is mine, I felt gravity pull onto my eyes,

Holding my head straight (looking down)

This is the easiest task I’ve ever had to do

I fell asleep and read just about every paragraph

Read the scene where gravity is pulling me around

Shift the swaying river’s shift

Oceans fall and mountains rift

It’s a Man Ray kind of sky

Let me show you what I can do with it

Time and distance are out of place here

Step up, step up, step up the sky is open-armed

When the light is mine, I felt gravity pull onto my eyes,

Holding my head straight (looking down)

This is the easiest task I’ve ever had to do

Reason had harnessed the tame

Holding the sky in their arms

Gravity pulls me down

Links:

R.E.M.

Man Ray

Note: While writing Three in a Row, I creating a playlist of songs I would listen to over and over again. This list grew organically from songs that reminded me of events in the book or evoked similar emotions.  By about the middle of the writing process, the writing soundtrack was pretty much set and I didn't listen to anything else. You can find all the songs here but these posts are about individual songs.

Song: Feeling Gravity's Pull

Artist: R.E.M.

Album: Fables of the Reconstruction

Synopsis: A stark guitar rift acts in contrast to a whispered opening. The guitars clear harmonics ring out like a bell when the bass and drums come in hard with a slow crunchy grove. Then the chorus opens up the entire song like the sky and light in the lyrics. Michael Stipe's voice slowly becomes a growl and the cello part creeps in to the mix slowly to become more and more dominant at the end.  The reference to Man Ray ties it into an artistic vibe that leaves you moved and changed.

Man Ray's les amoureux – It's a Man Ray kind of sky

Lyrics:

I fell asleep and read just about every paragraph

Read the scene where gravity is pulling me around

Peel back the mountains peel back the sky

Stomp gravity into the floor

It's a Man Ray kind of sky

Let me show you what I can do with it

Time and distance are out of place here

Step up, step up, step up the sky is open-armed

When the light is mine, I felt gravity pull

Somewhere near the end it said

"You can't do this", I said "I can too"

Shift sway rivers shift, oceans fall and mountains drift

It's a Man Ray kind of sky

Let me show you what I can do with it

Step up, step up, step up the sky is open-armed

When the light is mine, I felt gravity pull onto my eyes,

Holding my head straight (looking down)

This is the easiest task I've ever had to do

I fell asleep and read just about every paragraph

Read the scene where gravity is pulling me around

Shift the swaying river's shift

Oceans fall and mountains rift

It's a Man Ray kind of sky

Let me show you what I can do with it

Time and distance are out of place here

Step up, step up, step up the sky is open-armed

When the light is mine, I felt gravity pull onto my eyes,

Holding my head straight (looking down)

This is the easiest task I've ever had to do

Reason had harnessed the tame

Holding the sky in their arms

Gravity pulls me down

Links:

R.E.M.

Man Ray

The book trailer is finally done! I want to thank the amazing team at Perfect Cut Productions for their amazing work. They were professional and fun to work with. They delivered on the vision I gave them and I could not be more pleased with the result. Without further ado, may I present to you the trailer for Three in a Row.

Comments welcome!

As always there is good and bad news on this front. The bad news is the editing is going much slower than I expected. This is disappointing but in the end is making Three in a Row a much better book. So I am still hitting it hard but I won't be releasing on June 27. Right now I am hoping for the first week of July.

The good news is the trailer is complete and being uploaded. I should be releasing it tomorrow and hoping it creates even more buzz for the book. Thanks again to Perfect Cut Productions for doing such an amazing job!