Scott Middlemist's Blog: Self-Publishing Odyssey
April 24, 2012
Welcome
It is strange to find myself holding a book with my name on the cover--a book I self-published. How in the world did this happen? Was I stubborn? Yes. Vain? No doubt. Convinced I had a story worth sharing? Absolutely.
I offer this blog as a reflection of my journey to self-publishing and hope that others may take something from it, as I took inspiration and advice from many I will mention below. Writing in isolation is hard enough, even worse when you think you are alone. You’re not.
I offer this blog as a reflection of my journey to self-publishing and hope that others may take something from it, as I took inspiration and advice from many I will mention below. Writing in isolation is hard enough, even worse when you think you are alone. You’re not.
Starting Line
My great grandfather Clinton Odell owned Burma-Shave, a shaving cream company known for its memorable roadside jingles. The rhyming signs entertained the nation with jokes that captured life in America. The ability to engage people with language was passed onto me by my grandfather Leonard, who ran Burma-Shave with his brother after their father Clinton passed away. Grandpa Leonard had a charm and grace that all of us wanted to emulate. He understood that words are best used to bring people together.
That love of language led me to reading, and Stephen King was my first favorite, especially "Cujo" and "The Stand." Although labeled as a “horror” writer, anyone whose read him knows that his stories encompass all genres and are often far more literary that he will ever be credited for. I developed a hunger for stories that led me along a winding path, and preferably a dark path, where the evil in men and women is closely examined.
When I was young, a reoccurring nightmare involved me crossing the house in the middle of the night and running into the devil, who sat in our living room, holding a piece of paper that he claimed was a contract for my soul. I always woke up screaming for him to let me go. That haunting image connected tightly to King’s stories and fermented in my mind.
T.H. White’s "The Once and Future King" was the next novel to grab me in middle school. It ingrained heroic archetypes in my imagination long before I read Joseph Campbell’s groundbreaking work in that field. I was enthralled by Arthur’s transformation into a king questing to destroy the abusive attitude that “Might is Right.” Even as Mordred killed him, Arthur hoped “Might for Right” would spread as a new ruling philosophy of justice.
J.D. Salinger possessed me in high school with his sharp ear for teenage dialogue in "The Catcher in the Rye" and "Franny and Zooey." At Brophy Prep in Phoenix, a hi-light of my senior English class was "teaching" his short story collection "Nine Stories." Unfortunately, the class hadn’t read a word of it, so they suffered I’m sure, but I had a blast. During that experience, little did I know that the seeds for returning to Brophy as a future English teacher were planted. Perhaps my teacher at the time, Jack LaBonte, saw something in me about which I had no clue?
Salinger was a big reason why I majored in English with a creative writing emphasis at Santa Clara. While not much of student overall, I learned so much about the economy of language from Professor James Degnan. He wrote a great line on one of my essays that still echoes in my head —“Here we are on page 2, and you’ve yet to make a point.” My writing continued to improve with Professor Ed Kleinschmidt, who showed us the power of imagery. His success made writing as a career seem possible. After all, when was last time you saw a full page poem published in a newspaper? The San Jose Mercury News published Ed’s poem “Tremblor” as a powerful reaction to the 1989 Bay Area earthquake.
In addition, Ed’s married to author Frances Mayes, and he had great stories about the writing life and writers they knew. He told us about a birthday party they threw for Salman Rushdie, who was being hunted at the time and in hiding for writing "The Satanic Verses." Ed had a Polaroid of Rushdie holding up a cake with “Shame” written on it--having fun with his new book title. All of this might sound like shallow name dropping, but Ed’s stories had a humble “Lake Wobegon” tone that made us feel like insiders. To a class of college students, it helped lift the veil of mystery surrounding writers, and invited all of us to go for it.
More to follow…
That love of language led me to reading, and Stephen King was my first favorite, especially "Cujo" and "The Stand." Although labeled as a “horror” writer, anyone whose read him knows that his stories encompass all genres and are often far more literary that he will ever be credited for. I developed a hunger for stories that led me along a winding path, and preferably a dark path, where the evil in men and women is closely examined.
When I was young, a reoccurring nightmare involved me crossing the house in the middle of the night and running into the devil, who sat in our living room, holding a piece of paper that he claimed was a contract for my soul. I always woke up screaming for him to let me go. That haunting image connected tightly to King’s stories and fermented in my mind.
T.H. White’s "The Once and Future King" was the next novel to grab me in middle school. It ingrained heroic archetypes in my imagination long before I read Joseph Campbell’s groundbreaking work in that field. I was enthralled by Arthur’s transformation into a king questing to destroy the abusive attitude that “Might is Right.” Even as Mordred killed him, Arthur hoped “Might for Right” would spread as a new ruling philosophy of justice.
J.D. Salinger possessed me in high school with his sharp ear for teenage dialogue in "The Catcher in the Rye" and "Franny and Zooey." At Brophy Prep in Phoenix, a hi-light of my senior English class was "teaching" his short story collection "Nine Stories." Unfortunately, the class hadn’t read a word of it, so they suffered I’m sure, but I had a blast. During that experience, little did I know that the seeds for returning to Brophy as a future English teacher were planted. Perhaps my teacher at the time, Jack LaBonte, saw something in me about which I had no clue?
Salinger was a big reason why I majored in English with a creative writing emphasis at Santa Clara. While not much of student overall, I learned so much about the economy of language from Professor James Degnan. He wrote a great line on one of my essays that still echoes in my head —“Here we are on page 2, and you’ve yet to make a point.” My writing continued to improve with Professor Ed Kleinschmidt, who showed us the power of imagery. His success made writing as a career seem possible. After all, when was last time you saw a full page poem published in a newspaper? The San Jose Mercury News published Ed’s poem “Tremblor” as a powerful reaction to the 1989 Bay Area earthquake.
In addition, Ed’s married to author Frances Mayes, and he had great stories about the writing life and writers they knew. He told us about a birthday party they threw for Salman Rushdie, who was being hunted at the time and in hiding for writing "The Satanic Verses." Ed had a Polaroid of Rushdie holding up a cake with “Shame” written on it--having fun with his new book title. All of this might sound like shallow name dropping, but Ed’s stories had a humble “Lake Wobegon” tone that made us feel like insiders. To a class of college students, it helped lift the veil of mystery surrounding writers, and invited all of us to go for it.
More to follow…
