Category: Marketing

The Ship is Launched

You’re a writer – you know how it is. You think about a project, and dream about it, and you wonder and wonder how it will turn out, all before you actually start it. And then, one day, you start it. And it’s entirely different than what you thought.

The first episode of California Air Museums is on the, well, air. Actually, it’s on YouTube, but YouTube is as much the new TV as 60 is the new 40, and orange is the new, well, it was the…

Anyway, you can view the first episode here.

My wonderful wife stood in as camera operator, and the Mojave Air Museum stood in as the museum. It was a ton of fun!

We got there around 2 in the afternoon and spent a good ten minutes wandering around the Mojave Air and Space Port looking for it, only to discover we’d driven right past it at the entrance. Oops.

No one was there, which made it a great place to try out our video production process. Even though I wore a lavalier microphone, the stiff wind obliterated, like, 90% of what I said. Luckily, I tend to babble, so we didn’t miss anything.

You know how it goes – most of what you shoot goes on the cutting room floor anyway. Of course, with video, there IS no cuttong room anymore…

We shot about 35 gigabytes of footage over the span of an hour and a half, and I have to tell you: this video business is a gas!

And the airplanes themselves were terrific. If you’re an aviation geek, or, like me, not too bright but like the airplanes, you will love this little musuem!

What this video does is formally launch California Air Museums as a thing. The site is revamped, and now holds slots for the many museum visits to come.

Zoom!

you see what I did there by writing zoom – kind of like saying we’re having fun and at the same time making a kind of airplane hand gesture sort of thing  – oh, yeah. you caught that…

A New Venue

My wife is a remarkable woman. Beautiful, brilliant, willing to put up with me, and just full of genius-level ideas.

If you visit JohnDReinhart.com – it’s pretty easy: just click on the name up there in the upper left-hand corner. Go ahead and try it… we’ll wait.

Did you see it? No? It’s something different. Take another look. Dum-de-doo-de-dum, black seven goes on the red six… Did you find it?

(Aggravated sigh) Do I have to do everything around here? The name, down there in the middle – the name. John D Reinhart Creative.

Okay, maybe you haven’t been to my site before, so, okay, I get it.

Now my site is called John D Reinhart Creative – kind of flows off the tongue, doesn’t it? Maybe?

You see, the California Air Museums project has taken on a new life. In addition to visiting the museums, my wife suggested that I do video visits, interviewing the curator, or director, or an otherwise interested person. And, the interview will end up on the California Air Museums site, and on a California Air Museums channel on YouTube.

So, I’ve got this cool Galaxy Z4 fold phone that has an awesome, awesome camera in it and 500 gigs of storage, and I’ve got a pair of wireless lavalier mikes, and I’ve got the newest version of DaVinci Resolve to edit it all together. What are we waiting for?

Well, I kinda sorta needed business cards to hand to the person when I say, like, drop me a line or something, because that’s what savvy businesspeople do.

So, here I am in Adobe Illustrator, making this epically long list of all the creative things I do, trying to squeeze it onto this itty-bitty, 2.5×3 inch business card in, like, 3pt type, when the very love of my life says “You’re an idiot. Just give yourself a name that covers all that stuff.”

And, viola, an industrial giant is born. A nice set of 100 Vistaprint business cards for, like, 28 bucks, due to arrive in, like, two weeks. Like, wow. Business cards? For me? It’s so… creative!

What is curious is that I’ve always been creative, but had never given myself the title. Now that I have it, everything just seems to drop right into place.

The key finally fit, and the door finally opened.

And it’s nice to be home. I feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. All I needed was to wear a dead lady’s shoes.

Plus, I got cool business cards!

Mursey, Mursey Me

We’re trendsetters, you and I. We’re writers, creators, pavers of the road forward. We gotta try stuff out and see if it works.

Take, for instance, the murse. The man purse. The European man-bag. Like the line from Madagascar 2: carry your stuff and still look tough.

Shakespeare and Kit Marlowe carried purses. So did the Three Musketeers. They were all fashionable gentlemen of their day.

I work with a bunch of engineers – eggheads the lot of ’em. Not one, zero, not even a percent of one, would ever be caught DEAD with a single-strap backpack. Because it’s a cross-body bag, like ladies wear. Eeeew, icky. Lookit me, I’m a girl!

That’s the mentality that keeps society stalled. The kind of thinking that drives us backwards.

But we’re writers, you and I. Our job is to move the world forward. We can’t leave it to the homophobic eggheads to do it.

In truth, it’s the fold-phone from Samsung that has driven me to the murse. I absolutely love the phone – in fact, I’m writing this post with it.

But it’s heavy – like two cellphones glued together! So heavy that my pants fall down when it’s in the pocket. So I have to carry it.

But the murse carries the phone, and my wallet, and my keys, and some gum, and a couple Granola bars… you know, critical stuff.

I got it from Amazon at a net cost after discounts of about $8. So, for the price of a Happy Meal, I get to be fashion-forward!

I took it with us on our trip up to the trendy beach town of Cambria. While my wife and daughter went tidepooling, the dogs and I sat down and enjoyed a cookie, pulled from the back pocket of my handy-dandy, Uber useful murse!

Icky indeed…

All Right, Something Else…

Hey, here’s another idea. Something New, Totally New, and it won’t cost a dime and it’ll make big bucks and, hey, where’re you going?

If you’ve been following the Saga of Me, you know I’m still waiiiiiiting for my beloved editor wife to read my lovely novel. It’s been three months. Come on. I wrote it in less time… just kidding. She’s been arduously studying for, and actually passed, some big human resources qualification dealio, and I am in fact super impressed and super proud of her. I’d be even more so if she read my book…

Whilst waiting, I’ve come up with a number of ideas, most dumb, some good, of how to further my writing career whilst waiting. Because waiting is what I do. A lot of. Wait. Like a Disney movie: wait, what?

So, this is it: California Air Museums. Wait, what?

I have a keen interest in aviation, don’t you know. So, who wouldn’t be interested in a website wherein the author (mois), visits and reviews the aircraft in the aviation museums here in the Golden State?

But wait, there’s more. Howzabout said author writes a touristy sort of review for the local tourist magazine, like The 805 Eats, or something, in the town of which is where the museum is. In. And makes a nickel for the review, thank you very much.

Wait, what? Makes a nickel?

Howzabout this: said author also writes a review with a more aviationary feel for the aviation-minded magazines, like Me and My Airplane, or something. And makes another nickel for that piece.

That’s two nickels plus a website post from just one visit. And California has 65 museums! Wait, what? That’s, like, maybe fifteen bucks in nickels!

All of this reviewing, etc., however, is aimed at what said author is really working on, which is a coffee-table book called… wait for it… wait a little longer… pause for effect… California Air Museums! Huh? Right? Ya with me?

My camera takes pretty good pics, so I’ve got that part covered.

And I’m building a database of the kinds of airplanes one might find in said museums, so it’s kind of like the website will be a resource. Yeah? High-five! Down low…

Wait, what?

This is not a project – it’s a career! All of this, all, to sell my book. Well, actually to get my name out there into the larger world at large so that, when my book finally gets approved by my lovely editor wife, publishers will be clamoring to get the rights.

Wake up, you’re dreaming again! Wait, what?

Best Not to Visualize

Whilst waiting and waiting for my notes to arrive on the new book, I took to 3D modeling the cast of characters. Big mistake.

You’re a writer – you know how it goes. You work so hard at creating a mental image of your characters, you always wonder what it would be like to actually see them.

I’ve got this goofy software that lets you create 3D models. Actually, it creates the model, starting with a base figure, and lets you customize the physical attributes.

Whilst a’waitin’ for mah notes, I thought I might just sorta mock up a book cover that has the whole cast in it. Ehhhh. Bad choice.

In the mind’s eye, the big guy is a giant – he’s huge, like a bear. When you go to cast a person like that, however… that’s a different story. He’s the guy on the right.

One of my characters is perpetually drunk – it’s not his fault. He is having a rough night in the tavern. Having drunk too much ale and run out of money, he gambles away a grimoire, a book of magic spells. Throughout the rest of the story, whenever anyone opens the book, it calls this poor fellow straight from his table at the tavern to wherever the book is in space and time. Worse, when the book’s done with him, he get put back, right there in the tavern, until the it’s opened again.

The other characters have this big adventure with the grimoire, but for him, it’s just one long, inebriated night. He’s the guy on the left. He looks like a little kid!

The old wizard, Shelburne, looks like a Martian in this image.

And let us not discuss the pants on Penrose, my main character, there in the center. I chose them because they’re knickers, and seem vaguely Elizabethan. But they’re meant to fit a huntress, and simply look… go ahead and say it… stupid with two o’s.

The kid and the girl came out all right, and the fellow in front of the giant is supposed to be a 10th Century prince – he looks okay. The girl is from that same time, but looks more like you’d meet her at the mall.

Emminy-way… you know who loses the argument, right? The first one to say “anyway…”

Anyway, I rendered these super quickly – so quickly that you can see the green-screen around the prince and princess. eh.

When the book is published, oh, this shall be a lovely cover, for certain.

For now? Best not to visualize…

When to Write

I just saw a post on LinkedIn that said, “a writer writes every day – what have you written today?” Whatta buncha malarkey!

The only person who should be telling you when to write is your boss, if you’re a professional, your editor if you’re published, or you,  if you’re like the rest of us.

Or your wife, if you’re like me.

We live in sunny Southern California, but in the northern part, which is separated from Central California by just a mountain range. If I drew you a map you’d get the picture.

It’s really nice here. Lots of beaches and mountains, and not nearly as crowded as LA, which is just on the other side of the Santa Monica Mountains. Yep, Los Angeles is just an hour to the east, the snowy mountains an hour to the north, and Central California just an hour to the west.

Central California is the home to the Santa Barbara County wine region, and the bazillion or so wineries with tasting rooms that cater to those with the means and the free time to go a’wine-tastin’. It’s a big deal up there. And not really all that expensive. And kinda fun…

Actually, wine tasting is kinda fun. You visit these beautiful wine estates, are seated at a nice table that overlooks the vines or the fermenting vats or the parking lot, and a wine server pours you a stingy little glass of wine, and explains that this wine comes from the owner’s private reserve stock featuring grapes that were pollinated by bees that have PhDs in oenology and tastes of honey and oak with a hint of marmalade and a nice finish of cheese, figs, and asparagus.

And you sip it and say oh, that is good. It takes about two sips to finish off the stingy little glass, and then the server comes back with a different bottle and a different story, and so it goes for five different wines. You don’t really want to go to more than two wineries on your trip because you lose your palate – a wine-tasting term meaning your ability to taste the wine – and you’ll also get sorta crocked.

And at $35 per person for a flight – a wine-taster’s term for the group of five wines – you want to taste that wine!

Out of the blue my wife says get off your can and go write about these tasting rooms. Somebody’s sure to publish that.

Two days later she says get off your can and let’s rent e-bikes so that you can write about our adventures doing that. Somebody’s sure to publish that, too.

Suddenly, my author’s to-do list is very full!  Pirates over here, wineries over there! E-bikes? Where does she come up with this stuff? And why can’t I sit on my can?

Because, she reminds me, the chances of getting my book published are muuuuch greater if I myself have been published.

Her point is well made.

Plus it gives me something more to do whilst waiting and waiting and waiting for her to read my manuscript to get the final official nod to go forward with seeking an agent and keeping peace here in the valley on account of she would get so mad if I said “skip it I’m gonna submit this book anyway” and she would be like “what? You couldn’t wait five minutes for me to read it?” and then she’d be all upset and I’d be all upset and she would hate the book and even if I did score an agent she would be like OMG I hate that book.

So, I guess I’ll get off my can and go to a winery.

In truth, I’m much harder on my lovely, elegant, and infinetly supportive wife than she deserves. She is a truly wonderful person and partner who actually knows a lot about the publishing industry. And she has the patience of a saint. And she knows a ton about wine, too.

That being said, no one should ever tell you when to write. You write when you’re ready to write. And don’t let anyone push you around, got it?

Got it?

Now leave me alone while get off my can and do l as I’m told…

Golden Treasure Island Archipelago

My car is so old that my mechanic took off the gas cap and handed it to me. His advice? Replace everything else.

You’re a writer, you know how it goes. You write the first draft, and then you rewrite, and then you rewrite it some more, and then it’s almost close to right. So you keep rewriting…

So riddle me this, Batperson: let’s say you have a house. It’s very nice, but you think maybe it’s time to remodel the kitchen, and maybe the bathroom. So you start changing things, you know. What if we did this, and put that room over there, and made a master suite, and an office, and a wet bar… and pretty soon, the only wall that isn’t changed is that one in the kitchen.

When it’s all done, is it the same house? It has the same address, I suppose, and sits on the same foundation. But is it the same joint that was built back in 1973?

The reason we’re here with this wearisome query is clear: I’m lost.

In putting cake under the icing, adding steak to go with the sizzle, I have somehow fundamentally changed the story.

“What?!? How could this be?” you ask. “I haven’t read the original, but I’m sure it was so good!”

The first draft was rather a madcap page-turning adventure story. Very fluffy and fun to write. And, according to my wife, the first 19 pages were the best I’ve written.

But everything from page 20 on is now new. Oh, they’re the same characters, but each now has more depth and solidity and backstories and stuff like that. And now there’s a clear plot and everything.

So, I ask you. Is it the same story? The same book?

This is a double conundrum because this book is actually a rewrite of my already self-published novel Droppington Place. If you haven’t read that one, well, there it is.

Sooooo, I’m thinking that I need to get out of the rewriting business and let this be a new book. The primary character is named Winchester Penrose. Maybe the new book will be called The Sawdust Man, a Winchester Penrose Story.

God, that sounds presumptuous, doesn’t it? Right out of the box, you’re launched into a series.

Shoot, I can’t even think of a sequel!