Category: writing

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For Immediate Release: Hour of Consequence Published

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Hiawatha, IA July 20, 2019

In the new novel Hour of Consequence, radio host John Beaman loses his job. A caller to the show gives a play-by-play of the murder of federal agents and then calls for rebellion. Now the feds want to know Beaman’s part in the rebellion. Rebels want to rescue him from the feds. Patriots want him dead. He just wants to return to his pre-radio life. That’s hard to do with a mysterious group tied to everything he’s done.

This is the second novel by Bob Trapp. The first, Cordell’s Rebellion, came out in 2018. Though related, Hour of Consequence is not a direct sequel to Cordell. When not writing, Trapp teaches data analytics and software development in a small college in Iowa.

Hour of Consequence is available as an eBook or paperback from Barnes and Noble.

The new project is an attempt at a screenplay. I expected some difficulties learning the new format, having never done a screenplay before. Another problem has caused more trouble, and I’m not completely sure why. It will require a new approach.

My delay is something in my brain. I sit to write and everything goes blank. Normally this would just be writer’s block. Previous bouts writer’s block have prevented me from figuring out what happens next in the story. This is different, though.

I know the whole story I am trying to tell. I’ve watched it in my head as though watching the movie. I know the scenes, the characters, every line of dialog. I should be able to get that written without any trouble. When I sit to do so, it all goes away. When I walk away from the keyboard, everything is back.

My guess is that there is some sort of apprehension about taking on a new medium. This is my first real screenplay. I experimented by writing a couple of short, television commercial-length items just to get a feel for the document structure. They went smoothly. I haven’t done anything else.

In addition to writing a new way, there is the business itself. I’m not really a Hollywood person. Much of the glamour of the movie industry holds no interest for me. I would rather be an anonymous person in the woods than be a public person showing up at parties. I have to ask myself, is this a world in which I want to do business?

The best approach would be to ask: why do I want to write a screenplay? Maybe better, what do I want to accomplish? Those may or may not be equivalent questions. Most writing comes out of me because my brain needs to create stories to explore complex models. I get the writing out of me and I feel better.

At the same time, time runs quickly and retirement age approaches. I would like to have something I can do for income once “retired” and writing would be a good option as long as I can turn a profit. Novelists can make reasonable money if their books sell. According to the Writers Guild of America, the bottom end of a low budget screenplay can pay almost as much as I make as a community college professor. Given my normal writing speed, this is a skill that I definitely need for my retirement.

As an experiment, I plan to write the story of my screenplay in more of a narrative form. Once completed, I will then reformat it to fit the screenplay format. As mentioned, I can see the entire movie in my head and know what needs to be there. I hope that this will trick my brain so I don’t get the blockage.

Wish me luck.

I just finished reading a novel by my friend Alethea Shenea Cook called Just Wing It. This is the brief review I left on my goodreads page.

Just Wing It by Alethea Shenea Cook

I wasn’t sure that I would be in the target audience for this book, but I gave it a try. By the time I neared the end, it was hard to put down. There were definitely some good surprises. The characters were well developed and it was really easy to hate the bad guys while still understanding why they were bad guys. Very good job, Ms. Cook (the author).

View all my reviews

My day job involves a lot of writing, though it is mostly educational materials for the classes I teach. Sometimes, though, I contribute a little something to my community. To see an example of this, take a look here:https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-may-only-need-data-analytics-technician-bob-trapp

The point of this piece is to spark the discussion that will lead local employers to seek out my students. Though I teach at a community college, my students come out with awesome technical skills and can hit the ground running in the data and software world. Our program has a great reputation in the region, but technology changes. Some of our industry advisors wanted Data Analytics as a program, so that is what we are giving them.

During the early stage of a new Career and Technical Education (CTE) program, there is often a disconnect between employers and graduates. Part of my job is to help make those connections. Once established, the program will produce capable graduates that feed into the employment needs in the area.

As it says in my article linked above, community colleges around the country are starting programs for these day-to-day data workers. It’s just the way things are going. It will be no time at all until my little program will be a big program with multiple instructors and too many students. The people will look at it as though it is just another program and “of course you would have such a program; it’s normal”.

Now that my novel Hour of Consequence is out in both eBook and paperback versions, I need to start the marketing. I already did the simple stuff, like announcing the books on social media. The more professional stuff is next. It will be my first time with an all-out marketing activity; what wonderful mistakes will I make?

One of the first steps is to send the book to professional reviewers. These are people who review books and then print their reviews in magazines or websites. If a good reviewer can recommend your book to their audience, it can drive sales up quite a bit. When you get several good reviews, it really sets things off.

The trick is to find the reviewers and determine their requirements. You don’t want to get on their bad side by violating their rules. Then you create an appropriate introductory letter and send it along with a copy of the book. Finding them will require an Internet search.

In the past, publishers would send galleys (essentially a copy of what a book would look like after publishing, but made before actual publishing). Today we have print on demand; by the time you have a galley the finished book is only a couple of days away.

If this part goes well, I will have to document all of it for the next time I publish a book. I may even offer it as a service to acquaintances who self-publish.

The next step is to send press releases. This is new to me also. I’m not good as self-promotion, tending toward the subtle side of things. This involves both writing the release and getting a list of targets. The obvious targets are for newspapers and similar from the immediate region. “Iowan author releases second novel” should be the theme.

The purpose of the press release is to get the attention of these publications in the hope that they will want to produce an article about me and my writing. Such articles are free publicity. That’s way better than paying for advertising.

The final and least happy step is looking into buying ads. What does it cost to buy ad space in the major newspapers in the region? Would it do any good? What will it cost to have a graphic designer make the ad? This could quickly turn expensive and may not be worth it in the long run. If the advertising does not generate enough revenue then all the money spent is lost. I wonder how much of that can be written off as a business loss come tax time? I wonder if writing can be more profitable that way.

Those are my next steps. I will let you know how it goes. It would be better still is some reviewer in your favorite periodical lets you know how it goes.