Month: October 2022

About ‘Hello, Carolyn’

Posted on by johnpriceauthor

road between bare trees during foggy day

THIS WILL BE A SHORT blog, but I thought I’d write about character development. Anytime I write a character, I generally write a little bit about who they are. I set up their character in a document that the world never sees. It’s kind of my legend if you will…I refer back to it from time to time if I forget how a character is described. Mary is a short woman in her mid to late 30s, divorced from a husband that she cheated on with multiple men and was still able to get the house, kids, and half his retirement. She has one side of her head shaved because she feels some sort of independence from the patriarchy and a weird surge of power. Her friends and associates tell her, “girl you know you look good,” but in reality, the style is funny looking. Her friends say this exact thing, “it’s funny looking” behind her back, but would never say it directly to her. She wears red lipstick and has a dark tan. Her glasses are the trendiest, and she has on more than one occasion, ordered a ‘how to shuffle’ video from an Instagrammer.

This is how I would describe a person in a nutshell—their character, overall look, attitude, etc. This description can be an entire page long from time to time, even if they’re a side character who has a small role. I do this so that when Mary walks into the picture on page 21, I know how to describe her, almost like you would be able to describe a co-worker. “Ok, Kevin? Yeah, I know him. He’s a short black man with a long goatee. Every time you see him he’s always in a good mood. If you talk to him long enough, he’ll show you a pic or two of his wife. That dude really loves his wife.” Mary’s personal life may never even be brought up in the book, her financial status, or even anything about her purchase of Instagram Shuffling videos. But what it does is help me make her come to life. She feels real because in my mind, she is.

Why am I telling you this? In the story Hello, Carolyn the main character, Carolyn is an elderly woman that we follow all of her life. When I describe someone, I tend to empathize with their character because everyone is a product of their environment. It’s rare that I write a character and absolutely detest them.

Well…I detest Carolyn. In the upcoming weeks, I’ll begin promoting the story of Carolyn and I hope you’ll read along.

PHOTO CREDIT: Egor Myznik

So what now?

Posted on by johnpriceauthor

I’M SO GLAD YOU ASKED. Now that Happy Little Sheds is out and to the world, what now? If you’ve been following along, you know that this is the first short story in a series of short stories. And while each story does interact with the others, they all stand alone. You can either choose to read them as a set, or just one or two in no particular order. However, if there’s a part of the story where you think, that just seems like filler I can assure you it’s not.

Yesterday I was on the phone with my sister and she asked how the sales went for Happy Little Sheds and to be quite frank, I honestly don’t know. When I wrote The Mandela Effect (which I will republish, but with a shit ton of changes) I watched the sales on a daily basis, continually disappointed that it wasn’t selling, or doing as well as I hoped it would. Not only was it not selling, the asshats who promised, “I’ll give you a review if you let me read it” didn’t follow through. Basically, they read the book for free. Then, I wrote The Curious Story of Mitchell Parrish (another one that I will republish but again, will have some changes) and like The Mandela Effect I checked those rankings daily. They were better than The Mandela Effect but again, disappointing. Rinse and repeat—write another book, check the rankings on a daily basis and get disappointed, write another book, check the rankings on a daily basis and get disappointed. Pregator was my best seller but still somewhat disappointing in the grand scheme of things. It was when I wrote The Story of Hope that I decided not to check the rankings.

Before publishing The Story of Hope I kind of had a heart to heart with myself and asked the question—why do you write? To be honest, I love to write. I genuinely enjoy it. While I would love to make a nice income from writing, get a special on Netflix or Hulu, or even have Amazon pour a billion dollars into one of my series (badum tsss) it’s not something I’m expecting to happen. I write because I have stories to tell and I love it. From my writing, I’ve made anywhere from .77 in one month, to just over $1000. What’s interesting is that my feelings about writing don’t change. When I was checking the rankings and getting disappointed, I still wrote with the same fervor after I published as I did before I published. Literally nothing changed.

So here I am…and so are you…and I hope you’re enjoying the journey with me. Tuesday morning, I will open up a new document, and begin my next story, Hello, Carolyn. If you’re wondering who the fuck Carolyn is, well, she bought a piece of art from Mark Bolton in Happy Little Sheds. I think you’ll like the shitshow of a person she is in our next story.