catchee monkey Archives - SEAN-CAMERON.COM

Little Free Library – take a book, give a book

By Sean Cameron | June 8, 2015

I take a lot of walks in my neighbourhood and in the last couple of years I’ve noticed small little house-shaped boxes on a stilt in people’s gardens. It’s not a birdhouse or a shrine, but a house of books – a Little Free Library – placed near the street so a passerby can take a look, grab a book, and return a different book.

Little Free Library is a non-profit organisation that supports people installing mini libraries on their lawn to share books with the community. Some buy official Little Free Library units but anyone can make their own and register it with the Little Free Library organisation to be added to the official map.

There are dozens of these libraries within a 10-mile radius of my home and I always take a look inside. While editing my novel Catchee Monkey: A Rex & Eddie Mystery I found a book on copyediting in a local LFL. I took the book home and used it as a guide while finishing Catchee Monkey.

This month I decided it was time I gave a book to the Little Free Library so I dropped off a couple of copies of Catchee Monkey, one at the LFL I got my copyediting book from and another local LFL I like. I also inserted a Strange Paul postcard which my artist friend Ben Cameron asked me to leave around Los Angeles. Check out his Etsy store.

I hope the Little Free Library trend continues to grow. Owners talk about how installing one connected them with their neighbours and brought a collection of new books to their front door. Of course, there are some spoil-sports who call in complaints and misuse zoning laws to remove the libraries, but hopefully common sense will win out. As soon as I have a front garden, I plan on getting a Free Little Library myself.

Reading Event: Book’d in Burbank

By Sean Cameron | March 29, 2015

On April 23th 2015 I’ll be doing a reading from my comedy-mystery novel Catchee Monkey. The event is called Book’d in Burbank and takes place at the Theater Banshee, 3435 W. Magnolia Blvd, Burbank, 91505.

As part of the literary entertainment there will be total of six readings spanning many genres: mystery, comedy, young adult, and romance. They’ll also be book giveaways, dessert, and a chance to mingle.

Tickets are $10 and can be bought at eventbrite.com Did I mention dessert?

NaNoWriMo 2014

By Sean Cameron | October 31, 2014

This month I will be taking part in National Novel Writing Month or #NaNoWriMo. I’m gonna write the first draft of the sequel to Catchee Monkey: A Rex & Eddie Mystery, and it will be 50,000 words (gulp). Below is the contract I signed with myself to keep myself accountable, which came from the book No Plot No Problem by Chris Baty. I’m all ready to go having spent the last two weeks working on the outline, and re-designing my office into a creative space I actually want to be in.

See you in December!

THE MONTH-LONG NOVELIST AGREEMENT AND STATEMENT OF UNDERSTANDING

I hereby pledge my intent to write a 50,000-word novel in one month’s time. By invoking an absurd, month-long deadline on such an enormous undertaking, I understand that notions of “craft”, “brilliance”, and “competency” are to be chucked right out the window, where they will remain, ignored, until they are retrieved for the editing process. I understand that I am a talented person, capable of heroic acts of creativity, and I will give myself enough time over the course of the next month to allow my innate gifts to come to the surface, unmolested by self-doubt, self-criticism, and other acts of self-bullying.

During the month ahead, I realize I will produce clunky dialogue, clichéd characters, and deeply flawed plots. I agree that all of these things will be left in my rough draft, to be corrected and/or excised at a later point. I understand my right to withhold my manuscript from all readers until I deem it completed. I also acknowledge my right as author to substantially inflate both the quality of the rough draft and the rigors of the writing process should such inflation prove useful in garnering me respect and attention, or freedom from participation in onerous household chores.

I acknowledge that the month-long, 50,000-word deadline I set for myself is absolute and unchangeable, and that any failure to meet the deadline, or any effort on my part to move the deadline once the adventure has begun, will invite well-deserved mockery from friends and family. I also acknowledge that, upon successful completion of the stated noveling objective, I am entitled to a period of gleeful celebration and revelry, the duration and intensity of which may preclude me from participating fully in workplace activities for days, if not weeks, afterward.

*****

A signed copy of this contract is on my wall right next my computer.

Shiny New Website

By Sean Cameron | August 30, 2014

It might not look it since I used the same theme, but you are looking at a brand new website. I’ve gone from the free wordpress.com to hosting my own site at hostgator using wordpress software. What does that mean? Well, it means I have to do more work and play around with the sites features. But it also means I get to play around with the site features! Using wordpress as software puts me in control, and that means I and use widgets and plug-ins to show off all sorts of stuff.

So what’s actually new? I’m all set up to show off my new book Catchee Monkey but I’ve also done the leg work for adding more books in the future. You’ll notice there is a progress bar on the right detailing the word counts of the various books I’ve got in development. I saw this feature on Hugh Howey’s website and knew that I had to have it immediately – then about 3 months later I got around to doing it. And I put samples of my scripts online as well should anyone want a look (Psst, he means you Mr. Hollywood Producer).

Feel free to take a look around. There are links to older stuff I’ve written in OTHER WRITINGS, the new ABOUT page will also be the text I use in my upcoming book. I’ve launched a newsletter to keep people in the know when a new book is available. And there’s a little hello to anyone that pirated my book, presumptuous of me to assume I’ve made something worth stealing, I know.

Basically, this is a long way of saying, look at the shiny new stuff.