Publishing Startup: Publishing Hau[5]

Hi. My non-fiction book, “You Can’t Sleep Here: A Clown’s Guide to Surviving Homelessness” has been published at a new literary startup based out of Austin, TX. Here’s the link to the first few pages:

http://publishinghau5.com/You-Can-t-Sleep-Here–A-Clown-s-Guide-To-Surviving-Homelessness.php

It’s nice to see my titles getting around. As you may know, my novel “Commoner the Vagabond” is being narrated as we speak and should be available as an audiobook at ACX in the next few months. I’ve listened to the first chapter already. It’s weird to hear the words I’ve authored being read aloud. Makes my book seem…important. The narrator is Lynn Carnefix from Kentucky and it sounds good so far.

I Published A Novel Today: Commoner the Vagabond

Yay! This is something I’d been meaning to do for years but was often sidelined by depression. ‘Commoner the Vagabond’ is a novel about the trials and tribulations of a homeless man with Asperger’s Syndrome who gets into frequent trouble with the law. His vindication comes in when a TV show about his exploits become popular and he becomes the darling of the downtrodden in his hometown of Seattle.

https://www.amazon.com/COMMONER-VAGABOND-NOVEL-Robin-Ray-ebook/dp/B01FCMA5AU?ie=UTF8&keywords=commoner%20the%20vagabond&qid=1462763545&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

No, the book isn’t about me, but as they say, write what you know, right? Right now it’s available on Kindle, but hopefully, there’ll be a paperback edition in the future.

In other news, I started creating the chapters for my new book which I plan to call “Homelessness 101: A Clown’s Guide To Survival”. I was going to write it with my homeless friend Travis but he just returned home to his family in the Midwest.  I guess I’ll go this one alone. It’ll be more a book of humor than an actual survival guide. That means I’d like illustrations galore. I can attempt that but it’d be better if a professional artist did it as I’m only so-so in that department. I should have “101” finished in about 2-3 months so I’ll start looking for an illustrator pretty soon.

Going On Tour Soon

I’ll be going on tour soon. What band am I currently in, did you ask? None, really. I’ll be having a book tour of Wetland and Other Stories that should last about a month. Hopefully I will get me some sweet reviews and, even better yet, purchases of my first book. It’s the dilemma of modern authors today. You can’t just sit back and let the small press publicize your book. Those days are over. You have to roll up your sleeves and take the bull by the horns yourself. Yes, it’s very tiring and time consuming, but it comes with the writing territory. I wasn’t expecting it, but it’s all good. Whatever’s clever, right?

Seattle Wrote Interview

Yay! I’m having my first interview for Wetland on Wednesday, July 31, 6:30 pm at the Starbucks on Elliot Ave. with Norelle Done from the blog Seattle Wrote. I’m excited and nervous at the same time. It feels kinda strange promoting myself and not MOON, the band I was in. I got used to promoting them so much it became 2nd nature. To just put my own self out there is a little nerve-wracking. If I fail I only have myself to blame. I’ve also been looking for another author to do Seattle readings with, but I guess those will be one man shows as well.

The Crossroads

Taking a deep breath, the relaxed but slightly nervous author Robin Ray pets his cat Missy and embarks on his hew adventure. He doesn’t know what awaits him in the darkness. As a matter of fact, he’s not even sure why he wants to venture forward. There must be some seed already planted in him that’s beginning to blossom into a stately literary oak. Or maybe its years and years of angst buried beneath his troubled mind that gives him no pause. For some unknown reason, he must let it all out. Yes, he knows some of it won’t be pretty. In fact, he knows some of it will be ugly. Still, he’s arrived at the crossroads, the point of no return. From this day forward his soul will be like an open book, a parchment or scroll prepared to be mounted like a pirate’s ship, drank in like a fine wine and devoured like a king’s feast. This will be his blog, the Writings of an American Author.

Here is the new blog from Seattle-based musician & author Robin Ray.

Designed specifically as an author’s site, this blog will be primarily focused on my writings. At times I may talk about the music I’ve written and recorded, but that will be secondary to my literary achievements. All of my writings have been fiction (with the odd non-fiction review on Amazon). They range from flash fiction all the way up to a full length novel. So far I’ve written about 30 short stories, six screenplays, five novellas, a handful of fairy tales and poems, and the novel “Commoner The Vagabond.” A collection of short stories and novellas will be published soon on All Things That Matter Press. It’s called “Wetland & Other Stories” and is fiction using the backdrop of the Pacific Northwest as its base. The stories run the gamut from general fiction to horror and from crime to science fiction.