The current cover of Las Vegas Weekly has resulted in some unfortunate belly band ad placement for Richard Petty Driving Experience. After watching the past season of Walking Dead, I know quite a bit about zombie behavior. I did not, however, know that they could drive racecars.
I have lived in Las Vegas for 20+ years, and have never attempted to grow an outdoor garden. Mind you, I have successfully grown many other outdoor plants including an aloe vera that took over my life, but that is another story. As a kid, we always had gardens back in Wisconsin. The challenge of surviving a Vegas summer, let along trying to grown anything, has never made me want to try one out here.
One of my favorite 4th of July memories involves my sister and I in the backyard (circa-1976), twirling barefoot in our nightgowns as we held lit sparklers in both hands. As kids, Mom often made us take baths and put on pajamas before we did "nightime activities" such as watching fireworks and trick or treating, so nightgowns were common outdoor attire for us. We were celebrating our country's bicentennial and I remember everything being overly red, white and blue that year. I really didn't know what all the fuss was about but my sister and I loved our sparklers, especially the big ones that seemed to burn forever. We would laugh and twirl, lighting sparkler after sparkler until the box ran out. Dad and Uncle Donnie set off dozens of bottle rockets and firecrackers, scaring our Aunt Linda every time. Thinking back, I don't know if polyester pajamas, lit sparklers and bare feet were really a great combo for safety reasons... ah, you gotta love the '70s.
I would totally go see this (if was real)
http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6789072/dora-the-explorer-movie-trailer-with-ariel-winter
My cousins, Carol and Adam Kunz (co-writing under the pen name of C.A. Kunz), have just released their second novel, Dark Days. It’s a follow up to their first effort, The Childe, and is second in a series of five. I’m not usually a huge fan of the young adult/vampire/fantasy/teen angst genre, but since actual relatives wrote The Childe, I thought I should at least give their book a try. The overall story and their combined writing style pleasantly surprised me (of course I am a little biased).
As many first-time authors discover, no publisher was interested in the work of C.A. Kunz, their teen vampire or her angst. So, Carol and Adam explored self-publishing and decided to go for it.
Being self-published, I was interested in how Carol and Adam were able to market their novel and create a following to move units and (hopefully) get an actual publisher to take on books two through five. I have known several self-published authors and most of their books did not sell enough copies to cover the up front expenses, let alone ever turn a profit.
Carol and Adam decided to divide and conquer. Adam took control of all the social media, creating an active online persona for the fictitious C.A. Kunz. He regularly blogs about characters, tweets locations of book signings and stays active in the small but passionate circle of indie authors. He also uses business contacts through his work at a certain theme park in Orlando to generate interest and low-cost publicity. Along with being Adam’s mom, Carol takes care of all the business dealings, making sure all bases are covered from a legal standpoint. They both appear at book signings and public relations events.
Through some dedication, C.A. Kunz has been able to build a small but loyal following. Their second book, Dark Days, available through Amazon.com and regionally in bookstores, is helping Adam and Carol fulfill a life-long dream of being authors. Pretty cool.
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