Help! I Need A New Slogan!

Tags

Call to Action, Marketing, Pindlebryth, Slogan

In 2014, I published my first novel, Pindlebryth of Lenland. When I flog this and all my other books, I tout Pindlebryth as:

“Narnia meets The DaVinci Code meets Jason Bourne; All the characters are animals, but it’s not for children; Swords & sorcery, political intrigue and backstabbing aplenty!”

At that time, a wonderful marketing adviser who goes by the moniker SuzyQ, came up with my current slogan “Warm & Fuzzy Mayhem!” It accurately reflected the spirit of Pindlebryth, and the novels yet to come in our hero’s continuing saga.

Since then, I have branched out into almost every direction in the Speculative Fiction world: Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy, Strange Tales and even Fairie Tales. Suffice it to say my slogan needs an update.

But I’m stuck. Marketing has never been my strong point.
Here’s a few ideas that have popped into my head, but don’t quite hit the mark.

Don’t Let Your Skin Crawl Too Far Away
From Mirthful Macabre to Malevolent Mayhem
Wonders and Terrors that Delight and Astonish
Defy the Unknown

So here’s the deal.
This is an open call to come up with my next slogan/tagline. If I select your catchphrase, or if it inspires me to craft my own final result, I’ll award that person with a signed copy of the latest publication containing two of my short stories, the Bethlehem Writers Group‘s anthology of the Paranormal (and Finalist in Killer Nashville‘s Silver Falchion Award), “Untethered.”

Leave your suggestions as comments to this blog by Halloween (10/31/19), and best of luck to us both!
Ready, set… Write!

 

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Jest a Minute, You!

Tags

jester, onion, Pindlebryth, politics

Other than the King himself, who held the most important position in the King’s court? The Queen? The Prime Minister? The Exchequer? The Archbishop?
I believe it was the Jester.

It was he who had the unenviable task of being the Conscience of the King.
Depending on the quality of the person holding the highest office of cleric, and on how religious His Majesty was, the Church should have also been risking that dance on the guillotine’s edge. But history shows that far too often the inner workings of the royal court often rendered the Guiding Light that should have been the King’s spiritual leader either totally silent, quite impotent, or even worse, more corrupt than the King himself.

It was therefore left to the the humble Jester to be the King’s conscience, his better self, his thorn-in-the-side.
A dangerous task, to be sure.

It still is today.
While I don’t place myself in the same arena as our current spate of late-night talk show hosts, political comedians/comediennes, and parody news sites (I lo-o-ve The Onion!) who skewer and lambaste those who so richly deserve it, I am thankful they are there, and admire the work they perform so adroitly.

To be sure, I have my own share of sarcastic and sardonic wit, though I marvel at the professional Jesters’ speedy and laser-accurate assessments of our politician’s foibles, hypocrisies, and outright blatant sins. It is truly a shame that like the Kings of Old, our leaders still hold the Jester with a disdain stronger than Drano, and ignore their sage advice.

The modern equivalent of The Jester certainly irritates those who have voted for these corrupt and/or brain-dead political flunkies. How else can it be explained that I find myself the target of wrath when I chime in with The Jesters? Time and time again, I have been blasted with the withering sanctimony, “He/She holds the office, he/she deserves your respect, so shaddap!”
Sometimes the name of God is also invoked by those same flapping lips.

They need to understand one thing about myself — and hopefully I speak for the professional Jesters as well — It is precisely because I respect the Office, that I lambaste the waste of protoplasm that infects said Office.

Needless to say, some of this acerbic attitude and witticism is bound to show up in my writings.
My epic fantasy, Pindlebryth, has its share. Take a peek and see for yourself!

I Write Like… Who?!

Tags

Clarke, Lovecraft, Pindlebryth, Vonnegut

A fellow author described his recent humorous experience with the writing analysis website “I Write Like”.  Now that I have a novel and a short story out in the world, with two more short stories available soon, I thought I’d give the software a spin.

Its results were a mixed bag.

Work	I Wrote Like…
Pindlebryth – Chapter 1	Dan Brown
– Chapter 2	David Foster Wallace
– Chapter 3	Margaret Atwood
– Chapter 4	Arthur C. Clarke
– Chapter 5	H.P. Lovecraft
-Chapter 6	Anne Rice
– Chapter 7	H.P. Lovecraft
– Chapter 8	L. Frank Baum
– Chapter 9	Dan Brown
– Epilogue	Arthur C. Clarke
Eight	Jane Austen
That Which Was Lost (March ’16)	Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
The Origin of Specious (Jan ’16)	Arthur C. Clarke

IWL nailed it when comparing my style to Lovecraft, Clarke and Vonnegut. This should not surprise anyone, as these three were my favorite authors during the first half of my life. It follows, therefore, that they should have the largest affect on my writing style.
What I find curious is that the software compared me to other authors, of whose work I’ve read very little. The most surprising result was IWL comparing my style to that of Jane Austen. I’ve read nothing of hers (yet) — but it might explain why one reader who is an Austen-ophile is gaga over Pindlebryth.

Being the ex-software-QA guy, it was only natural that I question how accurate these results really are. Running with a suggestion from one of my editors,* I tested the software by feeding it a couple of public domain texts. The software passed the comparison test three out of four times – only flubbing it with a Jules Verne short story, by declaring “You write like Daniel Defoe.”  Hmmm… not that far off base, so overall I give the software a solid “B” passing grade.

Just for grins and giggles, I’ll continue to run any future published work through the IWL mill.

* I hang my head in shame, that my editor thought of this before I did. As the QA guy, this should have been bloody obvious to me.