Joined on 10/28???

@chalk2001 said:

Really dig the sample man - you write very well! It flows and keeps you interested !

Thanks a lot, really appreciate that.

@chalk2001 said:

Just out of curiosity, is the book bibliographical or some form there-of? Just kinda wondering if this is all 100% true or if there's a little flair thrown in there for entertainment purposes?

Actually, it's 100% fiction. I've experienced most of this stuff first hand, of course, as many of us have, so the details are "true," but it really is a work of fiction.

Thanks again for reading and responding and asking questions, I love it. Discussing this book is like a dream come true.

Good luck with your book, I may have waited before introducing it to the community but good luck means good luck

@careful_w_that_axe_Miller said:

Good luck with your book, I may have waited before introducing it to the community but good luck means good luck

Thanks for the good luck wishes. Why would you have waited?

@HARRYHOOD213 said:

@TheHeads said:

@careful_w_that_axe_Miller said:

Good luck with your book, I may have waited before introducing it to the community but good luck means good luck

Thanks for the good luck wishes. Why would you have waited?

Because no one knows who the hell you are. If you were a regular poster and came out with this, may have had a different reaction. You clearly created an account just to try and sell this thing.

Who cares if he did? He's not pretending otherwise. Looks like the guy is trying to market his book. Seems fair.

@jcorn said:

@HARRYHOOD213 said:

@TheHeads said:

@careful_w_that_axe_Miller said:

Good luck with your book, I may have waited before introducing it to the community but good luck means good luck

Thanks for the good luck wishes. Why would you have waited?

Because no one knows who the hell you are. If you were a regular poster and came out with this, may have had a different reaction. You clearly created an account just to try and sell this thing.

Who cares if he did? He's not pretending otherwise. Looks like the guy is trying to market his book. Seems fair.

Did you buy it?

@HARRYHOOD213 said:

@TheHeads said:

@careful_w_that_axe_Miller said:

Good luck with your book, I may have waited before introducing it to the community but good luck means good luck

Thanks for the good luck wishes. Why would you have waited?

Because no one knows who the hell you are. If you were a regular poster and came out with this, may have had a different reaction. You clearly created an account just to try and sell this thing.

I would sign MrHood's sentiments with just a dash of sugar. It would be less "market-y" if you had made an effort to join in on the love of phish @.net before hocking wares. Please take with a grain of salt, good for you; I'm glad you finally finished it.

I agree with jcorn, but cannot dismiss Harry's points either. I love to read, and I'm a big fan of books like these - a pseudo-biblio-fiction novel (if I may categorize here).

However, to appease the masses here at .net, I would acquiesce with the fact that yes, you are a first time poster and will most likely get some flak for not "absorbing" yourself into the community.

Regardless, .net is one of the FRIENDLIEST online forums out there and I'm sure you'd get even more questions and feedback if you shared a bit o'information about yourself, aspirations, writing background, Phish background, etc. Don't mean to sound cynical, just trying to be helpful. I know that I would like to hear more about these things such as where where you drew inspiration from when writing this. Lord know most of us have probably had similar thoughts about creating some kind of manuscript of tour-life (I know I have).

I will most likely send this to my kindle later today...you caught my interest Heads!

I would have replied to all of you sooner, but because I did just join, there was a limit on the number of posts I could write, and I reached that limit.

So to HarryHood213, I understand you wanting to keep this community free from those who would want to exploit it, and yes I do want to sell my book, but I'm doing it here because I think people on this site will like the book and be glad they heard about it and spent the 7.99. And while I may have just joined .net, I've been a part of the general phish community for nearly 20 years so it's not like I'm some total outsider. Quick bio: first phish show 12/30/93, did Dead summer tour in 94 and 95, hopped to phish tour in fall of 95 (sold hand-made suede devil sticks those years, anyone by some of those?), have been going to shows ever since, and have been working as a sports writer for 12 years, the last 9 at the Concord (NH) Monitor.

To jcorn, phan83, MrMillerAhhh and chalk2001, thanks for your support and adding a little clarity to Hood213's comments.

And to waxbanks....much thanks for the respect, brah ::fist bumps::

And don't forget, READ THE F'ING BOOK!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009W66D1I

continuing the sample...

We leave the venue buoyant on the echoes of music, reverberations from the night trailing behind us like a comet’s tail. I know we’re walking, but it feels like the parking lot is rolling toward us, all car chrome and metal. It’s gleaming and shadowed beneath the towering lights, coming for us in a lumbering scuttle, a misshapen shepherd come to collect its flock.

“Where’s the next show again?” Oscar asks.

“Oakland,” Angel answers, stopping to light a cigarette and study the dark ahead. “California? Remember?”

“No. Yeah. Wait,” he seems unsure where the conversation started. “Where?”

“Fuckin Oakland,” Angel repeats.

She keeps walking and we follow, Ponch and I hustling Oscar along by the elbows. We're greeted at the edge of the lot by a head dragging a blue cooler with bottled water and fat Sammys for sale. We buy two waters and two beers as a skeleton-thin kid with a fistful of lit incense skitters past and whispers his sales pitch in my ear.

“Hash, opium, doses.”

I store his face for later, but not tonight. I'm high enough, and we're not working tonight.

Soon we reach the center crossroads. The Shakedown. It's past midnight and beneath rows of e-z up canopies old hand vendors are selling organic hemp clothing with original art screen print, or reselling bags, hats, sweaters and gloves they imported by hand from Central America, or frying kabobs, veggies and gyro meat on industrial size grills. Along the edges grill cheeses and quesadillas cook on camping stoves set up on card tables and truck beds. Hungry lines form and the crowd pours and torrents in all directions. Heads bob, nod and fade. Some feet still dance, others struggle just to stand, and the flow moves in gasping spurts to refill the veins of the deranged shepherd. Clots of customers grow around displays of glass pipes in black security cases that have a secret-agent look about them. A worn blue tarp covered in dusty tie-dyed shirts juts into the path like a candy-stained tongue. A group of guys in polo shirts and baseball hats pound cans of beer in a beach chair blockade. A skinny young couple with matching hoodies and scowls pushes through the crowd with a stroller like it’s a tank, forcing everyone to go around or get run over.

We find a pocket of space and Ponch hands me a grill cheese. I share a beer with Oscar. Angel finds the kids she needs and digs into her bag. The night settles at my feet and all the details emerge, from the music and drugs and crowd, to this Oatmeal Stout and grill cheese.

“Headies, I got your headies,” it's the voice Ponch has been waiting for and he flashes off to follow.

He’s back in five minutes with a grin and a bag and we’re off to the van.

read the f*ing book!

@careful_w_that_axe_Miller said:

Laborious bro. Keep writing.

I will.

Ill be honest with you - I find it forced and wordy much like Mr. Miner.
To me its drama filled beyond realism.
Overwritten comes to mind

Sorry - I take this shit seriously

@YorkvilleBeerLover hates children and puppies

Also, I think the book is awesome

And... I have not read it

@phan83 said:

@YorkvilleBeerLover hates children and puppies

Also, I think the book is awesome

And... I have not read it

Thanks for looking out, phan83, appreciate that. Now read the f*ing book...

@frump said:

@waxbanks said:

A MAN GOT TO RESPECT ANOTHER MAN TAKING PEN TO PAPER IN THE NAME OF FALL TOUR

GOT TO RESPECT.

I would agree. Yet I respect taking paper to pen regardless of the topic, and it takes some serious balls to put that into the public.

To all the haters in this thread: 1) Unless you have/will publish I don't think you have much business going commando on a published author with criticisms. 2) There is nothing wrong with a little shameless self-promotion.

Wow. Thanks for recognizing, and you're right. Like the song says, it can be tough having your thoughts out on the page. It's your thoughts, work, life, love, blood, all of it, out there for anyone to see and criticize....and, most importantly, enjoy.

@YorkvilleBeerLover said:

Not hating - giving a writer a critique.

And I think the theory above is bullshit - because all we do in this forum is critique Phish and their music - and your above theory would mean that unless we were accomplished musicians we should not critique music.

Point well taken.

I stand by my point: I don't believe criticism from those without credibility is valid. I don't take lab tips from those outside of the scientific field, for example.

@frump said:

@YorkvilleBeerLover said:

Not hating - giving a writer a critique.

And I think the theory above is bullshit - because all we do in this forum is critique Phish and their music - and your above theory would mean that unless we were accomplished musicians we should not critique music.

Point well taken.

I stand by my point: I don't believe criticism from those without credibility is valid. I don't take lab tips from those outside of the scientific field, for example.

You sir are a fool, just like all of accedemia who said Edison couldn't create the lightbulb or those that says the world is flat, it is the "common" man and his insights that will demonstrate how well the art was created as art is a representation of the "common" mans predicament in words he couldn't create himself.

Oh I've read enough books to know a piece that isn't spectacular. You want to market your work, prepare for real life; writing is a craft that takes work and diligence.

@waxbanks said:

@frump said:

2) There is nothing wrong with a little shameless self-promotion.

that said, i do my self-promotion catholic style
know what i'm talking about
????

SHAME FILLED

so note how bashful i am right here when i'm like PLEASE READ MY BOOK TOO. please don't hate me

on a more grownup note:

writing seriously gives you a different perspective on what goes into the work, but it doesn't make your opinion of your own reading experience more or less valid -- it just means that your *advice* to the writer is less likely to be of immediate use without a bit of translation.

when folks tell me to be 'less wordy' i need to parse that -- they really want me to be clear, which means (among other things) eliminating wordy passages that *distract* from the thrust of the prose, without necessarily altering long/florid passages where the word choice is helping to build the scene and the vibe and the point...

'overwritten' actually tends to refer to books that are *underwritten* -- lotsa authors leave in saggy prose that rings their bells instead of ruthlessly cutting stuff that gets in the reader's way. usually what's going on is insufficient editing -- self-indulgence, or laziness. either way, 'overwritten' is an imprecise term that points to a very specific reader-feeling, and writers need to know what to do with it. good writers know to cut harder and edit pitilessly when they get that feedback -- to look for places where they're sacrificing clarity for a private feeling. bad writers just harrumph because it's, like, my personal EXPRESSION, maaaan. and because they don't see what they're supposed to change.

anyway, honesty wins out.

That paragraph is better than anything I've read on this thread, I swear I am not trying to hate.

@frump said:

@YorkvilleBeerLover said:

Not hating - giving a writer a critique.

And I think the theory above is bullshit - because all we do in this forum is critique Phish and their music - and your above theory would mean that unless we were accomplished musicians we should not critique music.

Point well taken.

I stand by my point: I don't believe criticism from those without credibility is valid. I don't take lab tips from those outside of the scientific field, for example.

So since I've never written a book, I'm not allowed to critique one? Lab tips and whether or not I enjoyed a book and entirely different.

To the author, do you discuss the music at all? Because I've been on the lot/shakedown first hand, don't need to read about the life of a spun out wook. Seems a little like "Run Like an Antelope", which wasn't a good book, except you're not on your first tour.

Can you provide us another sample?

@Drgordy said:

@frump said:

@YorkvilleBeerLover said: [quote]

I stand by my point: I don't believe criticism from those without credibility is valid. I don't take lab tips from those outside of the scientific field, for example.

So since I've never written a book, I'm not allowed to critique one? Lab tips and whether or not I enjoyed a book and entirely different.

Critique all you want, it is an opinion, I don't think you should attack the artist in any respect. And i would disagree, albeit i don't intend to initiate a secondary discussion, experimental science is quite analogous to practiced art.

@johnnyD;

criticize and describe away- i would just say your criticisms are weightless until you have been there.

So basically the only people that can criticize phish are the surviving members of tGD?
The only people that can criticize Obama are Clinton and W?

Is that where your logic is going or am I missing something?
I see how that makes sense in some areas, like peer-reviewed scientific research, for example. But to apply it across the board...I guess I'm not on board...that board.

Edit: I guess Carter's still alive too, right?

@phan83 said:

@YorkvilleBeerLover hates children and puppies

Also, I think the book is awesome

And... I have not read it

I love puppies - I eat children

I know one thing for certain I can critique - Ron Jeremy has a huge wang!