Pop got mad at me

I can remember only once in my life when my father got mad at me. Maybe this is why I’ve never forgotten it. My mother, it seemed to me, was often angry or displeased about my behavior, but not Pop.

I’ve often thought of the incident, and puzzled over it. Why was he so mad? I was so surprised when he lost his temper that it startled me. I think I actually jumped. Pop—my champion, the one who seemed to understand my peculiar ways—was mad at me.

So what was it all about? Pop was a writer and an avid reader, and when my sister Bertie and I were kids, he liked to read to us at night when we went to bed. On this particular occasion, he was reading a book called “The Back of the North Wind,” written in by George MacDonald 1871. It was a very thick book, as I recall, with somewhat gloomy illustrations. It tells the story of a sweet little boy named Diamond who has numerous adventures riding on the back of the north wind. The north wind represents pain and death, supposedly leading to something good according to God’s will. The country of the north wind is without pain and death, and she brings Diamond there, but it’s only a shadow of the real country, which he can’t see until he dies, which he does at the end of the book.

Although Pop seemed fascinated by this tale, I found it boring and depressing. When he was only a chapter or two into it, I took the book one day and sneaked a peek at the ending, because I wanted to see what happened to Diamond right away instead of having to endure listening to Pop read a chapter every night.

Then I made the mistake of telling Pop what I had done. He was furious. He said, “You NEVER, EVER skip to the end of a book to find out what happened! EVER!” The veins in his forehead were popping and he slammed the book shut. After that he didn’t read it to us any more.

I wonder to this day what made him so mad. Was it really because I’d spoiled the story by skipping to the end? Or did it have something to do with his own somewhat insecure feelings about being a writer himself? Was he afraid that his own work was so boring (as my mother used to tell him it was) that people would want to skip to the end? Or had he just had a bad day? I guess I’ll never know. But one thing is for sure—I never skipped to the end of a book again to find out what happened.

Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Hi friends,

I promise I’ll get back to my regular blog writing before long, but at the moment I’m all caught up in the book, reading the reviews, trying to find ways to get it out there, etc.

So grateful to everyone who is reading it and giving me feedback, and I’m especially thankful for the great reviews on Amazon! Keep ‘em comin’!

A few people have asked me if there will be a paperback. It depends to some degree on how well the e-book does, but I would really like to get a paperback out before too long, yes.

A tip for those of you who are now reading the book or thinking of reading it: the photos that go along with the story are in the Appendix at the end of the book. Just click on the link and it will take you to Flickr, where the photos are in chronological order.

Once again, here’s the info about how to get the book:

Amazon: http://amzn.com/B009VOF6YG

Link for the Kindle apps: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

iBookstore: http://www.ibookstore.com/products.php?i=B009VOF6YG

 

 

 

First review is in!

Here is the first review of my book, “Getting Down to Brass Tacks – My adventures in jazz, Rio, and beyond”  – Five stars!

http://tinyurl.com/9jhtwkf

 

Some first comments about my book…

Too soon for reviews, but a few friends made some nice comments about my book:

Facebook friend Rhonda Key Youngblood:

Off with a bang! That interview with Miles rocked! I’m having an amazing experience reading this book. I don’t want to ruin it for anybody, but the book starts off with a quote from Grace Jones! You know it’s good! I’m only 6 percent in, and it’s gripping!

Facebook friend Venia Hill:

The book is extremely authentic and rich. Your openness is to be admired. I am at the point where you are leaving for Brazil. I am an avid reader and have read over 5000 books so the fact that yours is keeping me interested should be a high compliment to you, Amy.

 

Facebook friend Laura Moliter:

I am in the middle of your book now and LOVING it! Amy. You are a wonderful narrator and an irresistible heroine! Your honesty is our blessing. I am setting up special times that I look forward to in order to read another section. Kind of hard to stop, even when duty or whatever else calls me away. It’s really a wonderful, wonderful book, Amy. I knew it would be, but it just draws you in. Wish I had time to finish it in one sitting, honestly!

Facebook friend Jess Lidsky:

Facebook friend Jess Lidskey:

I have to ration your book—it draws me in too well—I am afraid I will finish it too soon.

Chip Deffaa, author, jazz critic, playwright, songwriter and director:

“Big congrats to jazz musician/bandleader/writer Amy Duncan on the publication of her autobiography: Getting Down to Brass Tacks… Amy’s life has intersected with all sorts of people: Miles Davis, Marilyn Monroe, James Taylor, Dizzy Gillespie. And I’ve known she’s an excellent writer since the years when she was covering music regularly for The Christian Science Monitor. I also got to read one chapter of this book in advance, when she submitted it in a competition and was a winner. I wish her all the best with this book!”

From Facebook friend, Venia Hill:

“Amy I am truly fascinated with your remembrance of so many details of your childhood, my hat is off to you. Your writing is excellent in the sense that it flows, is very easy to follow and entertaining.”

And this from a Brazilian photographer friend who read the book for six straight hours, and finished it in eight!

“I finished!!! It’s really great…what a life full of comings and goings…I loved the book, the way you write…so much so that I took the afternoon off to read it. It made me feel as if I were right in front of you listening to you. I could imagine every scene, maybe because I was emotionally linked to some of them, but even so…”

This friend, Robert Serbinenko, appears in the book, and also took the photo for the cover. Here’s his website:

http://ivpix.blogspot.com.br/

My book is now on Amazon!

Yay! Finally my book is for sale at Amazon. Here’s the link:

http://amzn.com/B009VOF6YG

If you don’t have a Kindle, you can download an app for free and read the book on your computer:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

Here’s the link to my Amazon author page:

http://www.amazon.com/Amy-H.-Duncan/e/B009W5PLVM

Hope you enjoy the book, and feel free to leave feedback or questions here, and also to write a review on Amazon, if you’re inclined!

Time for a nap now!

Heading for the homestretch

I’m actually getting ready to send my book off to Book Baby, the e-book publisher of my choice.

Not without kicking and screaming, mind you. It’s much harder than I thought it would be to bring the thing to an end — an actual finish — and then place it in someone else’s hands to turn it into a book. There’s something so final about it.

I’m getting some photos together now to put in the book, and I’ll probably give it another quick read-through (although I’d rather give it ten read-throughs and wait until everything in my life is all settled and just right so I can write the perfect ending), before I take the plunge. I know I have to get real and cut the umbilical cord, already.

Today I spoke with a woman at Book Baby. I had quite a few questions about formatting, photos, cover design, and so on, and the folks at BB had said to call them any time — they’d be happy to help. The reason I chose Book Baby in the first place was because it’s an arm of CD Baby, where I sell my music, and I’d always had a really good, friendly, even cozy experience with them.

Things haven’t been all that easy with Book Baby so far. The woman on the phone wasn’t especially cozy, in fact she was downright unfriendly. I thought, that’s OK, she doesn’t have to be friendly. She’s just doing her job. But I also found the Book Baby site not all that clear — this is one of the reasons I had lots of questions. I’m trying to be a good sport here, but I have to confess I miss the old days at CD Baby when Derek Sivers (what a great guy) was at the helm. I had hoped some of his spirit would have rubbed off on Book Baby.

Anyway, onward and upward. I’ve got a book to finish.

Update on the book

My editor is on vacation and will be back toward the end of this month. In the meantime, I’ve been reading through some parts of the book and adding a few things here and there. I think I’ve already taken out most of what I wanted to take out.

Yesterday I started reading from page one again, so I can decide what photos I want to put in the book. It’s really hard to decide, because they need to be good enough quality so they won’t just look like blotches, and they need to be there for a reason — in other words, they should have something fairly specific to do with the story. I’m glad I scanned every single photo I had of my family (and threw away the hard copies) before I came back home to Rio in 2008 after living in the USA for a year. I was forced to because I was traveling with just one suitcase and a carry-on and I needed to get rid of most of my belongings. That’s another whole story — talk about sizing down!

Anyway, after my editor does a final read-though, I’ll do one more, and then send it off to Book Baby. After they format it, I’ll have a chance to check it one more time, and then it’s on its way out to the world!

Book coming soon, and poetical distractions…

I’ve just sent my book off to a trusted, intelligent friend (who is also a writer) for a final read-through. I’m certain she’ll have some good suggestions for me to get the thing finally wrapped up.

As soon as I sent it to her I missed it, which is pretty funny because it’s still right here on my computer. But I don’t want to mess with it at all until she’s done with her review.

But I really wanted to work on something else. I HAD to work on something else…besides my blog. So I dug into some files of poetry that I’ve written, and decided to put them into book form and maybe write some new ones.

Then I got the really insane idea of illustrating them. I mean, this is truly insane, because I don’t know how to draw in the sense of actually drawing…you know, with perspective and everything.

I guess the reason I thought of this is because of possible copyright issues with using pictures from the internet and also because I can’t afford to pay an illustrator. Oh well.

I used to fiddle around making little drawings of household things and heads…yes, little heads of all sorts of people that I made up in my mind. I can’t find any of them, but I think I could probably reproduce something like that. Maybe it doesn’t matter that I don’t know how to draw. We’ll see.

Well, I’ve gotten a bit off track here, but what I wanted to say is that I don’t think it’ll be all that much longer until the book is published, unless of course my friend says, “Hmmm, I think it might be good if you rewrote the whole thing.” Ha!

Categories! Categories!

Feeling a little “duh” here…I couldn’t figure out how to arrange my blog posts in categories, and was even thinking that it was too late since I’d already written them!

Well, I’m not a quitter, so I sat down and figured it out today…and proceeded to categorize my 85 posts.

Now you can find things a lot easier. During this period when I’m not posting every day, if you feel like browsing and reading some of the posts you might have missed, it should be a little easier. I’m planning to refine the categories more as I go along.

Anyway…glad that’s done!

I MISS BLOGGING here every day, so I may be popping up more often as I plow my way through the final couple of readings and revisions of my book.

Sticking to one thing…

“She’s a musician and composer, a writer and editor, and she also works as a Portuguese to English translator — wow, she’s really a multitasker!”

Well, yes and no.

It’s true that I do all those things, but in my heart of hearts I really like to do one thing at a time. To concentrate on one thing and give it all the juice I’ve got.

Unfortunately, that isn’t always possible for me because of pesky little matters like having to buy food and pay the rent. But somehow I still manage to lean more heavily towards one thing when I really have a strong urge to do it, even if it’s not the thing that brings home the bacon.

Right now that thing is my book. Everything else has become sort of back burner, although I do have to turn those burners on at least for awhile every day and not just leave them dormant. But I’ve got the gut desire to finish this book and so that’s the thing that calls to me every morning: “Here I am! I’m not done yet! Get busy!”

So I do.