And on the Seventh Day He Rested

In the words of Anthony Quinn in his portrayal of Alexis Zorba, “I’ve got a plan.  A great big crazy plan.  But I’ve got things to figure; angles, forces.  Otherwise, it will be; catastrophe.”

So, I think I’m going to take the plunge and try to market my book with a professional campaign.  And just as with Zorba it may turn out to be the full catastrophe!

But you only live once, you know and there is a certain satisfaction in throwing the dice.  Of course, when the dice come up snake eyes that’s a tough moment.  Especially if you’ve bet the bundle.

Be that as it may, I’m feeling pretty good about this and I want to try it.  Of course, now there are all the details.  I’ve got to put a cover on the book.  Maybe I’ll hire a proofreader and I have to come up with a nom de plume.  “photog” is kind of informal for a great author.  Grok recommended the following:

1. T. Blackwood – Combines a sharp, classic feel with a dark, mysterious edge.
2. Grayson Holt – Sounds gritty and determined, fitting for gritty thrillers.
3. Silas Crowe – Evokes a brooding, ominous vibe, ideal for dark narratives.
4. Nora Kade – Short, punchy, and carries a sense of hidden danger.
5. Vincent Quill – Suggests precision and a knack for weaving intricate plots.
6. Damian Frost – Cold and calculating, great for intense, chilling stories.
7. Raven Locke – Mysterious and enigmatic, with a nod to puzzles and secrets.

Well, I’ll have to give it a little thought.

I can just see me now, with “The Sniper” on top of the New York Times best-seller list for three or four years and the royalty checks piling up in my mud room and Camera Girl forced to keep her innumerable diamond tennis bracelets in an antique bath tub in the laundry room and me building a giant garage on the Compound filled up with antique Dusenbergs and Rolls Royces that I’ll buy from Jay Leno.  But I’ll still be “just folks” and I’ll still use my Sony 90mm F/2.8 macro lens to take pictures of spiders and flies.  I’ll never become a photo snob and buy a Leica or anything like that.

But I will have to take on some eccentricities in order to capture the imagination of the reading public.  I think I’ll take up big game hunting.  But not just shoot boring things like elephants and polar bears.  I’ll pay those guys who are restoring the wooly mammoth to name it after me and then I’ll shoot it and make it extinct again so I’ll have the only stuffed wooly mammoth in the world.  Then I’ll have them bring back the Giant Rok bird and I’ll shoot that too and I’ll have my Michelin Four Star chef cook the drumsticks specially for me.  And then I’ll commission Elon Musk to build me a moon ship.  I’ll go to the Moon, set off a nuke and name the subsequent new crater after myself.

And after that I’ll rest.