Dan Marvin’s Blog

The Green Squared Logo

This month, I had an article printed in “Interiors and Sources” magazine on a new green standard for ceramic tiles.  It did not feature zombies, vampires, or Kardashians and yet they still printed it.  I know, I was pretty amazed myself.  So, it’s kind of dry and technical but I’ll post a link to it anyway because it’s my blog and I can.  Enjoy!

If you decide to purchase this book, your $4.99 will go to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.  So, in a way, if you decide NOT to purchase this book, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital may be underfunded, and a defenseless, innocent child may have to be turned away.  You don’t want defenseless, innocent children to go untreated for some sort of life-threatening illness, do you?  Of course  not, you’re a big hearted person and you’ll do the right thing.  I’m proud of you!

I’ll confess, not every story I write is literary gold.  I know, I know, you disagree, but you don’t see BEHIND the scenes.  For every three stories I get published, one doesn’t make the grade.  So a day like this, when TWO things show up with the by Dan Marvin byline somewhere online, is worth celebrating.  Get out the champagne and noise-makers because I have two opportunities for you to peruse.

The first is a story called Maneaters that has had a bit of a rough life.  It started out as a completely different story, also called Maneaters.  The original version was submitted to MicroHorror magazine and rejected.  Nathan liked the idea but ended up with questions.  “QUESTIONS?” I railed at him in my head.  “How can you possibly dislike something that I wrote just because it raises QUESTIONS?”  However, after I gave it some thought I realized that oh my God, this is the most horrible story that has ever been written and what to heck was I thinking and I’ll never be a writer and how could I have even sent it to anyone and no one will ever read another one of my stories ever.  So, I sat down to re-write Maneaters and thankfully he liked the re-write and… well, you can find it here.

Next up… a review of the book The Raven Girl.  Remember last year when I was still doing reviews for the LLBookReview?  And then remember how I stopped doing reviews for the LLBookReview for awhile because my life got really busy?  Guess what?  I’m back!  My first book review of 2011 for the LLBookReview is now up.  The Raven Girl is a good book about a foreign girl who washes up on the shores of Ireland in the 1480′s.  She hides out from the… well geeze, you don’t need me to explain it all again, just go here and read it.

The April edition of eFiction magazine includes a story from Dan Marvin’s Change of Briefs called “First and Ten.”  The version that appears in my book is the original version, but Doug Lance, the publisher of eFiction wanted it fleshed out a bit more.  I re-wrote it to include more motivation for the main character to… well, you’ll have to read it to find out what he’s motivated to do and why.  I enjoyed the project and will submit more stories to Doug in hopes that he’ll want to use them.  The magazine is neat, it automatically downloaded to my ibook shelf on my iphone.  Neat technology aside, the writing is quite good too.  Support Doug so he can pay all of us starving artists!

The fine folks at Flashes in the Dark have just published my flash fiction story called “BETA”.  Not surprisingly, this story emerged as I was playing around with a new App for my iphone that lets me print pictures directly from the phone.  It’s way too convenient as a way to use lots of expensive toner and paper, but it’s fun.  Anyway, I started thinking about what else a printer driver could do.   Why, it is conceivable that you could print pictures from the future or from an alternate reality.  Would that be a good thing or a bad thing?  For Ralph, it was a decidedly bad thing.

The exciting cover

I’ve had Briefs for the Reading Room available as a Kindle book since 2008 and, truth be told, it sold more copies than the print version.  I can understand that.  It’s cheaper, and when you’re done with it you don’t have to cram it into a bookshelf somewhere, proof that you read a bathroom book.  So, I decided last month to get serious about getting my full length novel cleaned up and published for the Kindle as well. 

Thomas Granger was written about 10 years ago and took about 7 years to actually write.  If you’ve never written a novel, it takes longer than you think.  If you have written a novel then you know what I’m talking about.  Writing, editing, wringing your hands and thinking what you wrote is awful, re-reading it and deciding it’s actually OK, finding time to write amidst raising kids and watching football… it all adds up to potentially years of writing.  So, after all that time I published Thomas as a book on Lulu and then moved on with other projects.  Until now!

Through the miracle of Amazon’s Digital Text Platform, I can offer you Thomas Granger in all its original glory.  If you want more description, you can click on the Thomas Granger tab on this web page.  Soon I hope to have it available in the Apple ibook store, Barne’s and Noble’s e-book store, and other electronic venues.  Stay tuned for that announcement.

So, I urge you to follow this link and go buy Thomas Granger for your own Kindle, iphone, ipad, or computer.  You’ll be glad you did!

Today I was happy to hear that my story “November Heat” won the coveted LinkedIn Aspiring Writers writing contest for the month of May and is now in the running for the year-long contest which selects from the monthly winners.  The subject was Romance and my story reads thusly:

November Heat 

Romance was the furthest thing from Jill’s mind on that snowy, November evening. She had just piled the groceries into the back of her Suburban when she felt a presence behind her.

“May I take your cart, Madame?” He was dressed in a camel-colored wool overcoat and had eyes to match, they twinkled at her in the harsh parking lot lighting.

“Yes, thank you,” she said, thinking that he would walk away with her cart and out of her life. Instead, he took it to the cart corral and then returned. She should have been in her car driving back to her 2.3 children and dog in suburbia but instead she was standing in the wet snowflakes, getting damp and watching him walk back to her.

“It’s cold tonight, would you like to get a cup of coffee?” It was probably his brazenness that breached her defenses. Or his eyes perhaps, those probing pools of light brown that left her breathing like a teenager again even though she had teenagers of her own. The coffee shop was a short walk away and before she knew what was happening, she was ordering her usual and finding an out-of-the-way table.

He followed her with the steaming mugs and his eyes never strayed from her. When she looked back over her shoulder, she smiled shyly at the unusual attention. For awhile they simply looked at each other over the rim of their cups but eventually the conversation started to flow. He was in sales, she was a soccer mom, and fate had placed them together in the Walmart parking lot on a cold, November evening.

She could say nothing wrong, he hung on every word and offered precious few of his own, mostly encouragements to continue. He laughed at the funny bits and frowned at the parts where life had been less fair. She found herself responding to his subtle flirtations. Her hand found its way to her hair and she wrapped a wisp around her finger without knowing she was doing it.

He left the table for a moment on some errand and when he returned, he sat not across from her but conspiratorially next to her, their arms touched while they drained the last drops of the over-priced brew. She was fascinated by his lips, she found herself wondering what it would be like to kiss them and touch them and be kissed by them. Soon enough she found out; they sat kissing until they had the coffee shop to themselves.

He detached himself from their kiss long enough to whisper into her ear “Your place or mine?” Jill again found herself responding to his brazen assumption that she would capitulate. She did.

“Luckily for you, they’re one in the same” she giggled as she led him out to the parking lot by the hand. He opened the door of the Suburban for his wife, and then got into the driver’s seat.

The End

If you’re a LinkedIn member, feel free to connect to me and join the Aspiring Writer’s group.  This story will be available in “A Change of Briefs” coming in November from Marvcorp Publishing.  Watch for it!  Meanwhile, you can pick up a copy of “Briefs for the Reading Room” through this site or Amazon.

OK, I realize I’m the last person in America to sign up for a Twitter account.  However, you can now find me on Twitter at @Dan_Marvin.  Follow me!

Recently I became a guest blogger for Ceramic Industry Magazine.  My first entry was intended to give a little background about me, and to introduce the blog to the world.  Here’s a link:

Guest Blog: Tile Tech Notes – Editor’s Blog – Ceramic Industry.