Month: April 2018

A Great Week

I had a great week. I hope you did too. My first book, Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure, went on sale on Tuesday. On Wednesday I was the feature of David Ellis’s UK blog. On Thursday I placed an order with my publisher for copies of my book. I’ll sell these at upcoming events. People bought my book and posted about it on Facebook. The weekend weather has been bright and sunny, allowing me to do things outside and step away from the computer for a bit.

With a great week of dreams fulfilled, it’s back to work tomorrow. I still need to finish my work in progress. This is not a sequel to Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure. I’m creating a new world for my medieval fantasy series. Each story will be a stand-alone and cover a different time period. This is similar to the Brother Cadfael series I’m reading where each of the twenty books is its own story and can be read in any order. I’m including quite a bit of humor in this new world, namely: the royal carriage being blocked in with the arrival of dinner guests, imagining how the Internet and a blue tooth network could have worked in medieval times, the fighting ability of a new squadron of Pee-Ons, the unique way a small town in the Gray Forest handles their dead, how licking a toad affects my main character, and many more. It’s a fun story to write.

Finally, I mentioned earlier this month New Orleans celebrated a birthday. Tomorrow the whole state gets to join the party. On April 30, 1812, Louisiana joined the Union as the eighteenth state. This was nine short years after the signing of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty. Get out and party again, Louisiana. It’ll be a romp in the swamp for sure.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what book I have my nose in. I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read a variety of authors and topics. I finished reading book four of the Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael series, Saint Peter’s Fair. I’ll post my review on Goodreads and Amazon later today. Tomorrow I start reading book five in the series, The Leper of Saint Giles.

Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure is available on Amazon, as an eBook, and in physical formats.

 

A Rose by Any Other Name

I believe we are all familiar with Shakespeare’s wonderful line, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Juliet said it in Romeo and Juliet. In preparing for my book, Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure, to be released out on Tuesday, I did some online searching to check for the possibilities of confusion. I’m not the only Alan Lampe out there. I’m not even the only Alan Lampe to publish a book. Yesterday morning, I stumbled across A Torch to Burn by Alan Lampe on Amazon. It was published in New York in 1935. I went ahead and bought the book so that when you search for me on Tuesday, only my name/book will be found.

If you do a Google search for Alan Lampe, you’ll find me, a painter from Iowa and the CEO of Comm-Works Holding in Minneapolis. It would be unique, and confusing if I could get Alan Lampe the CEO to endorse a future book of mine while getting Alan Lampe the painter to do the cover of said book. Of course, the book cover would have to pass through my publisher.

Getting back to me, and Tuesday. As I prepare to pass my work to you, I hope you will help me have a successful debut novel. After reading Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure, please post a comment on Amazon.com and/or Goodreads.com. Comments are very helpful for authors. Then tell your friends to buy the great book you just finished reading. Remind them to leave a comment on the aforementioned websites.

Thank you for coming on this journey with me. Your support is greatly appreciated. It’s not over yet, as now comes the marketing phase of the book. Most of that falls to me, but a passionate reader who convinces his/her friends to buy my book is a wonderful asset to have. Looking forward to working with all of you to promote Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure. It’s a romp in the swamp!

Bill's Cajun House of Pleasure Cover

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what book I have my nose in. I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read a variety of authors and topics. I’m currently reading book four of the Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael series, Saint Peter’s Fair.

New Orleans Birthday

Sometime this spring, New Orleans is going to throw itself an amazing three hundredth birthday party. Various websites (here and here) dispute the actual date of the founding of the Crescent City. Some say it was April 16, 1718, when Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville and his crew stepped ashore near the present day upper French Quarter and cut the first cane. Others say it was May 7, 1718, but that story is a bit more loose with the details.

New Orleans Plan 1728
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=761190

At the 250th birthday celebration, His Excellency Charles Lucet, French Ambassador to the United States, was guest of honor at the city’s official celebration. Charles’ birthday just happened to be April 16. The date of the banquet was May 7. It is speculated that years later someone came across the printed program from May 7, and declared this is the “true date” of the founding of New Orleans. However, from de Bienville’s own notes, he records on June 12: “We are working at present on the establishment of New Orleans 30 leagues above the entrance to the Mississippi.” The city’s earliest moments recorded so plainly and with little fanfare.

The actual founding date of New Orleans is unknown. The facts say it was during the spring of 1718. Any more definitive than that is a guess. History doesn’t write itself and the founding date of the Big Easy is a prime example. Happy birthday New Orleans! Or, if you’re a local, New Awlins.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what book I have my nose in. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read. I finished reading Create Your Writer Platform by Chuck Sambuchino. My review is on Goodreads and Amazon.com. I returned to Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael series and currently reading book four, Saint Peter’s Fair. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

A Good Time Not Had By All

I’m back on the bandwagon after the Easter holiday. I hope your celebration of the resurrection of the Lord was a blessed event. It was a cold day in northwest Arkansas with a light drizzle. We still hid eggs outside and a grand time was had by all. Here are some historical events of Louisiana, where a good time was not had by all.

April 6, 1929 – The Louisiana State Senate attempted to impeach Governor Huey Long. They charged him with blasphemy, abuse of power, bribery, and the misuse of state funds. Huey convinced fifteen senators to vote “not guilty” regardless of what evidence was produced. The impeachment failed. The fifteen senators who voted not guilty received state jobs and other favors. Although this happened ten years before my story takes place, I probably could have put a small reference to this in there somewhere.

April 3, 1955 – It’s hard to miss a 1954 pink and white Cadillac, especially when it is doing 80 in a 60 mph zone. Louisiana State Trooper Nolan F. Strange stopped the vehicle in Caddo Parish on U.S. Highway 171 and questioned the driver, a twenty-year-old from Tennessee, Elvis A. Presley. He was brought to the Caddo Parish Jail. Elvis paid his $25.00 bond two days later. Elvis was on his way from a show in Houston to perform in Corinth, Mississippi on April 7. This event I could have added to my story, once again in passing reference as Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure is not set in, or near, Caddo Parish.

Elvis Presley

April 12, 1861 – The first shots of the American Civil War were fired on this day at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The Louisiana tie-in is that the order to fire the shots was given by General P.G.T. Beauregard, who was born in St. Bernard Parish on May 28, 1818. He graduated from West Point the second in his class in 1838. In an odd twist of chance, one of his instructors was Robert Anderson. Robert was the Union Commander of Fort Sumter when General Beauregard attacked it. He surrendered the fort to his former pupil two days later. This anniversary would be rather difficult to work into my story.

History doesn’t write itself, nor is it always a romp in the swamp, but it is interesting to remember what happened back then.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what book I have my nose in. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read. I finished reading Monk’s Hood and my review is on Goodreads. Currently, I’m reading a book suggested by my publisher about building an author platform. It’s a good read and I hope all aspiring authors will check it out. It is Create Your Writer Platform by Chuck Sambuchino. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.