Ike Strikes Again

In our last discussion we talked about the legend of Ike. Those of you who missed it can catch up here—go ahead, we’ll wait…

In my humble opinion, Ike is a great character. He isn’t perfect, but he is more good than bad—much more. I guess the technical term is anti-hero.

It’s not uncommon for him to break a few rules, and maybe a kneecap or two, but when the story ends the balance of the universe has been restored.

But I’m not here to repeat the last post (once again – read it here) I’m here because, for the second time, Ike’s reputation has landed him a role in somebody else’s story (you can read the first time here).

So what is Ike up to now?

Well, it all begins in a real life café called Kokomo’s, located here in Flagler Beach. Kokomo’s is a quaint, family-run café a block from the ocean. It’s the kind of place where you feel welcome as soon as you walk in the door. My friend, and fellow author, Armand Rosamilia spends his days there writing, drinking coffee and eating a wide variety of great food, usually served on a cinnamon-raisin bagel.

Armand’s zombie/horror stories are, like my novels, also set in Flagler Beach.

He’s been writing in Kokomo’s for several months now and, as a writer, he also spends a lot of time people-watching (it’s what we writers do). Not too long ago he had a great idea—writing fictionalized stories about his days in Kokomo’s, using real-life customers as a basis for his fictional ones.

Not only did I love the concept, I was thrilled when he asked me if he could feature Ike in one of his installments—since Ike is such a larger-than-life, albeit fictional, character here in Flagler Beach.

He let me read the story and I must say he pretty much nailed it. His writing style is close enough to mine, and he has read all of my books, so he was able to capture the essence of Ike quite nicely. A writer’s characters are like his/her children, so you can imagine the leap of faith required to “loan” a character to another writer.

Armand justified my faith.

In Armand’s story, a young girl is trying to escape an abusive boyfriend. Who better to rescue her? It’s a perfect scenario for Ike—and Ike doesn’t disappoint.

The story, along with the entire Flagler Beach Fiction Series, will be available on Amazon for only 99 cents each. Here is a link to the Ike story and here is a link to the facebook page where you can find information on the rest of the series.

Armand’s plan is to write ten installments at Kokomo’s and then move to a different local establishment and write ten more, then to another locale and so on. And since the stories all take place in Flagler Beach some of the characters will make repeat appearances—so it’s possible that Ike will return (as if he could be restrained!).

So please check out Armand’s Flagler Beach Fiction Series – if for no other reason than to witness the growth of a legend.

As always – Thank you for reading.

You Can’t Lose if You Don’t Play

Well, once again I didn’t win the Powerball jackpot, so it looks like I’ll have to set the alarm clock again tonight.

I’m getting closer, though…the winning ticket was sold in Florida so the jackpot gods are zeroing in on my location.

 

Even though I didn’t win, I’m glad the hype is over. Now we can resume normal behavior and stop pondering how we will spend all those millions…New car, caviar, four star daydream…think I’ll buy me a football team…

Now it’s time for the reverse philosophy. Telling ourselves how glad we are that we didn’t win because of all the hell we’d have to deal with after our number came up.

The “old friends” who come out of the woodwork, the relatives who suddenly treat you like their favorite and let’s not forget the charities who only want a minute of your time (and a stack of your cash).

Yeah, I’m glad I don’t have to deal with all that crap.

I can keep writing and waiting for that phone call from Steven Spielberg telling me he wants to make movies of all my books.

A quick look at the Powerball website will tell you that you had about a 1 in 175,000,000 chance of winning the jackpot. That’s 1…ONE…out of One-Hundred-and-Seventy-Five- MILLION.

I figure my chances of hearing from Steve (Mr. Spielberg to you) have to be better.

So while everybody else is plunking down their cash to buy lottery tickets, I’ll keep pecking away at the keyboard and waiting for the phone to ring.

Naturally, I’ll need help from you.

YOU are my lottery ticket…

Without your support, Spielberg will never know what he’s missing. So now that your lottery fever is gone and you’ll need something else to drop your dough on…try my books.

Hell – for a little more than $10 (five powerball tickets) you can get all of my books on your e-reader. Click here and take your pick. What a deal…and when you’re done reading them you won’t have to tear them up in frustration and throw them in the trash while you think about all of the things you were going to buy.

Plus, you’ll get to read some fun stories where the good guys (if you can figure out who they are) always win.

As always…Thank you for reading.

Who the Hell is Ike?

 

It’s no secret – I live on Facebook. I admit it, I’m a Facebook junkie.

As an Independent Author, I find Facebook a great place to market myself. It reaches millions of people and it’s free – can’t beat that with a stick.

Even though I use it as a marketing tool, I try not to come across like a used-car salesman. Everybody has their own methods…some of my other author friends post links to their books daily.

Me? I’d rather post a picture of a guy wearing a Batman cape and mask along with rainbow stockings standing in a fountain. Something to make you laugh.

Occasionally I will post something philosophical, just to make you think.

But I hardly ever (not never – but rarely) post anything that asks you to buy my books.

Why not?

I guess I don’t want to be a nuisance.

With all that being said, I have come up with, what I think is a clever marketing gimmick.

I’ve started taking iconic photos from movies and TV and inserting my own “Ike-isms” into them.

Here’s an example:

The idea came to me after I created one for my friend, author Armand Rosamilia. It was from the movie The Breakfast Club and, after I made it, I thought, Hmmm – I need to do something similar for myself.

So I started with a Mother’s Day themed one. It was an image of the most iconic TV mother I could think of – June Cleaver – and I inserted text that said something to the effect of “Give your mom what all moms want – a healthy dose of Ike.”

Before I knew it I had made about 25 of them and had to create a new folder on my jump drive to hold them so I could post them at various times. After about the 3^rd or 4^th day I started getting private messages from people asking me “Who the hell is Ike?”

The plan was working, I had raised curiosity about Ike (and by default, my books) without becoming a pain-in-the-ass.

So – let me tell you about Ike:

Ike was written into my first book Living the Dream as a minor character. His role was intended to be strictly support, in fact I think he only appeared in three or four chapters. I didn’t know much about him then, other than that he lived on a boat and worked as an “enforcer” for a local bookie named Ralph.

In Water Hazard, I brought Ike back as the best friend of the protagonist, called in for assistance with a deadly scenario. This is where Ike’s personality really began to grow. Here it was revealed that Ike was an ex-Navy SEAL. He is 6’-6” tall and weighs about 275 lbs. He has long hair that is beginning to gray and he wears it in a ponytail. He is a ladies man and afraid of nothing. But most importantly – even though he has a tendency to bend the rules and he works for a known felon, he has a very strong moral compass.

Physically Ike is a guy built like The Rock…with the looks and bad-ass-itude of Sam Elliot’s character Wade Garrett in the movie Road House, and with the charm and personality of Sam Axe (played by Bruce Campbell) from Burn Notice.

Throughout the next three books, Ike remained a key figure—sort of a knight-in-shining-armor. He was always there to make sure bad things didn’t happen to good people. By the time Pump It Up was released it was especially challenging (and a lot of fun) to see how Ike would fair in the world of transsexuals, transgenders and transvestites.

Ike is such a strong character that Armand Rosamilia, who writes zombie/horror stories, asked if I’d be willing to co-write a zombie novella with him and put Ike in it.  At first I was skeptical, because Ike lives in (are you ready for this) “the real world”.  There are no zombies in Ike’s world…so I was a little unsure, but eventually I decided that fiction is fiction so what the hell.

The book, Dying Days: The Siege of European Village, was a ton of fun to write and I have received lots of feedback from fans who loved Ike’s role in it. Adding further to the myth…now he even kills zombies!

So that’s about it on Ike – at least as far as I know.

There is not much doubt that I will eventually have to write a pre-quel to get the full story on Ike, but at this point, it’s a mystery to me.

*Update – Read the riveting sequel to this post here!!

As always – Thank you for reading.