 And here we are.
So many good and positive things have happened, been conceived, and shown themselves in the last few days, weeks really. One of the more poignant things would be a conversation that I just had with a sales person from LinkedIn. The conversation started with, what is your business, where do you want to go and what are you doing to build it? I went into the history of Breaking Rules Publishing, what we’re doing, what we’re trying to accomplish. The writing community that we’re building and the challenges that we’re facing with the virus. Said salesman went on to say that they have a process that will bring us over 400K a month with some simple steps. He went on to explain by charging authors 10-30k to publish and market their books that we would build a better business and become more successful. It was clear that he hadn’t listened to my story about why I started to write. The challenges that I had with my first agent and publisher. How my first agent and publisher wanted to turn my book into something that I didn’t recognize. It was clear that he didn’t hear me say that the purpose of Breaking Rules Publishing is to be a place of security, promise and community for the writers under our umbrella. He only saw dollar signs. I can’t blame him, we all want money and we all want success. However, there is a moment when integrity has to step in and take the lead. My response to Mr. Salesman was that by following his plan we would be turning a blind eye to the mission and goals of our company as well as turning our back on the authors that have not only come to us already but those that have yet to come. We are not a vanity press and we will never be one. It is my hope that with the new programs and processes as well as authors that are coming in 2021 – that we will be fine. That we will all find the success that we write for. We don’t have to recreate our company, like my first book, into something that I /we don’t recognize. We can stand strong and find the ways that we need to turn 2020 around and make Breaking Rules Publishing the publishing house that it was meant to be. Stay with us – we’re turning this machine around and making it a success and we’re bringing all of you with us.
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 Happy Christmas and Christmas Traditions When I was younger my family was all very close in distance as well as emotion. Our traditions for Christmas would always mean that we would venture out to my father’s parents on Christmas Eve to have dinner and Christmas with his family – there was always turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, creamed corn and gravy. My father’s parents were farmers so there was never an absence of vegetables, the smell of coffee or rock candy. We would all pull names from my grandfathers straw hat on Thanksgiving to know who we would all buy Christmas presents for, which meant that with 19 of us – the tree was pretty well packed. The earth’s climate hadn’t changed so much so having a white Christmas in Michigan was almost a given. I remember riding in the car and watching the scenery change from houses to trees and always with a cover of snow. We as kids still found it more fun to play in my grandfather’s barn and make tunnels and forks out of his bales of hay, than to stay inside with the grownups as the chatted or played cards. It all seemed so easy and I hate to say this – but down home. Rather rich with the simple pleasures of the holiday with little real fuss. Nothing over the top and filled with the real need to gather as a family.  Christmas Day was much of the same, just at my mother’s parent’s house. Which for some reason seemed to be a bit more on the commercial side. And of course as a kid – that was much more appealing. The Christmas packages that filled out to most of the room, leaving little space to sit on the floor. The Christmas Day celebration was much like Christmas Eve with dinner and treats through the day, minus of course the rock candy. My grandmother opted for hard store bought candy especially the raspberry filled jellies, which I continue to buy to this day. As an adult you can see now that each set of grandparents were just trying to show their way of bringing their families together and leave a memory in their children and grandchildren’s mind of who they were and how much they loved them.  This tradition lasted well into the time when my siblings started to have families of their own and our time for the holidays was stretched even more. Sometimes the day only was able to include a gift exchange or just dinner, but we always tried to make it if we could. My family now is spread much further and much harder to get together. Most holidays we can only hope for a text message or phone call. Especially now with the virus hanging over all of our heads. The thought now looks to 2021 to turn this around and bring us back to some form of normal life. Even though that may be now gone forever.  At that moment that I was traveling from one grandparents house to the next I would have never considered being an author or for that matter what I seriously hoped to be when I grew up. But here we are. Me, at 58, almost 59, with 6 books under my belt, numbers 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 in separate files on my computer and a publishing company to run. Like the professor from Frosty the Snowman – I’m busy – busy – busy. Our Christmas Day plans, David and I, will be to spend the day with each other – possibly hit up the nearest movie theater to watch the latest Wonder Woman movie. I suspect we’ll be watching Christmas movies throughout the day and I’ll be sitting with my pen and paper to get something done on these books. The wish for going to grandma’s house is now over. My children are all well over three hours away and they now have their own families and Christmas traditions. A Zoom call I’m sure will be our seasonal communication this year.  My reasoning for telling you all of this and bringing it to the forefront is to say. Whatever memories you have, or whatever traditions you continue to keep alive. May you have a wonderful and joyful holiday season. David and I, as well as the staff at Breaking Rules Publishing wish you all a Happy Christmas.
Be safe and well, Christopher  It’s funny, when you first sit down to write a few lines to get in touch with your followers, the first thing that comes to mind is to spew out your frustrations and negative views. Then you realize that this really isn’t who you really are, or want to be seen as, so you hit the backspace button and get rid of your rant.On a positive note – I have updated my website and changed a few things. I have also started to bring some new life to my social media platforms as well as that of Breaking Rules Publishing. For those that don’t know – Breaking Rules Publishing is my hybrid publishing house. Currently we have 190 writers in 30 different countries. What I would like to speak to you about today is where I am with my works in process.  Tredici Porte - Thirteen Short Stories A novel based on the selected 13 doors from our trip to Italy. The stories are focused in and around the doors - one will be focused on a conversation in the threshold of one of the doors. Each of the stories will take place in one of the locations we visited in Italy.  Submission A novel based on Tristan Matthews one of my continuing characters from Bless Me Father - The Trade and Waters Edge. The novel takes place in New York City and details the challenges of coming out in a Catholic family.  The House A novel based on the trails of a writer creating a family, a successful writing career and publishing company. Only to build his dream home in the middle of nowhere on the edge of a lake to live his life out with his books, his writing and the one that he loves.  Christmas Greetings
A short story that will be turned into a full length novel. Currently I am writing the story for the "It’s The Holidays" anthology published by Breaking Rules Publishing. So you can see that I have a lot going on and need to crack down on getting these books out. And what seems to be the issue of not completing these projects? Life – BRP – having to find the energy to write after already having a day of work. I know, I know, get off your ass. Well, I am. I’m hoping to get at least one finished by the end of next week. Stay tuned. |
