Just Wrought

Recovering playwright, once won a STRANGER Genius Award for theater. Now writing a bloated novel about… G-d help me! Theatre.

Tag: Kindle

  • Moving THE STARTING GATE

    Moving THE STARTING GATE

    Since the start of my Indie Go Go campaign to fund the publication of my book The Starting Gate, that site was the best, and really only, way to order the limited first edition hardcover version. As of midnight, that’s going away. So you have half a day left to go here to get it while the getting’s good. After that, the hardcover edition will be available for list price at Amazon here: http://amzn.com/0997074701

    But Amazon is boring, and arguably somewhat evil. They certainly take the lion’s share of the sale price for themselves, so I am adding a fun way to get The Starting Gate for a deep discount, over at Ebay. Every week, starting now, I will be offering the book for auction starting at 40% off. At the end of the week one book will go to the highest bidder (or, you can always just pull the trigger at the list price of $24.95). Just go here:
    http://ebay.to/1Ww08VT

    Alternative versions, electronic and audiobook are available as always…

    Electronic:

    You can purchase the Kindle version by clicking here.

    You can purchase the Nook or iPad version by clicking here.

    Audio Book:

    The audiobook version of The Starting Gate, narrated by yours truly, is available across a variety of different platforms, including Audible , Amazon, iTunes, Audiobooks.com, Hoopla, The Audiobook Store, Downpour, Overdrive, Barnes & Noble, Nook, and Playster.
     

    Posted at 11:18 AM in Books, The Starting Gate, Writing | Comments (1)

    Tags: audiobook, e-book, hardcover book, Kindle, memoir, Paul Mullin, The Starting Gate

  • How to get to THE STARTING GATE

    If there’s one thing this retired playwright has learned about the independent publishing business, it’s that delays that would be impossible— unthinkable in the theatre—are par for the course. And so delivery of the hardcover version of my book, The Starting Gate, so beautifully designed by K. Brian Neel has been pushed back yet again, and may not happen until the very end of February, if then.

    So here’s how you can, if you so choose, get to The Starting Gate NOW!

    Electronic Versions:

    You can purchase the Kindle version by clicking here.

    You can purchase the Nook or iPad version by clicking here.

    Audio Book:

    The audiobook version of The Starting Gate, narrated by yours truly, is available across a variety of different platforms, including Audible , Amazon, iTunes, Audiobooks.com, Hoopla, The Audiobook Store, Downpour, Overdrive, Barnes & Noble, Nook, and Playster.

    That said, if you are interested in listening to the book, but are new to audio books on-line, just message me and I’ll offer some “off-line solutions.”

    Printed Versions:

    Despite delays, the limited first edition hardcover is coming! I’ll be passing them out to people who have pre-ordered them at the IndieGoGo site at my book release party on March 14, at The St. Andrews Bar and Grill, starting at 7 pm. For more information on the party, go here.

    The paperback version of the book will be available in the Summer of 2016.

    About THE STARTING GATE:

    The Starting Gate is a smooth cocktail consisting of thirteen interconnected chapters, tracking my life from my first job as a stock boy at a Maryland country bar (called the Starting Gate) where my boss once shot a man dead for trying to rob the local drug store, to my days as the only white kid on an all-black labor crew at the National Archives. You’ll learn what it’s like to spend days cleaning the high-rise glass windows of Manhattan and the rules you need to know to enjoy a cocktail with the greatest living bartender, Murray Stenson.

    What some Amazing Authors are Saying about The Starting Gate:

    “Do you want to know how to behave in a bar? Do you want to know how to live? Maybe they’re not so different. Paul Mullin finds a real honor and wisdom in the messy practice of a life, and he makes me wish I too had learned how to work as a kid at a little country tavern in Maryland called the Starting Gate—even on Taco Night. How am I suddenly nostalgic for a life that wasn’t even my own?”
    – Tom Nissley, Jeopardy Champion and author of A Reader’s Book of Days

    “Paul Mullin enters sacred territory in American Letters, the Temple of the Tavern wherein both grace and alcohol are dispensed. Like its successful predecessors, FALLING THROUGH THE EARTH, THE LIARS CLUB, and THE TENDER BAR. Mullin’s entertaining memoir is an attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable, to explain the mystery of the now with a Drunkard’s Walk through his past of hard manual labor, art, and Zen Buddhism. It’s funny and moving, and Mullin’s chapter on how to properly appreciate a bar should be required reading for all those coming of age.”
    – Robert Schenkkan, Tony Award-winning author of All the Way

    “Playwright Paul Mullin deploys his gift for vivid storytelling in this lively memoir of work, play and apprentice barkeeping.”
    – Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb

    Posted at 11:18 AM in Books, The Starting Gate, Writing | Comments (1)

    Tags: audiobook, e-book, hardcover book, Kindle, memoir, Paul Mullin, The Starting Gate

  • Louis Slotin Sonata is #1!

    Funny story: I mentioned on Google+ this morning that sales of the Kindle version of my play Louis Slotin Sonata seemed to have gone through the roof (though in the interest of perfect honestly, I must now instruct you to picture a roof approximately six inches off the ground.)  Shortly thereafter, my friend and colleague Wes Andrews chimed in to point out that the play is the bestselling e-book in the playwriting category.  (See the rankings here. ) 

    Shocking!

    At this point I began mentally listing reasons this might be so:

    1. In November, Louis Slotin Sonata will be receiving a production on the retired ocean liner, The Queen Mary, produced by California Repertory Company, or Cal Rep for short, the resident theatre company at California State University – Long Beach.  Now, a staging of the play does not necessarily translate into a significant boost in Kindle sales.  I only saw a small uptick when A Red Orchid produced Slotin in Chicago last year; but I wonder if, since the play is being done under the auspices of a university, perhaps certain professors are assigning the text as course reading.  If so, that would be sweet.  I’d like nothing better than to start feeding at the trough of mandatory academic assignment, especially in light of how often and eagerly I rail against the dangers of academia infecting American Theatre with the debilitating disease of elitist inaccessibility.
    2. It ain’t exactly hard to top a list of books about playwriting.  It’s a bit like being the best ice-hockey player in Chad: an achievement, undeniably, but one that needs to be placed in context.  Adding to the irony is the fact that that Louis Slotin Sonata isn’t about playwriting, it is playwriting.  When I first published the script “playwriting” was the closest category Kindle offered.  (A further irony is implied here: Amazon recognized that books about playwriting were more likely to sell than plays themselves.)  All that said, I flatter myself to think that reading Louis Slotin Sonata might teach you things that you won’t learn from Playwriting for Dummies (number two on the list).
    3. You can only get Louis Slotin Sonata on Amazon.  While Slotin is probably my best known play, it is not necessarily the most successful by all standards.  Tuesday has had more productions and The Sequence has netted me more money.  A while ago I decided that I would hold Slotin back from hard-copy publication, if only to see how well it might do if solely offered electronically.  It was an experiment. I like to think Louie would approve.

    Regardless of how I might try to explain it, the situation remains absurd.  And thus, it is my sworn duty as a theatre artist to do everything possible to perpetuate it.  You can help.  You can order the play for your Kindle of course, but if that does not work for you either because…

    • you do not have a Kindle (I sure don’t)
    • or you already have a copy of the play
    • or don’t have the $7.99 to spend

    … you can still help by going to Amazon and supplying a review of the play.  Reviews and good ratings help raise the profile of an electronic title. 

    So think back.  Did you see Slotin in Los Angeles, New York, Seattle or Chicago?  What did you think?  Type those thoughts out and post them to Amazon.  Maybe give the play some stars.  Then sit back with me and see how long we can keep this absurdity going.

    Posted at 11:18 AM in Books, The Starting Gate, Writing | Comments (1)

    Tags: audiobook, e-book, hardcover book, Kindle, memoir, Paul Mullin, The Starting Gate