Just Wrought

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

Tag: memoir

  • THE STARTING GATE for Father’s Day

    THE STARTING GATE for Father’s Day

    The idea came from my good friend and former theatre collaborator, John Langs, when I handed him his copy of the limited first edition hardcover version of The Starting Gate and he grinned and said, “Oh, man. I gotta get a copy of this for my dad!”

    Lightbulb!

    Of course this is a good book for Father’s Day. Not only is there a chapter (or two) that zeroes in on my relationship with my own step-father, but also the entire book is dedicated to my boyos, Declan and Keelan. In other words, this book was written as a father, in an attempt to capture moments in my life that my own sons might not otherwise be able to conceive of: simple things, like telephones being attached to walls, and having to go out and look for a job by walking up and down the boulevard and sticking your head in ever business you passed.

    Here are a couple of the things I am doing to promote The Starting Gate as the perfect Father’s Day gift (though a good bottle of bourbon never hurt either):

    • Bought a week’s sponsorship of The Seattle Review of Books. (This excellent new site founded by Martin McClellan and Paul Constant provides substantial, thoughtful reviews of books of all kinds, as well as blogging about the literary scene here in Seattle and beyond. It is a growing force for good in Seattle’s literary scene and wider world of arts.
    • Slashed the cost of the Kindle version in half. It’s now $4.49 (that’ s 82% off the hardcover version!) Available here.
    • Released the paperback version. It’s available here: https://www.createspace.com/6282351
    • Will give away free Audible downloads of the audio book to the first 10 people who message me. (So message me! Auctioning the limited first edition hardcover version of the book over at eBay. It’s currently bidding at $12, which is over 40% off the $25 cover price.

    If you can think of another way I can make the book easier to get in time for Father’s day, please let me know!

    Posted at 2:32 PM in Books, The Starting Gate, Theatre, Writing | Comments (1)

    Tags: Father's Day, independent book, John Langs, Martin McClellan, memoir, Paul Constant, Paul Mullin, The Seattle Review of Books, The Starting Gate

  • 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 2:32 PM in Books, The Starting Gate, Theatre, Writing | Comments (1)

    Tags: Father's Day, independent book, John Langs, Martin McClellan, memoir, Paul Constant, Paul Mullin, The Seattle Review of Books, 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 2:32 PM in Books, The Starting Gate, Theatre, Writing | Comments (1)

    Tags: Father's Day, independent book, John Langs, Martin McClellan, memoir, Paul Constant, Paul Mullin, The Seattle Review of Books, The Starting Gate

  • Official Finisher! “Gateless” – Chapter 13 of THE STARTING GATE at St. Andrews

    Official Finisher! “Gateless” – Chapter 13 of THE STARTING GATE at St. Andrews

    I got a compliment from a friend the other day that made me feel very proud in a modest sort of way.  He said, “Well, Paul, you do tend to finish things.” We were talking about a novel I have recently started. I have no idea if I will finish it. But with my friend’s kind approbations added to the analysis, I like my odds.

    (more…)

    Posted at 2:32 PM in Books, The Starting Gate, Theatre, Writing | Comments (1)

    Tags: Father's Day, independent book, John Langs, Martin McClellan, memoir, Paul Constant, Paul Mullin, The Seattle Review of Books, The Starting Gate

  • “The Ending Gate”: Chapter 12 of THE STARTING GATE at St. Andrews

    “The Ending Gate”: Chapter 12 of THE STARTING GATE at St. Andrews

    In what I can only describe as an attempt to kick my own butt with a leap of faith, I started publically reading chapters from The Starting Gate at The St. Andrews Bar and Grill in Green Lake long before I had finished the book.  Now it’s a year later, a strong first draft is finished, and there are only two chapters left to present. Will you consider joining me as I read “The Ending Gate”, the twelfth chapter? This chapter tells the story of what happened to me and my brother when our home away from home burned out of existence, and threw us forward, for better or worse, into the rest of our lives.

    Here’s a little taste:

    Back in 1985, neither my brother nor I had any strong theories on how the fire happened, but one fact quickly dawned on both of us, and I have to assume nearly everyone in town. The Starting Gate stood there, condemned and vacant, but also packed with thousands of dollars’ worth of liquor, some, if not most, of it salvageable. This fact must have dawned on John too, because within days of the fire, photocopies of this posting went up all around the property:


    ANYONE FOUND HERE AT NIGHT
    WILL BE FOUND HERE IN THE MORNING.

    Here are the details:

    When: Monday, February 9, at 8pm

    Where: The St. Andrews Bar, 7406 Aurora Ave. North, Seattle, WA 98103

    Who: Me, and you, and probably a few others you know

    How: Quick and dirty, the readings rarely last longer than 25 minutes.

    Why: Why not?

    Posted at 2:32 PM in Books, The Starting Gate, Theatre, Writing | Comments (1)

    Tags: Father's Day, independent book, John Langs, Martin McClellan, memoir, Paul Constant, Paul Mullin, The Seattle Review of Books, The Starting Gate

  • “Johnny Got his Gun”: Chapter 8 of THE STARTING GATE at St. Andrews

    “Johnny Got his Gun”: Chapter 8 of THE STARTING GATE at St. Andrews

    Next Monday I’ll be reading the eighth chapter of my book The Starting Gate at St. Andrews Bar And Grill in Green Lake. This chapter is titled “Johnny Got his Gun”, and tells the story of what happened when some hillbilly hold-up artists tried to rob the pharmacy across the street from the bar I worked in as a teenager.

    Over the years, my views of the role of the gun in civilized society have evolved to a position practically diametric in opposition to the one inculcated in me as kid; but nothing in life is truly clear and simple, and if you think the myth of “The Good Guy with A Gun” is nothing but that, a harmful myth, then you might want come consider this story.

    Here’s a quickie excerpt:

    “See what happened was there was a guy at the door that was holding the girl and this other fellah with the screwdriver on the little girl’s throat.”

    “Who does that?” my brother interjected at the table.

    “Right?” said John. “One guy’s got this cannon of a .357. The other’s got nothing but a screw driver.” All three of us shook our heads and grimaced at the occasional idiocy of rednecks. Then John continued, “So I said ‘Frosty, are you carrying.’ Or I might’ve said, ‘Are you packin’?’”

    “And he said, ‘Yeah.’”

    And here are the details:

    When: Monday, September 29 at 8pm

    Where: The St. Andrews Bar, 7406 Aurora Ave. North, Seattle, WA 98103

    Who: Me, and you, and probably a few others you know

    How: Quick, dirty and FREE! PLUS the readings rarely last longer than 25 minutes.

    Why: Why not?

    Posted at 2:32 PM in Books, The Starting Gate, Theatre, Writing | Comments (1)

    Tags: Father's Day, independent book, John Langs, Martin McClellan, memoir, Paul Constant, Paul Mullin, The Seattle Review of Books, The Starting Gate

  • “What Should I be Doing?”: Chapter 7 of THE STARTING GATE at St. Andrews

    “What Should I be Doing?”: Chapter 7 of THE STARTING GATE at St. Andrews

    Next Monday I’ll be reading the seventh chapter of my book The Starting Gate at St. Andrews Bar And Grill in Green Lake. This chapter is titled “What Should I be Doing?”, and you could say that the entire book is both an response to—as well as a reiteration of—this question. For any artist the answer can be either easy and glib:“My art, what else?”; or excruciating and profound: “I have no idea, but I am doing it anyway.”

    Life has meant a lot of changes for me in this past year or so. But I ain’t afraid.  (Or, well, not much.) It ain’t the change that kills ya. (Or, well, not until it does.)

    Here’s a quickie excerpt:

    What should I be doing?

    At the Starting Gate I always knew. Clear the rails. Drag and dump the trash cans. Clean the floors. Is it Wednesday? Then you better wax and buff them, too. Load beer. Stock the liquor shelves. Is it summer? Bag ice. Is it winter? Chop wood. But that was back when I was boy, learning to be a man. And the “what-should-I-be-doing?” question was a simple tactical one. Now is now, and now, like it or not—and I don’t like it at all—I am a middle-aged man, 13 years older than my father when he died and kicked off the perfect experiment, and my existential problem is no longer tactical, but stark strategy: trying to figure out what to do when there is nothing to do.

    What should I be doing?

    I got nothing

    And here are the details:

    When: Monday, August 18 at 8pm

    Where: The St. Andrews Bar, 7406 Aurora Ave. North, Seattle, WA 98103

    Who: Me, and you, and probably a few others you know

    How: Quick and dirty, the readings rarely last longer than 25 minutes.

    Why: Why not?

    Posted at 2:32 PM in Books, The Starting Gate, Theatre, Writing | Comments (1)

    Tags: Father's Day, independent book, John Langs, Martin McClellan, memoir, Paul Constant, Paul Mullin, The Seattle Review of Books, The Starting Gate

  • “The Perfect Experiment”: Chapter 3 of THE STARTING GATE at St. Andrews

    “The Perfect Experiment”: Chapter 3 of THE STARTING GATE at St. Andrews

    On Monday, April 14 at 8pm, at The St. Andrews Bar and Grill, I will do again what I have done twice before: read a chapter from my book in progress, The Starting Gate, to a small group of close friends, so I can hear it out loud and also gather their reactions.

    (more…)

    Posted at 2:32 PM in Books, The Starting Gate, Theatre, Writing | Comments (1)

    Tags: Father's Day, independent book, John Langs, Martin McClellan, memoir, Paul Constant, Paul Mullin, The Seattle Review of Books, The Starting Gate