Runestruck, Calvin Trillin

“If you liked Runestruck by Calvin Trillin, you’ll probably like my new book, Tales from the Boiler Room, a collection of short stories.”

This is what I told myself.  I am trying to think of how to find bloggers, and/or book reviewers, who might like my new collection of stories.  So I asked myself: What other existing books are sort of like this book?  Humorous, with – among other things – a bit of historical trivia which would appeal to a certain type of nerdy reader like myself?

Well, Runestruck is something like that.  So, I thought, it’s simple: I’ll look up Runestruck on Amazon, and I’ll look through the customer reviews.  Many reviewers use their own names, and they are proud to be in the “Top 500” reviewers or whatever, and I’ll bet some of them blog about what they’ve read.  If they’ve given Runestruck five stars, and I can track them down, I’ll send them my book.  Clever, right?

I quickly learned:

–Runestruck has only one customer review on Amazon.  It is indeed a good review, but . . .

-The review is anonymous

-The review is from 2000

-The Amazon listing for Runestruck uses the wrong cover!!  [Update, 2012: It has the right cover, now.]

-In sum, Runestruck does not seem to have a huge crowd of fans out there to whom I can appeal.  And if no huge crowd of fans likes Runestruck, then, regarding my book, I can forecast that  . . .

Come on now, think positive.

Well, if nothing else, let me say: I enjoyed Runestruck.  I agree with the assessment of that brilliant Amazon reviewer, A Customer.

http://www.amazon.com/Runestruck-Calvin-Trillin/dp/0316852759/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1304966736&sr=8-1

(The link to my own book is further down this page, all you Runestruck fans.)

New humor for kindle

Next to the mayor’s office, as promised, we encountered the office of the registrar.  A sign above the door identified it. We walked inside and talked to a young, Spanish-speaking woman about the titles.  She told us we had the wrong room.

“But the sign above the door—” the secretary objected.

The three of us stepped back into the hall and again inspected the sign, which now proclaimed the office of public utilities.

“It must have moved,” the young woman told us.  “Try the first floor.”

The secretary and I descended the flights of stairs and prowled around the first floor, checking signs.  Presently the Turkish clerk stepped out of his office and addressed us.

“You just missed it,” he said.  “It was here a moment ago but it moved upstairs again.”

“A moment ago?”

“Just a moment.”  He smiled.  He was really a helpful man; he was just stuck in a trying situation.  I realized this was the case with many Nicaraguans.

-From Tales from the Boiler Room; link below.

Short Stories for Kindle

What does a guy have to do to get his blog to turn up in a google search???  On my other blog I throw in all sorts of marvelous tags, but nada.  Well, maybe this post title will get some traffic.

My collection Tooth Man is 9 interconnected stories from the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua; stories about a fish soup love potion; a phantom dentist; and Miskitu, Sumu, creoles, latinos, Prussians, and plain old gringos.  Excerpts and a link below.