Coming Soon to a Magazine Near You!... (providing you buy the magazine...)

Hello dear reader,

As you may have heard, I'll be in next month's copy of Recovering the Self magazine. They just recently released a Coming Soon piece over on their website, the text of which I will reproduce here...

The coming issue of Recovering the Self (April 2012) takes the theme of “Starting Over” thorough the writings of people had those hard times in their personal and/or professional lives and had those “awakening moments” whereby we receive the gift of valuing life in the present as we have it in and around us.

This issue features the following articles:

Taking the Opportunity by Ken La Salle*The Woman Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming by Dinah Dietrich
The Blue Dots by Nancy-Gail Burns
Forgiveness Is Not A One-Time Act by Rosana Brasil
Starting Over by Kat Fasano-Nicotera
Take Pride, Not Sorrow by Sarah Jane Conteh… and many others.

Also included in the issue will be a special interview with psychologist Steve Taylor of the Leeds Metropolitan University, author of the recent book Out of the Darkness, which explores the subject of how people transform spiritually after turmoil or hitting rock bottom at some point in their lives.

Inspirational, healing, and empowering, the April 2012 issue is all you want to read for your life to come live again!

Stop by the Recovering the Self website (or your favorite online magazine etailer - Amazon's a good one) and pick up your copy of April's Recovering the Self today! (You probably won't get it until April, though... I'm just saying...)



*Underlining and bolding may just be mine...

Rule #73 as a writer…

You have to have a website.

That’s what people have been telling me for the last decade or so: to create my own website. You have to have a website, they’d say. You’re not a real writer unless you have a website.

Website? I’d ask. What the hell do I know about websites???

With that said, it is with a certain amount of irony that I introduce www.kenlasalle.com! Yes! My own website! It has books and plays and – well, let me let the press release tell you the whole thing.

Author and Playwright, Ken La Salle, plants his Internet flag with a new website.

Ken La Salle has created a new website at www.kenlasalle.com to help celebrate and promote his exciting writing career. With areas for coming projects, his theatrical plays, and places where you can purchase his books, www.kenlasalle.com brings you Ken La Salle in all his Ken La Salliness… if such a thing is possible.

“Dynamic content?” La Salle asked. “We’ve got that. Exciting events around the corner? We’ve got that, too! Lots of cool stuff. Yes! Emphatically so! Future expansion into new and amazing directions? Well… no. Not yet. We’re still waiting for the future on that one.”

Ken La Salle is the author of many e-books available on Amazon and Smashwords for every e-reader, with genres spanning horror and fantasy, comedy and romance, and more. Later this year, Solstice Publishing  will release La Salle’s philosophical memoir, Climbing Maya, which examines the illusory nature of success in the 21st century. You can also catch La Salle’s monthly articles on pursuing your dreams at the Recovering the Self website.

Ken La Salle’s plays have been seen on stages up and down the California coast and in New York as well. Last year’s OC-Centric New Play Festival featured La Salle’s short, The Myth of the Cubicle, to enthusiastic crowds. A shockingly true farce, Cubicle analyzes the absurdity of the American workplace and a social safety net chewed through by the rats of big business. Recently, Horse Trade Theatre in NY also featured a staged reading of La Salle’s comedy, Murielle’s Big Date.

La Salle recently stated that www.kenlasalle.com will feature dynamic content that will be regularly updated to keep fans, supporters, and haters alike up to date with new releases, appearances, and everything the struggling artist plans to do to make a little scratch in our changing theatrical and publishing world.

Ken La Salle is represented by Sullivan Maxx Literary Agency supported by a beautiful wife and abused by more people than he can or would like to name.

I hope you enjoy www.kenlasalle.com. It’s a huge step and I’m hoping it pays off. If nothing else, it is certainly one step closer to being a “real writer.”

Taking The Opportunity next month…

Recently, I was given the most amazing compliment in quite some time, one I won’t forget for a long while. My editor over at Recovering The Self emailed me in response to an e-blast I had sent out to let me know he was going to publish it.

Publish it? I asked him. This wasn’t something to be published. It was just an email to share with friends.

Now, in case you’re wondering, the email was about my many false starts of late, how I have taken every opportunity that comes my way and tried to make something of it. Even when I fail – and boy do I – it is worth it because I enjoy a terrific opportunity.

This was a perfect example.

I asked my editor if he could give me a day or two to write a new article in place of the email. He gave me three.

As a result, I am happy to announce that next month’s edition of Recovering The Self will feature my article, Taking The Opportunity. Click over there if you’d like to pick it up. I hope you enjoy it.

It's test time...

Hey folks,

Pardon the randomness. I have to post a test entry for the new website.

New website, you ask? Indeed! Look for kenlasalle.com coming soon to an Internet near you!

This month's Recovering the Self...

Publishing! Podcasting! Plugging!

... more plugging!

That's what being a writer is about sometimes. It is certainly where my dream has taken me. You can read all about that in the lastest entry over on Recovering the Self. (click the link!) Share with friends! Leave a comment! Enjoy!

... oh, and don't forget to check out the podcasts!

Websites and the writer…

This week I’ve decided to do something a little different. I’ll be writing on one topic but as two people: Ken La Salle, the person over on the One Path blog and the writer here.

The topic is websites.

Recently, I’ve been encouraged by my publisher and my agent and, hell, just about every other right thinking person on earth, to get my own website. Writers these days have websites and it appears to be time for me to step up to the next level and get one.

It’s become difficult to put it off any longer. I have books for sale, plays getting produced (now and then), regular articles on the web, new books coming out – I have CONTENT. And, as any writer should know, content is king.

Growing up, I had always suspected – and I say “suspected” because I hadn’t a clue – that someone else would take care of all this. They’d set up the website. They’d get me the articles. They’d publish the books. They’d promote everything.

… no. Actually, “they” aren’t there. At least, there aren’t that many of “them.”

I have to take responsibility for things myself. And that means a website where I can promote plays and books, post blog feeds and twitter feeds,  get the word out about appearances and upcoming projects, and feature a store where you can buy Ken La Salle stuff. I’m actually probably behind where I should be.

Vicky stood beside me as I purchased the domain name for www.kenlasalle.com and I was so stressed out I made myself sick. (You can read about that on the other blog.) But once I did it, once I actually bought the domain name, I felt better… okay, slowly… very slowly. But now, I think this is exactly right. It’s what I should be doing.

Sometimes we artistic people are so humbled by life (and those negative Nellies we stupidly keep around) that we forget how cool we are and how lucky we are to be on such an adventure. Never let other people bring you down to the point where you’re afraid to take the next step.

I’ll be bringing you news on www.kenlasalle.com as things develop. Stay tuned.

Writing with my gut…

(Disclaimer: No, my gut is not that big. No, it doesn’t type. No, it’s not because – It’s a metaphor, you cretins!)

As both of my readers may know, I’ve been working on a book on ethics now for five solid months… and I’m only halfway through. Five solid months. Nearly half a year. I haven’t devoted this much time to one project since… Actually, I’ve never devoted this much time to one project!

As a rule, I try to keep things fluid, go with the flow, write what my body is telling me to write. In this case, however, I’ve been making a point of not listening to my body. If I get the urge to work on something – anything – new, I strongly ignore it and keep working.

That is, until yesterday morning.

Backing up a bit, I’ve been have a lot of insomnia lately… and it’s pretty damned annoying. Tuesday night, as I was trying to sleep… well, I wasn’t. Nothing would put me under. So, I got up as I usually do and went to my desk to see about doing some late-night work. As I looked through my research, though, my brain wouldn’t have any of it. It all looked like gibberish. This happens when you’re sleepy. Your rational mind says, “Nope. Not until you sleep.”

So, I couldn’t work.

Sitting there, as my mind began to wander, I heard a voice. The closest I could put it was Anthony Hopkins; I was hearing Anthony Hopkins’ voice. This happens sometimes. When a story wants to come out, I’ll hear the story’s voice – like an audiobook – speaking lines to me.

He was talking about the death of his dominatrix and how his son just didn’t understand.

I was hooked!

The story became so clear and concise; I knew that if I put myself to it, I could write it in just a few days. I knew it would be a play. At about 12,000 words (the length of a full-length play), hammering it out would be no problem.

But there was the issue of the book!

This is why I say I write with my gut and I encourage every writer to do this. I knew my progress with the book was slow. My brain needed refreshing, something to wake it up. Spending a few days writing a new play might help give me the energy to keep on with the book better than sticking with the book itself.

So, I switched gears and began what I am calling Lost and Found. (It’s a working title, though. I don’t really care for it.) Yesterday, I hammered out the first half – 6,000 words in one day!

Writing is not just a cerebral activity. You need to listen to your emotions and your boredom and other things your body is telling you. You’re not a machine. You’re an artist.

Give yourself the freedom to be one!