Climbing Maya, coming May 1st from Solstice Publishing...

There’s a reason they call it “Making It Happen”…

I was up at 3am this morning doing submissions…

Perhaps I should back up.

One thing you may know about me is that I suffer from insomnia. Not once in a while – a lot! Often, there’s not a whole lot I can do. I’m tired! So, I play solitaire or watch TV, mindless stuff. When I can, though, I work.

This is why I was doing submissions at 3am this morning. I was up and everything so why not? As I processed one submission after another to this theater or that publisher or that agency, my mind wandered and, as if often does, came up with goofy jokes. Something of these, I bank. I mean, literally, I file them away for future use, usually in a play.

And that got me thinking.

I know, as if I needed that! But it did, and I realized just how much work I was in the middle of. I was:

• Banking jokes
• Sending out submissions
• Working on marketing Climbing Maya for its May 1st release date (don’t forget to pick up a copy!)
• Writing Dynamic Pluralism, my book on ethics,
• All the while as I schedule out the rest of my projects for the year.

As the subject line says, there is a reason they call it “Making It Happen.” You don’t wait for it to happen. It doesn’t just happen. If you want a career as a writer, you have to make that career happen.

Listen, I’m certainly no millionaire, best-selling author, but I have had people approached me recently as if I was one. My first published book is coming out soon and I just lined up my first production in San Francisco (more on that later) and some folk think, incorrectly, that means I’ve “made it.” And they tell me that I should be thankful and that I’m so lucky. No. I’m not lucky. Whatever I’ve achieved has been the result of a lot of hard work.

And I’ve only just started.

This is why I tell anyone who wants to be a writer not to do it. Life can be a lot easier than this. But if you’re going to try, don’t just assume it’s luck. You have to make it happen.

Writing New News to UUs…

Sometimes a writer has to get creative…

… I know. Novel thought.

With Climbing Maya coming out on May 1st from SolsticePublishing, I’ve been working overtime contacting blogs and podcasts and newspapers and magazines and just about anyone for a little PR. I’ve been talking to folks at bookstores and coffee shops to set up readings. I really want to get the word out.

Climbing Maya is a philosophical memoir about success that uses a variety of philosophical theories as well as belief systems to analyze the subject. This means, it touches on Plato and Aristotle, Jesus and Buddha, Kundalini and Maslow, and so on. With this pluralistic approach, it’s been difficult to find obvious directions to go.

Then, the other night, I thought of the UUs, or Universal Unitarians. Unitarians are nothing if not pluralistic and like-minded people is what you’re after when selling a book. So, I figured, “What the heck,” and contacted a local UU church.

I haven’t heard anything back, yet, but I write this to let you know that sometimes you have to go beyond the box – way beyond. Screw comfort zones!

You never know. It just might work.

Reading aloud to myself all alone…

For those wondering where we’re at with Climbing Maya, I can proudly announce that we’ve entered the editing phase.

For my own part, I’m reviewing my copy for any changes I need to make. I decided to do this differently this time – yes, this time – by reading the book out loud. As it turns out, you see things differently in a book when you read it out loud and it has actually helped me pick out things I hadn’t noticed before.

That said, let me paint you a picture. I’m sitting in my “office” reading a book out loud with no one here. I’ve never been so self-conscious in my life. I doubt I could be more self-conscious if I was naked… which I am not, by the way.

But if that happens, you can be sure I’ll blog about it!

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!