Publicity

Or free publicity to be more exact. How does one get free publicity? I am a member of the NorthWest Association of Book Publishers (NWABP), and at our last meeting we had a speaker who talked about just that. He got his by contracting a water born disease while he was an expert on water purity. Not positive publicity and no doubt a very uncomfortable learning process, but he did get notoriety. He now gives lectures on getting free publicity. If you go on the Oprah show and if she likes you then you make a million dollars. Hey Oprah, over here, take me, take me. So now I start thinking, how do I get some of that? Well my book is fiction, or is it? My story is about a young man who gets caught up in the military contractor business due to his knowledge of explosives. I was an Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician (EOD) for the military department. The character is a young, brash, self assured, smart ass. Hmmm, well that fit then and some of it still does. I was a civilian who went through the US Naval EOD school in Indian Head Maryland. How did he do that? My wife remembers when I disappeared for two months in 1969, I did? Well now I could make a case for this being a true story then couldn't I. Well I can verify the EOD school and the work with the military department. And I can get many people to testify as to my smart mouth and arrogant attitude back then. But of course the other stuff is not verifiable. Of course the young load master who got shot down in Honduras or one of those places could not verify his either but after an extensive investigation of Ollie North on the Iran Contra deal it became common knowledge who he worked for. Well sort of, was he an employee of the airline or the CIA. Well neither the CIA or Evergreen airlines was ready to step up to the plate on that admission. Of course after that it became common knowledge that these two were in cahoots. I am not sure how it became common knowledge because neither one of them ever admitted to any of their involvement. But there was that aircraft.
At any rate I cannot claim that my story is true even though many parts of it are true because I cannot verify the core of it. Some of it is true about me, some of it is true of others who I knew at the time and listened to their stories and some of it I just made up. Pretty good story though, you should read it. go to http://www.everettede.com/ and download my collections of short stories and see how you like them. One of the short stories is an excerpt from the book. Actually it is a short story that became the book and I incorporated it into the book. Then go to the site for the book (there is a link on the page to do that, Jae thinks of everything) and buy one. It is only $9.95 plus shipping and handling. I do the shipping and handling. And if you buy one this month I will sign all copies that are purchased until October 1st.
And if Ellen wants to talk to me about this I will be more than happy to do that. Oprah too.