The problem with art

Many months, perhaps a year, ago, I sent a copy of "The Job" to Big Al's Books and Pals, a review blog. I had no reason to, except that he was embroiled in a shouting match with another author and had gotten quite a lot of buzz, so I thought it was a good outlet. In May he finally posted about the book, which is no slam on him but indicates the backload of books he must have. The review appears here. As you can see, his approach is simply from a political perspective, and so he misses the greater points of the book. (Still gave it three stars, though.) But this is the way we want it to be.


What artists should want more than anything else is to leave room for the reader (in the case of literature) to bring something of himself to the party. If the point of a book or poem, or painting or piece of music, hits the audience over the head so hard that there's no room for interpretation left, then you've lost everyone who does not agree with you 100% already. I placed "The Job" within a corporate setting simply to give it a point of familiarity to westerners, and most particularly Americans, and "Big Al" took that to be an apologetic for capitalism. And maybe that indeed is what evangelicals look like to the world, or even to themselves. But it's not the point of the book. That's the price you pay as an artist, however, and my best hope is that there's enough of "The Job" stuck in his head that he'll reconsider the themes.

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

The marketing effort begins today for "A Time for Poncey - And other Stories out of Skullbone." Check out the video here.

"Madness Is In Their Hearts"

Dr. Hurley's Snake-Oil Cure has posted the first part of "Madness Is In Their Hearts," so please give it a look. Even if you don't want to read it, click on the link and give them a page hit. The story is part of "A Time for Poncey," for which I will soon start turning the marketing gears, looking at a Sept. 1, 2012 release. It's classic Southern Gothic writing based on Ecclesiastes, with a wicked twist of humor. So please help get the word around by directing folks to Dr. Hurley's. I think you'll find some other interesting arts there as well. Thanks.

A long time a-comin'

Did you do it? This is the day of the final tweet of "You Can't Count What Isn't There." Did you follow it? It took six months almost exactly. It is perhaps the worst method of reading a story ever devised. But, in the process, I probably tripled the number of followers I have, mostly from re-tweeting things with the hashtag #ian1. That stands for Independent Authors Network, which I'm not an official member of. Check them out. And stay tuned here for other appearances of stories from "A Time for Poncey," and publication announcements yet to come.

How patient are you?

Hello, it's me again. I'm serializing the first story from my new project, "A Time for Poncey," on Twitter, one tweet at a time. The story is called "You Can't Count What Isn't There," and it is Southern Gothic writing with humor and a spiritual twist. Follow me at http://twitter.com/#!/PonceyStories and search for #Poncey. Thanks, and good reading.

New Media and New Marketing Finis

Well, the “New Media Blitz” is over. It didn’t go particularly the way I’d hoped – I never did get any notice in the old media. Anyway, this project has dominated my attention for about five years, so it’s time to move on to something new. Thanks to everyone who has been a part of this; “The Job” and all my books will continue to be available at the usual websites, and at the discount price of 99¢, so if you’ve been waiting to pull the trigger, now’s the time. I will return to this space eventually (and it will have a somewhat different look), because I’m working on another project as we speak. Thanks again – good reading to all, and to all a good book.

The Craig Davis library of Master Works.


Here's an update as of May 2012: This library has been decimated. Because so many of my books are now part of the Kindle Prime program, they're no longer available at other outlets, so this Smashwords list is limited. The good news is, many books will eventually move back onto the list, but I don't know when.