All Things Hollywood: Shakedown, that is.

Hollywood Shakedown was my first book. 

Well, that's not true. My first novel was a horror novel I wrote based on the Black Sabbath album cover when I was twenty, er, a few years ago. 

A friend read it, slated it and said I should stick to studying Psychology. 

I didn't write a single word again until about twenty three years later when my friend Paul Vani, from Houston, Texas, set me a challenge. 

I've written about this elsewhere so I won't go on, but Hollywood Shakedown was the result. 

The Radio Interview

Hollywood is all over this blog, so instead of internal links, I'll point you in the direction of a radio interview I carried out with the brilliant Phil Naessens of the eponymous Radio Show. 

https://phillipnaessens.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/the-phil-naessens-show-november-23-2012-hollywood-shakedown/

Phil is a top sports DJ who is syndicated around the US. A genuine Indie success story, when Phil first started, he dabbled in Indielit and interviewed me (and my good friends Mary Ann Bernal, K-Trina Meador and Brenda Perlin, who featured on GWP a month ago) on his radio show.  That's me on November 23rd 2012, some six months after Hollywood Shakedown was published.

Latest Reviews

Two of my favourite people - and blogs - reviewed the book lately. This is from Sheffield's finest E Lindley, author of many well received thrillers and romances and member of Rosie Amber's Review Site.

http://lindleyreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/hollywood-shakedown-by-mark-barry.html

She runs a terrific review blog too with some eclectic choices from Trad and Indie publications - she really does do a book justice - getting inside the head of the writer, often picking up stuff most reviewers miss (and I don't mean full stops etc). I recommend following her stuff.

...and this came from Georgia Rose, author of the Grayson Trilogy (including soon, the long awaited third part of the trilogy) and all round top author and massive Indie supporter. Georgia has read all my stuff and I strongly recommend following her well written and upbeat blog. There is some terrific travel writing in there at the moment.

http://www.georgiarosebooks.com/bookreview-for-hollywood-shakedown-by-mark-barry-greenwizard62/

The Amazon Review Crackdown

I'm going to write my opinions on the Amazon crackdown on review protocols. They may prove controversial.  Coming soon.

Here's what Indie commentator, faction writer and supporter Brenda Perlin had to say on the subject on Indie support magazine, Indies Unlimited. 

The comments are excellent, for the most part, and they are well worth a read.

http://www.indiesunlimited.com/2015/07/07/amazon-steps-in-as-big-brother/

The Original Hollywood Cover

I still like that cover, the best of all of the first wave - except for the sunny cover of Kid Atomic, which I may re-release next year for history's sake (if I ever actually do any writing again). The above is still featured as the face of HS on Amazon.com, but it's no longer on my publishing bookshelf.

Thanks for reading,

Mark

*The Goldfinch, for me, only takes off when the action takes place in Las Vegas. The characters in those chapters are working class, hustlers, bums, addicts and losers - pretty much like normal folks. When the action switches to the rarified world of the rich and famous (a common problem, I find, with many "name" US writers), it grinds to a crashing halt. See, for example - Paul Auster, Invisible and James Frey, My Friend Leonard.

For EL Lindley :-)

Stop Press:

The Literacy Project Phil Pidluznyj and me deliver called Brilliant Books is now featured (unexpectedly) on A Woman's Wisdom Blog today. 

https://awomanswisdom.wordpress.com/2015/07/13/guest-blog-brilliant-books-how-did-it-go-by-author-mark-barry/