HNT - Writer / Bookseller Exposed

On October 15th, Episode 9 of "Getting Published with Mark Leslie" was posted on The Writing Show podcast.

This series of "reality episode" podcasts first started in October of 2006 and was introduced by Writing Show host Paula B with the following words:

Ever wondered what goes on inside the mind of a horror writer? Now's your chance to find out. We'll be following Mark's struggles as he attempts to complete and find an agent for his unpublished novel 'A Canadian Werewolf in New York'.

The work in progress, A CANADIAN WEREWOLF IN NEW YORK was originally a 10,000 word short story that my friend Sean Costello convinced me would be worth developing into a novel length work. When I first started on the novel and this series, I'd been planning on spending the month of November 2006 to finish the first draft of the novel.

However, as reality set in and multiple different distractions took me away from being able to focus solely on this novel, this podcast series became as much about the side-trips I've taken as a writer as it has been about finishing ACWWINY.

Episode 9 not only explores the side-activities I have taken as a writer (such as working on other writing projects, both short fiction pieces and non-fiction articles -- both of which I've had some success in finding homes for), but also explores the overwhelming distractions I face from my day job.

In this episode, Paula and I cover the following topics:

• Revisiting the character Brickie (introduced by Mick Halpin) through a submission about the "Brickie virus" by writer Mark Herbst
• How I'm still plugging away (very slowly) on ACWWINY
• A few other short story and non-fiction writing projects I've been working on
  
• The unique challenge for a writer of loving your day job so much that it takes more time away from your writing (I'm blessed to have a very satisfying career as a bookseller -- on the flip side, that steals even more time away that could be spent writing)
  
• What I believe it takes to be a good bookseller (my completely biased viewpoint) as well as a "Coles Notes" summary of my career in bookselling
  
• A detailed discussion about POD (Print on Demand) technology and the Espresso Book Machine from On Demand Books, including how I believe it will change the world of bookselling and what my plans when the Espresso Book Machine arrives in my store at the end of October

This interview is an interesting cross-over between my daytime work as a bookseller as well as my "night time" work as a writer.

Of course, while I try to keep my personal life and my work life somewhat separate, there's no separating the way that passions can collide. But I never expected, when I started in on this series, that I would be talking so much about my work as a bookseller. I find it interesting how this interview segues from writing into bookselling -- but at the end of it all, it's really just a huge "exposure" of two of the largest parts of who I am, and that is why it's the subject of this week's Half Nekkid Thursday post and why I'm posting several of the "episode" pics from this series on The Writing Show this week.

You can download and listen to "Getting Published with Mark Leslie" episode 9 here.

Though that was a wallet in my front pocket I was still quite happy to be at the New York Public Library

Me posing with Yorick (the skull I bring to most of my book signings) at a Chapters in Toronto

I was a teenage chain store zombie.
(No offense to chain store booksellers intended, as I did spend 14
of my 16 years as a bookseller working for Canada's largest chain retailer)

Hamming for the camera with Paul Wilde at the University of Alberta Bookstore
in front of their Espresso Book Machine