American Idol 2009 Kris Allen

Another season of American Idol has come and gone.  Kris Allen beat Adam Lambert (the favorite of Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul).   Either of the two could have won.  Many shows are coming to an end, and my Boston Red Sox can get my undivided attention.  On the night that Kris Allen takes the crown, Big Papi hits his first homer.    Varitek hits two dingers, and Ellsbury ties a major league record with 12 putouts in center field.  Everybody wins tonight, except the Blue Jays.  Even Adam Lambert is a winner.  America will be seeing more of him, because he too will be Strapped Into An American Dream.

Trial and Error on linking blog posts

I am still working on linking the wordpress blog post to other social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn.   I am posting again so that I can try to link as I post, since I was not successful with previous posts.

Working on linking blog posts

I am learning how to link blog posts to other social media sites, and my experiment starts now.   I begin with my blog post (here) and try to share with other sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Here it goes…

The Chicago Tribune review request for “Strapped Into An American Dream”

My publisher just received a request for a review copy of my book, “Strapped Into An American Dream,” from the Chicago Tribune, which has “Resourceful Traveler” within its Sunday Travel section.  This Travel book review column would do wonders for my book, so I am very much hoping that they will do the review, but they could not guarantee it. I can guaratee that I will be thrilled if the Chicago Tribune reviews “Strapped Into An American Dream.” 

Calling all bookstores!

I am in the process of trying to get my book in bookstores. Apparently this is not an automatic.  The POD’s are SOL.  I will get there.  The economy is not helping my uphill battle.  I could change my last name to Cyrus and see if I have an easier time of it.  They might even pursue ME. I wish to get my book in Barnes & Noble and Borders, and have signings at each venue.  That’s all I want!   Call me bookstores.  Call me soon.  I am available and my schedule is currently wide open…you caught me at a good time.   My publisher is  booking me now, so call them soon to schedule.  My story is about a dream that most Americans have and I want to share the details of my trip for all to enjoy.  Help me do it by spreading this blog around.  Calling all people.  Calling all bookstores!

Bristol Press details American Dream

Book recounts RV journey across America
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 10:30 PM EDT
By JOHN FITTS
Staff writer

Many Americans dream of taking the great American road trip once the children are out of the house and the career is finally finished.

Glenn Maynard, however, decided to take the opposite approach.

“The common thought is to wait to retire and go RVing,” the Wethersfield resident said.

Maynard and his ex-wife, Tracy (whose maiden name is Wishneski), however decided — “before the mortgage and the kids — let’s get that out of the way first.”

So in 1992, a week after their wedding, the two took off in a renovated 1978 Dodge Rockwood and spent a year on the road, visiting the 48 contiguous states and parts of Mexico and Canada.

Now Maynard’s experiences from that trip, which were originally written out on legal pads, have recently been published by Strategic Book Publishing under the name “Strapped into an American Dream.”

The trip consisted of 35,000 miles worth of amazing experiences as they traveled everywhere from the grandest of national parks in southern Utah to a Wyoming town with a population of six that urged visitors to “drive at a reasonable speed.”

Along the way they were shaken by earthquakes, saw twisters in Illinois, were nearly toppled by the wind on the Colorado plains (after finally leaving Kansas) and drove miles through the woods to reach a free campground in Maine where they met a man with a dog named Molly — the same as their Miniature Schnauzer.

Although they saved the money from their wedding and were fortunate that their cars sold when they were on the road, the couple were forced to work for a time in an Arizona factory after nearly running out of cash.

The two also met an amazing cast of characters including gypsies and people who had UFO and Bigfoot stories.

“Small town America was unbelievable,” Maynard said.

At the time of the trip, Maynard recounted some of those experiences by sending accounts along the way to local newspapers, including the Glastonbury Citizen and Bristol Press.

Maynard, who has a bachelor of arts degree in English from the University of Connecticut, grew up in Glastonbury but Colorado proved so alluring the couple lived in the Denver area for four years. After his divorce, Maynard moved back to Connecticut and has been in Wethersfield since 2001.

He said that after the trip, he typed his stories into a word processor and the book was essentially finished before he moved back to Connecticut. After the divorce, he rewrote the book slightly, taking out some of the honeymoon language but he said the book is 100 percent factual.

Along the way he had to retype it again into a computer and then came the long process of trying to sell it. He said he nearly gave up but Strategic took on the project and published the book in February. Maynard said he hopes to get the title into local stores — which is proving more difficult than he expected. For now it is available online through sites such as Amazon.com.

It can also be found at http://www.strategicbookpublishing.com/StrappedIntoAnAmericanDream.html

Some excerpts and other material can be found at http://www.squidoo.com/glen-maynard-the-american-dream.

Maynard is also finishing a work of fiction. While he hopes to eventually write full-time, he is enjoying his job as a business analyst for United Healthcare.

“If it happens, it happens,” he said.

 http://www.bristolpress.com/articles/2009/05/06/life/doc4a024802a9ae7913882196.eml

Ning addition for Author

I have just joined Ning, which is a book marketing site for publishers and authors.  My link is as follows:  http://bookmarket.ning.com/profile/GlennMaynard

 

Check this site out.

New Glastonbury Citizen Article

The Glastonbury Citizen (05-07-09) featured my story and book on page 2 of their weekly paper.  The story highlighted my long road  to publication with perseverence in my journey and in getting this book into print. This half page story will now make it known to Glastonbury residents that one of their own is now an author.  Glastonbury Life and Wethersfield Life are next in the series of feature stories about me in newspapers.  It’s exciting, and not tiring.  Glastonbury is my home town, and where I graduated from high school in 1983.  My family still lives there, mostly, and i’m now just over the Connecticut River in Wethersfield.  I’ll keep plugging away.  Oh, I will also be featured in the Manchester Community College publications and the UCONN Storrs Summer brochure.

Creating a Buzz about your book

I will be appearing in the Glastonbury Citizen on Thursday, May 7th.  This article will feature me as a hometown Author for my book, “Strapped Into An American Dream,” and I am hopeful that the buzz it creates will draw the attention of the Barnes & Noble in Glastonbury, CT.  It won’t hurt, and then that will be followed by Glastonbury Life, and Wethersfield Life.  If you publish your book through a Small Press, your book does not get into the major book chains like Barnes & Noble and Borders.  This is controlled by their corporate offices, and you need to submit your book along with what is equivalent to a Book Proposal, stating why your book belongs in their store and who will buy it.  You need to create a buzz about your book.  You need to attract the media to your book.  You need to have people coming into the book stores asking for your book, even though it’s only available online. Do something every day, and see what you’ve accomplished at the end of the month.  There will be other newspapers to follow.  My additional goal is for my story to be featured on television.  Stay tuned, and stay IN tune to creating a buzz about your book if book stores are not an automatic. I can hear the buzz, but I need it to be louder…much louder.

New Travel Book

Hello everybody out there. My book came out about a month ago and my local newspapers will be featuring my story. It goes something like this: A couple quit their jobs and chucked it all…hitting the road on a one year journey thru the 48 continental states in a rebuilt rv. Care to do it? Care to read about someone who did? Care to feel what it’s like? Capture the feeling in my book blog…or blog book. No, that would be book blog. Say that 5 times fast…