My Amazon Author Page!

Finally, I got this baby up and running. When my publisher released the cover for Between Two Fires and made Amazon preorders available online, several of my awesome fellow bloggers started pinging me and saying…“dude, where’s your author page at?”

Well, here it is: amazon.com/author/marknoce.

Needless to say, I’m definitely psyched to have a name and face to go with my book. Now the experience has gotten me all curious about looking at other authors' pages on Amazon, checking when their books are available and what events they may be at. I know, I know…welcome to the 21^st Century, Mark.

Anyhow, I’m curious how others out there typically look up their favorite authors. Do you usually search Amazon first or do you go to Goodreads? Or somewhere else?

The Fun of Fan Fiction

Lately, I’ve been indulging in the addictive vice of fan fiction. But I like to take things a step further by inserting my friends into these little short stories. I’ve been particularly enthralled with some fan fiction in the Star Wars universe, making every character some Star War-ish version of one of my real life pals.

Needless to say, it’s pretty low pressure, and all fun, which is what writing’s supposed to be in the first place. Also, my friends get a kick out of seeing themselves in print as they wield lightsabers or fly X-wings through perilous dangers and whatnot. The side benefit is that this type of writing every once in a while helps recharge my creative batteries for larger writing endeavors.

So how are you trying to unwind and let loose with the start of the New Year? Have you seen The Force Awakens? What do you think?   

Cover Reveal for Between Two Fires!!!

Checkout the new cover for my debut novel, Between Two Fires!

A big thank you to Thomas Dunne Books and St. Martins’ Press for putting together such awesome cover art! The first of my historical fiction series coming out next August, it’s already available on Amazon for preorders. It’s also available on the UK, French, German, Italian, and Japanese Amazon websites so far.

But don’t take my word for it, you can read the blurb on my novel as well as get a better look at the cover here on Amazon. At the moment, preorders are only available in hardcover, but will eventually be available in paperbacks and eBook versions too.

Needless to say, I’m pretty pumped at seeing my work getting a visual “face,” especially after all the heart and soul I’ve put into this book over the past few years. I’ll definitely be counting the days until Between Two Fires comes out in August 2016!

You can also checkout the cover on my revamped website here and here!!!

One Lifetime Isn’t Enough

I’m always intrigued by artistic output. How many songs does a musician generate over a lifetime? How many sonnets does a poet dream up?

As an author myself, I know many fellow writers and I can certainly pen 2-3 full length novels a year. Obviously, we’re not doing it just to generate words, but to create something truly beautiful. But it still begs the question, what happens to all those books? All that art?

It’s certainly way more than any publishing house can handle, and it explains how authors long dead still continue to come out with books (just look at Michael Crichton, Mark Twain, and Irene Nemirovski). Heck, there’s a new Frank Sinatra album coming out this year with 100 songs, 91 of which have never been heard by the public before, and that guy’s been dead for seventeen years!

My conclusion is that one lifetime simply isn’t enough for any single artist. An individual can generate so much art over the course of a few decades that it ends up taking many more decades after their death just for all of it to reach an audience. Food for thought.

But the bright side is, there’s more than enough books, music, and art in this world for the rest of us to last a lifetime.    

Mention in Alma Mater Magazine

So a friend of mine sent me this yesterday. Apparently, my university mentioned me in their magazine, which is pretty cool considering I didn’t solicit them and they didn’t contact me about it. Needless to say, it made my day.

Of course, they’re a bit off on the publication date. My debut novel, Between Two Fires, doesn’t come out with St. Martin’s Press until September of 2016. But hey, I’m still happy just to get the mention. Go Cal Poly!

Phantom of the Opera

Last night, my wife and I went to Phantom of the Opera for our anniversary. I'd never seen it before, and needless to say, I was pretty blown away by how awesome it was. The music of the orchestra and the performers were crazy good, plus the sets really put the audience right in the middle of the performance.

We went to the Orpheum in San Francisco, which is a cool old building in of itself, with lots of unique architecture from bygone eras. It has had a rich history over the last 90-odd years, having hosted everything from Evita to Wicked to Conan O'Brien to the Grateful Dead.

Anyhow, this is just the start of this production version of the Phantom of the Opera, which is kicking off a nationwide tour over the next year-plus. So if you like great music, live performances, and lots of spooky fog machines, definitely check this one out for yourself.    

R.I.P Mr. Dyer

A really inspirational public speaker recently passed away, Wayne Dyer (who you’ve probably seen on PBS if you haven’t read his books).  A sort of modern-day Thoreau, he professed a wonderfully positive spiritualism that combined western Transcendentalism with eastern Hinduism and Taoism in a really accessible way for Western audiences. I always enjoyed his ideas and how he delivered such a positive message about life, death, and the divine in a very commonsense and understandable way.

Many of his ideas weren’t originally his own, but his gift was in synthesizing seemingly disparate philosophical and spiritual practices and revealing the oneness and beauty behind all of them. His words of wisdom have touched many people, including myself, and have given new meaning to faith in general and what it can mean to each of us. The beauty is that even though he has crossed over, his words remain with us and continue to teach and comfort those searching for truth and understanding.

R.I.P. Mr. Dyer.