How much does the Court matter?

Possibly everything.

Please take a moment to read and if you're sufficiently outraged, take a moment to write your congressperson:

Editorial - The Court’s Blow to Democracy - NYTimes.com

www.nytimes.com

Rub Of The Green by Brock Walsh will, with a little luck, appear in bookstores soon.

Contact brockwalsh@gmail.com or
Beverley Slopen slopenagency@gmail.com

Existential moment

So here is the question-- satisfaction or amusement?

I am as prone to seeking amusement for its own sake as much as the next drooling cretin, just ask my poker friends on Facebook. I can put off a worthy task for days if dealing with it sparks a scintilla of discomfort. Boxes wait forlornly by the closed garage door day after day and I walk by with no more than a sideways glance. This despite the nagging feeling of uselessness and the knowledge that it would take less than a minute to stow them away. 

Just not right this moment--- I have to check my email.

But back to the question. I can amuse myself as I'm so good at doing, drawing from a long list of games and goodies, or I can deposit my distracted self at my desk and do the one thing that might bring real creative satisfaction--- solve the problem with the ending of this book.

In the hopes of spurring me to that end I will state-- sometimes you need to overcome life's obstacles for no other reason than to prove to yourself that you are capable of answering fate's bullying with a little vinegar of your own.

It's an amusing thought.

Rub Of The Green by Brock Walsh will, with a little luck, appear in bookstores soon.

Contact brockwalsh@gmail.com or
Beverley Slopen slopenagency@gmail.com

Cliff Divers

It's a long way down but I'm jumping back in.

The Japanese have a saying-- you're never done building your house. The same goes for a book evidently.

I had hoped that whatever editing and rewriting remained would wait for a book deal but what happened yesterday has made me rethink it. The editor I referred to in last Friday's post (1/8), returned my email and invited me to call him asap as his wife was about to go into labor. I looked at the clock and saw I had thirty minutes before my session with the LA Jerk Kings was scheduled.

He answered the phone and was warm and personable. Over a full thirty minutes, we talked about the book--he reiterated how much he enjoyed it, how rare it was for him to finish a manuscript and not offer a deal--and how I might improve it by increasing the emotional impact. This, he felt, was all that was missing. 

He had me take him through the various incarnations, three drafts, and how each differed from the preceding. He wondered if I had it in me to have another go at this point. I answered that I had nearly all my chips in the middle of the table and had little choice but go all in. He is a golfer himself and I offered to take him to Rancho should he make it to LA.

His attention feels like fuel and I'm going to need some to complete the task ahead.

But first I have to jump.

Rub Of The Green by Brock Walsh will, with a little luck, appear in bookstores soon.

Contact brockwalsh@gmail.com or

Faint Praise Indeed

Part of the game of catching a publisher's attention is having your notable friends pen a blurb, some pithy praise, that might tip the scales and have them give your manuscript a peek. Beverley asked me to see who would agree to do so and Roger Director, my dear friend and author, graciously came through. Eddie Merrins, author and golf pro, did as well. 

Having worked as a composer for the CBS network, I decided to call in a few favors and get to David Feherty, the famously irreverent announcer for CBS Sports. Ron Scalera, a VP at CBS who has been a friend for years, agreed to act as a go-between, and within a week he called me to say that Feherty, after initially declining, had consented to send me a quote.

Ron warned me that whatever I might receive would be unusual and he wasn't wrong.

It read:

This book is soft, and very absorbent. Ideal for the bathroom.
Brock Walsh is like a blind man in a dark room, looking for a

black cat............. that isn't there.

 

David Feherty

Akin to the famous quote attributed to German composer, Max Reger--  "I am sitting in the smallest room in my house. Your review is before me. Soon, it will be behind me", it's pretty clear what Feherty was recommending readers should do with my writing. Beverley saw no point in including it and I couldn't disagree.

On a journey that takes years to complete, you're going to encounter all sorts of people and an equally wide range of assistance. Some of it isn't worth much and is better discarded.

I hope to live long enough to return DF's favor,

Rub Of The Green by Brock Walsh will, with a little luck, appear in bookstores soon.

Contact brockwalsh@gmail.com or
Beverley Slopen slopenagency@gmail.com

Many Rivers To Cross

Beverley sent me a copy of a letter last night written by a New York editor of a respected publishing house. In it, he details his great admiration for the book, confesses that he read it to the end, and then meticulously  enumerates what he feels is missing. It's two pages long and, no matter how defensive I may be to criticism, I had to marvel at the insight he shared and the care he took.

I'm probably not done writing this book.

There simply is no doubt that it can be made better. It has undergone dramatic changes in both form and content based on the heap of comments from my brilliant readers already. I glanced at the first draft, two years old now, and it's hardly recognizable. 

I'm a new writer but I'll bet this is true. The closer a book gets to being very good, the more glaring its weaknesses become. And the temptation to punk out is never greater. Beverley and I have yet to decide on a course of action, but I'm leaning toward taking up said editor on his offer to talk with him about how I might bring it home.

Joy's late father wrote, as have many unpublished wannabes, a book that exists in a bound version only because he went to the expense himself. To have come this far and meet that fate would be very depressing.

Whoever it was that first said writing is rewriting was not kidding around.

Rub Of The Green by Brock Walsh will, with a little luck, appear in bookstores soon.
Contact brockwalsh@gmail.com

Shoulder To The Plow

Had a good chat with Beverley, my agent, last night and learned that there is some interest out there from our first foray. I'm keeping a lid on my excitement level, never easy and contrary to my December premature elation (not a misspelling). So with new measured enthusiasm, I place shoulder to plow and resume digging.

It's a delicate balance, allowing yourself enough hope to keep up the fight without succumbing to that embarrassing chicken counting followed by crow tartare. Being the excitable type (read Irish), I'm prone to the latter. And difficult though it may be to take on these unlikely pursuits, it's far preferable to the daily dreamless slog we face without them.

I've also received some great advice on how to make this site an enjoyable destination, replete with pix and video and, who knows-- recipes?

Thanks for initial burst of support and good wishes. I'll try to walk that middle ground between punking out and inundating with gobs of gibberish.

Rub Of The Green by Brock Walsh will, with a little luck, appear in bookstores soon.

Contact brockwalsh@gmail.com 

Oh, good, another page

At my eldest's behest, created a FB page for the completed and yet unpublished Rub Of The Green with the following proviso:

Spent the last 10 years watching the music business go the way of that 'cake out in the rain' and arrived at the publishing world's doorstep just in time to learn that it's celebrities only. So it's time to play make-enough-noise-to-get-heard or die trying.

By joining, you can either be part of the excitement as we go from promising longshot to Oprah's darling, or watch a grown man submit to endless humiliation and ultimately be rendered disgraced and penniless!

Here's what we're saying to prospective publishers:

Rub of the Green

In Golf and Life You Play it as it Lays

In a chaotic and uncertain world, the goals we set can soothe our fears and guide our destiny. Brock Walsh, a Los Angeles songwriter and avid golfer, pursued a two-year quest to shoot a round of "level par", a feat achieved by one amateur golfer in a thousand. What he didn't know was that life was cuing up its own slew of challenges that would test him far more.

Walsh takes us on a wild ride of harrowing reversals and surprising victories. He is betrayed by his business partner, loses his job, has to fight to keep his home, while his wife battles a life-threatening drug resistant bacteria. Staring into this dark vista, he is forced to contemplate deeper issues of aging, courage, and self. For Walsh, who has had a stellar career writing songs for the major stars of his generation, the change in fortune could not have been more vertiginous.

Rub of the Green is a golf story, a love story, and a life story. Whether he takes us backstage with the Rolling Stones, in the studio with Michael Jackson, or down the tree line with the dawn patrol, Walsh weaves a tale that is smart, funny, and heartbreakingly real.

Available, with a little luck, in bookstores soon.

After graduating from Harvard, Walsh began his professional life as a touring musician with Linda Ronstadt, Karla Bonoff, and Andrew Gold with whom he produced the hits "Lonely Boy" and "Thank You For Being A Friend". He was a staff producer for Quincy Jones and has written and produced for such artists as Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion, The Pointer Sisters, and Aretha Franklin.