2016 Attleboro Arts Museum Annual Auction

The annual auction was held early in November. It is always a grand affair and always interesting to me to note what sells and for how much. As in the past several years I donated two pieces. They were displayed in the Online/Silent auction area. Both sold, one for $100, the other for $200. I think I now have somewhat of an idea of what the public likes and how much they pay. However, as for what judges deem as good, that's somewhat more of a mystery. My course at the Cape Cod show was very helpful, but judging is a subjective endeavor.

2016 Attleboro Arts Museum Members Exhibit

The Members' exhibit will have its awards reception from 2-4 pm on Saturday, December 10. I counted approximately 200 artists in the mix. Wow! I imagine there will be abut 300 pieces or more to judge. From the work I have seen of the New Bedford-based judge, I don't think this will be my breakthrough exhibit in Attleboro where I achieve a thing. There are a number of monetary-type awards to be handed out and some honorable mentions. My entries for Taunton earlier and this one are identical.

2016 Taunton Art Association Fall Art Show

I wasn't able to make the exhibit on Sunday for the judging results. Nevertheless, good news. I received a second place in acrylics for the Swamp Reflections painting. Oddly, this was not the one I would have chosen, even after I took the session on Judging at the seminar at Hyannis last weekend. It's (judging) subjective, of course.

Painting Update

I've mostly left painting for this fall and winter. During this time of year and through the fall, I search for photos and scenes which I feel I could use as subject material. It's the lighting and the fall colors which capture my attention. Then it's up to me to select the subject material and its composition in the scene to be painted.

The Taunton Art Association will be holding its Fall Art Show on September 30th. I've chosen two pieces for that. These are the ones:

The Attleboro Arts Museum is holding it annual charity auction early on Saturday, November 5th. I have already dropped off two paintings to be donated to the cause. They are:

Wild Men - A Status Update

I'm quite happy with the sales of Wild Men. They have exceeded my expectations. Of the several books I have written, its sales went out of the box the quickest. I have been able to direct market it to interested parties through Twitter. I also took the advice of Mark Coker of Smashwords to build up pre-sales prior to its release and that decision was a winner. On and off for the first 2-3 months, Wild Men was the best selling book in its category on Amazon. I was flabbergasted. The reviews, just three, have been very positive. All in all, I'm quite happy with its acceptance and success.

Wild Men Earns Second 5 Star Review Rating in Amazon by Readers!

Not much more to say but thank you!

A Couple New Paintings Posted to the Right

Wild Men Notches Best Seller Status on Amazon!

My new book, Wild Men, shows up as a Best Seller in its category from time to time on Amazon. I watched over time as searches on Amazon for the title 'Wild Men' showed my book fourth, then third, then first. I didn't think anything of it until I noticed the little orange banner with 'Best Seller' on it a few weeks back.

Amazon seems to be the best channel this time, better than Apple or Barnes & Noble. It's definitely selling at a faster pace than my best so far, the apocalyptic Zombie thriller, Flatline Virus, which is 4-star rated in the Apple iBookstore (28 reviews). Wild Men currently has one 5 star review on Amazon.

Another painting completed

I posted it to the right.

Paintings

To the right I have posted some of the paintings I've completed this winter thus far.

Wild Men

I am so pleased with sales of Wild Men. Sales are rapidly approaching levels in the time since the book's release in February 19th that are half of my best Zombie book's results for the first year.

The subject of men or beasts running around in the forests in the 1800s and early 1900s seems to be as compelling to others as it was to me. My first thought before the research was that a portion of these must be sightings or encounters with something that people did not know what they were seeing. Certainly many, maybe most, of the sightings were men who, for one reason or another, crazy or solitary-minded, sought the quiet and solitude of the forest. The time was right, i.e. the excitement of the wild and untamed west. I was most enthralled with how newspapers described the subjects of the stories. Some encounters or sightings were very likely those of beasts, e.g. man-like apes that roamed the uncivilized areas of North America and not just the Pacific Northwest. Witnesses may have exaggerated or imagined more than what they saw. Did they see claws, glowing eyes and the like? Thirteen foot beasts? We'll probably never really know.

Wild Men - Results thus far

So far, and it hasn't been a month since the book's release, but the response has been much better than I expected. Better even than Flatline Virus, my first novel and best seller, although it is too early to draw any solid conclusions. I have only the results from Amazon to gauge sales by. In the aforementioned case, Amazon provided about one-third of my total sales, the rest going to Apple at 50%, then Barnes & Noble, and the balance of the Smashwords channels. It would seem that I should be able to surpass it, although we all know that book sales will taper off.

At any case, I am quite satisfied with the result thus far. I am at 20% of Flatline Virus' total for the first year after only just under a month.

Wild Men

Early returns for 'Wild Men' show sales that are exceeding any of the other books I've authored. I guess this tells me that my new marketing methods are more effective, i.e. pre-ordering, more focused targeting of the interested readers, and the subject material being fact vs. fiction.

Wild Men

I've continually tweeted news about Wild Men and there has been interest. I believe there is some interest in the older stories. However, these stories are not all about Bigfoot. In fact, many of the 220 or so stories in the book relate to actual human beings that lived outdoors, alone mostly. Some did so of their own volition while others were just a little crazed. Sometimes it's tough to distinguish whether the newspaper or witnesses saw a man or beast. Hairy, bipedal, big, muscular, naked or mostly naked. These were descriptions of what they saw. Some looked ape-like, while others were not described as such. It's pretty clear that people did not know exactly what they were seeing. Sightings were often fleeting, in the shadows or darkness, obscured by trees or other vegetation.

The 1839 and 1829 stories from Minnesota (I first thought this happened in Wisconsin and had written it up under that state. It was changed within days after the first publication.) and Georgia were sufficient, if indeed true, to spark some excitement. The Minnesota story tells of the capture of a beast with two 'cubs', while the Georgia article relates the attack of a thirteen foot bipedal monster which killed several hunters and tore the heads of some, eventually shot by the survivors of the group.

More than 2/3 of the 220 stories are a hundred years old or more. Forty-two states, three Canadian provinces, and a number of other countries are represented in the stories. Wild men were a part of history all over the world, although most of the stories were North American. The timing was just right for wild men to become a very popular news item for the rapidly growing newspaper media in the U.S. and Canada in the 1800s.

Wild Men is e-published and distributed in all major channels of distribution including Smashwords, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Kobo, Sony, and a number others.

Smashwords has approved the book for Premium Distribution

 I can't remember when one of my books went through the upload/meat grinder process without any errors (formatting) but this one did. I guess I've done this enough to know what to do without errors.

I've scheduled the release date for February 19 which is a Friday. I chose this day since most ebook sales occur on weekend days. The publishing of my book with a future release date allows me to do a little marketing, e.g. on Twitter where I've compiled a list of 458 people interested in Bigfoot and other Cryptids. At the same time the book cover, title and description get delivered to the Apple iBook store, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony, etc. so that potential readers get a chance to learn of it to develop interest.

I'm pricing it a little low at $1.99 to generate some initial sales.

The book contains 220 stories from newspapers, most of which are over a hundred years old. The articles cover activity in 42 states, Canada and a number of other countries. It's fascinating to see how  accounts of wild men encounters and sightings are described. People didn't know what they were seeing in many cases. They saw something hairy, manlike, naked, bipedal. It scared them, was often huge, looked a little ape-like.

Many were actually human. Others seemed more like beasts. They were elusive, despite pursuits by large, armed posses. Some were caught, some were shot, some were killed.

I've added a couple chapters about some related topics, e.g. what else wild men could be if they were not humans living alone in the woods.

Wild Men has been published and is under review by Smashwords.

The book is scheduled to be released on February 19, 2016.
The book description is as follows:

What was a 'Wild Man' -beast or man? Gibson has compiled 220 related newspaper articles, most over 100 years old, covering 42 states, Canada, and elsewhere. Read how witness accounts of Wild Men were reported - generally a bipedal, hairy, mostly naked, and elusive creature.  Sometimes it's obvious what people saw; other times not. Some wild men were captured. Some were shot. 

The wild men-related stories include the incredible capture of a bipedal hairy creature in Wisconsin in 1839, the Leed's Devil of New Jersey, and an 1829 deadly attack by a monstrous bipedal beast in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, and. Many incredible accounts you haven't heard or seen.

Wild Men book is about finished...Almost Ready to go to 'Press'

I've pretty much completed the writing. I have one more edit to go, having been through the text and formatting at least once for each, but need to go through everything one more time. The words number 77,000+. There are over 220 individual stories from old newspapers going back to 1829, covering 36 states, three Canadian provinces and a number of countries. Most of the newspaper articles are in the 1800s. People were not sure what they were seeing.

There is the story of a capture of a creature in Wisconsin back in 1829 which is just fascinating. Also an 1839 story of a deadly attack by a beast in Georgia in the Okefenokee swamp. There is also the story of Leed's Devil in New Jersey. Wild men did exist in the 1800s and early 1900s. Some were human and some not. Witnesses reported seeing man-like, ape-like beings who walked on two legs, hairy, naked or mostly naked, fast, muscular, elusive, mischievous and often huge. These are stories most everyone has not heard before. Some of the 'Wild Men' were captured. Some were shot. Beast or human? I'll let the reader decide. Sometimes it's obvious; other times it isn't.

I've narrowed the book cover down to two, both of which are the combined artistic efforts, combining a painting of mine and a photo.

Bigfoot and Human Origin Books Read Recently

I've read all but two of the following:

When Roger Met Patty by William Munns

Bigfoot by Loren Coleman

The Best of Sasquatch by John Green

Sasquatch - Legend Meets Science by Jeff Meldrum

Bigfoot Enigma by Scott Marlowe

The Red Ape by Jeffrey Schwartz

The Hoopa Project by David Paulides

Missing 411-Western US by David Paulides 

Missing 411-Eastern US by David Paulides

Still Living? Yeti, Sasquatch and the Neanderthal Enigma by Myra Shackley

Other Origins by Ciochon, Olsen & James

Cryptozoology A-Z by Loren Coleman

The Beast of Boggy Creek by Lyle Blackburn

True Giants by Mark Hall and Lorne Coleman

Giants, Cannibals & Monsters by Kathy Moskowitz Strain

I'm more than halfway through Lyle's book on the Beast of Boggy Creek and the next one I have is Kathy Strain's book. I would have taken it on vacation (as I did two others) but Kathy's book is big with the pictures and all and I was wanting to travel light. 

All of the above books are recommended. 

Book Status and International Cryptozoology Conference

The work on the book has resumed after several days in St. Augustine where the first annual International Cryptozoology Conference was held. It was a top notch affair, including the city, the hotel and venue and especially the speakers. I am a Bigfoot enthusiast, but there was a diverse set of speakers covering various topics in the realm of cryptids. I had a chance to meet Cliff Barackman as well as Kathy and Bob Strain. I heard some incredible stories regarding BF encounters. The next one should be held sometime in the summer of 2017 in Portland, Maine. Loren Coleman did a fantastic job in organizing, hosting and taking responsibility for this event.

The book editing continues until it is done. I have a general book cover format which will do with a few tweaks. The book length is about 79,000 words at present and may get pushed over 80,000 by the time I finish. I have some great stories from the 1800s when people really didn't know what they were seeing, man or beast.

Happy New Year!

It's been busy, which is why I have only some small progress to report on the book. I am going through a thorough edit of format, spelling, typos and punctuation. I am a little over 20% complete. The book cover is in progress. I have some other work to do as well, including book descriptions (very important!). That is it for now.