Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing EP 434 - Held Over Passion Projects with John Gaspard
Mark interviews John Gaspard about his book HELD OVER: HAROLD AND MAUDE AT THE WESTGATE THEATER.
Prior to the interview Mark shares a personal update and a word about this episode's sponsor.
This episode's sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by an affiliate link to Manuscript Report. Use code MARK5 at checkout and save $5.00 off your own personalized report.
In the interview, Mark and John talk about:
- John's appreciation for the honesty of the podcast and one of his favorite episodes, and why he liked it
- John's background and the two different cozy mystery series that he has written and published
- The Eli Mark's "Behind the Page" podcast that John uses to share behind-the-scenes and brilliantly market the books in audio and other formats
- A person with a PhD in "shuffling cards" who was a guest on John's podcast
- How John approached his deep love and affection for the 1971 movie HAROLD AND MAUDE
- The Minneapolis theatre (Westgate) that helped make this movie a cult classic
- How John couldn't have written this book 20 years ago
- John's Popcorn Principals books
- The book HELD OVER: HAROLD AND MAUDE AT THE WESTGATE THEATER
- John's philosophy of "I'm writing for me."
- A bit of the history of the Westgate Theater
- The approach to his writing and recognizing that most of the books are likely not to earn much more than making back the initial money invested into them
- Deciding which researched bits made it into the book
- How Scrivener was a helpful tool in the writing of the book and various research elements
- The design company that John worked with on this book
- The Kickstarter that John ran related to this book and what it did for him (beyond earning a bit of up front money to help with funding the expensive project
- Working with Bookvault on the production of this book
- Advice John would offer to writers who haven't yet pursued that passion project
- And more...
After the interview Mark reflects on passion projects, networking and connecting with other writers, and the advice to pause/hesitate
Links of Interest:
- John Gaspard's Website
- EP 218 - John Gaspard on Business, Writing, and Magic
- Manuscript Report (Mark's affiliate link)
- Buy Mark a Coffee
- Patreon for Stark Reflections
- Mark's YouTube channel
- Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)
- An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
- The Relaxed Author
- Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
- An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
- Wide for the Win
- Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
- The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
- Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard
- Merry Christmas! Shitter Was Full!: A Trivia Guide to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
John Gaspard is author of the Eli Marks mystery series and the Como Lake Players mystery series. He also has several other stand-alone novels, including “The Greyhound of the Baskervilles,” “A Christmas Carl,” “The Sword & Mr. Stone” and “The Ripperologists.”
He hosts: "Behind the Page: The Eli Marks Podcast."
In real life, John's not a magician, but he has directed six low-budget features that cost very little and made even less - that's no small trick. He's also written multiple books on the subject of low-budget filmmaking. Ironically, those books made more than the films.
John lives in Minnesota and shares his home with his lovely wife, several greyhounds, a few cats and a handful of pet allergies.
The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0