Insider X (34 page)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First: hope you enjoyed.  It means a lot to me if you did, because this gig isn’t my main gig.  I wish it was.  And I hope it will be someday (by choice, I hope!).  That’s what I’m shooting for, at least.  That’s me putting it out there; telling you my dream.

Writers by nature are dreamers.  I dream I might be able to write books for a living.  Books that are fun to read and might even get people to think afterwards.  That maybe (dare I say it?), in some small way, might make this world a better place.  Granted, I’ve got a funny cast of characters with the Marks and Lip series to try and accomplish that lofty goal.  Marks and Lip (and their friends) sometimes do some messed up ops; it’s not all fun and games, all Big Johnson and pull-my-finger humor (PROPORTIONATE RESPONSE, for the record, is a little edgier, and a good deal darker; my champions Marks and Lip fight some real bad guys in that book). 

Yep, I said “series”, for those of you who caught that part.  I hope you want more of them.  I’ll write those books, if you do.  If you liked this book, I hope you tell your friends about Marks and Lip.  I believe in the power of the grapevine.  The “real” grapevine.  Facebook friend to Facebook friend.  Tweet to tweet.  And face to face.  It’s not all fake, folks.  If my buddy tells me something is good, even though it’s a turkey in its reviews, I’ll give it a shot.  Found some great movies and other stuff that way.  I’m hoping that real grapevine exists.  Because I may have messed around with the wrong folks with this book.

About that… no hard feelings, huh boys?  I know you hate your job doing that type of stuff.  Killing dreams.  Putting that type of hate out there.  You can join Team Freedom anytime you want.  Mei has a big heart.  And us real people out here do forgive.  It’s been known to happen.  So join us.  Join the good guys.  Join our team.

(Tangent.  Sorry.)

Now, I said ‘first’.  So what’s ‘second’?

Well, second is actually ‘first’ in my heart.  I want to thank my wife for letting me chase this thing.  She is my cheerleader, my first reader, and one of the reasons I haven’t quit.  Having someone believe in you is a gift.  She’s picked me up when I needed it most.  She and our two boys are my world and I consider myself blessed.

Like James Kolinsky in my
first
book, THE BACK DOOR MAN, I’ve been chasing a dream for a long time.  If I told you the years and many other books before my ‘first’, you’d think me crazy.  Heck, at times I thought I was crazy.

A smarter sane man would have given up a long time ago, rather than take the beat down.  And it was a beat down, let me tell you.  A thankless journey, where my works were met with hundreds of form letters, received months later, after I sent my query letters out into the void.

And I do mean hundreds.  Probably close to two or three thousand, if I added them all up.  I’m not joking. 

I was a skipping record.

A year or two of toil crafting a new manuscript… and skip skip repeat… same bad song would play over again.  There it would be: all that effort, all those mornings I woke up at 4:00 AM to write (I’m not kidding, folks—did that for over 20 years).  Anyway… lots of pre-dawn activity on my end (even doing what you love at that time kind of sucks), and in the end it would be reduced to the repetitive exercise of having my query letters returned unread with rubber stamps on them saying “no thanks, not for us”, or something polite like “we have a full list, and are not taking new authors at this time; please do not take this as a reflection of your work”.

WTF!

I cussed.  I did that plenty of times.  Fault of mine—I do that when I’m exhausted and upset.  I’m like Marks and Lip sometimes.  Probably how those two found me.  Got in my head.  Along with James.

Anyway…

As the years passed and my manuscripts stayed unread, I did question my dream more than once.  I questioned it thousands of times.  But I was too dumb to quit.  Too dumb to admit maybe I didn’t have what it takes.

Anyway (said that word again)… this story has a bright side.

Amazon, and other self-publishing venues like Barnes & Noble, allowed a writer like me to get my stuff out there, and into your hands.  They gave me a chance when no one else would.  And for that I’m very grateful.

So, that leaves us here.  With you on the final pages.  Thank you.  Thank you, stalwart reader, for reading this book.  Thank you for giving this writer a shot.

God bless,

Dave

What the Web is saying about Insider X:

(Book forum posts)

If I was to read books, which I don’t, I would read this book.  This guy is the real deal.  Five stars.

Marks

(.-.)

As a reader of fine literature and a closet intellectual, I don’t know what this guy was thinking writing this book.  Inane, childish, and surprisingly entertaining.  Five stars in Bizarro World, Mr. Buschi!

Johnny Two-cakes

(.-.)

Brilliant.  Brilliant.  Brilliant.  As a guy that knows what I know, this guy knows stuff I don’t know.  Like how many sheets are in a roll of toilet paper?  I had no idea there were so few.  It explains that incident in Cancun that one time.  Five sheets!!!

Lip

(.-.)

I think Mr. Bush-ee is very handsome.  Didn’t read his book.  Five kisses!

Mei

(.-.)

Are you blind?  Handsome?  Go ralph in your pants.

Missy Iam American

(.-.)

Aren’t we supposed to be writing reviews on this book?  What was it about?  1,000 stars!

Kitty Kat

(.-.)

Droll.  Obnoxious.  Terrible.  Negative 5 stars.

Man in Mask

(.-.)

I bought this book thinking it was a porno.  Sadly mistaken.  Want my money back.

Hu

(.-.)

It WAS a porno.  What book did you read?

Ben Dover

(.-.)

This book should be banned, BURNED, and checked for grammatical ERRORSS.

Librarians for America