Give me some points for honesty: shameless self promotion says it all. 

I ran into an old friend last week, who is also a shrink, who knew me for many years as a practicing shrink. 

She accused me, "You are having way too much fun as a writer!" 

"Guilty as charged," I replied.  Truth be told, I loved being a shrink but in the 75 per cent zone.  I love being a writer 100 per cent of the time. 

I especially love speaking to groups about Psychology and Cops, Psychology and Writing , and Psychology and people in general.  I call these: Shooting Shrink, Psychology and Pen and Shrinking People.  Soon, you will see changes in the website reflecting these catgeories. The interview I had the most fun doing is in the preceding blog entry, my guest spot on the Elli Tourje show.  The most fun speaking engagements I have done are at the Southern California Writers Conferences SCWC and are available in the Blog Archives.

We will chat again soon.

         

In preparation for a new publisher for Shooting Shrink v2, Big Island Play, I have recently secured the rights to Gun Play, the series logo, and series title, Shooting Shrink.  For a short period of time, Gun Play will be out-of-print and available from Amazon Kindle, Signed First Editions at this website, and various booksellers on-line and in-store who have stock remaining.

LIMITED TIME OFFER  Email  me a copy of your Kindle receipt for Gun Play  dated in 2010 and I will send the first fifty (50) folks a Signed Copy of Gun Play (not 1st edition.) Please include your name and mailing address.  michaelthompkins@shootingshrink.com

 

As a spin-off from the Shrinking Fiction Workshops at Southern California Writers Confereence , a number of students approach me to help them with their writing projects. My work with them has been highly enjoyable for me and, hopefully, for them. My work with these first students is falling into a pattern where we divide the projects into three parts: Act One, Act Two and Act Three of their novel. The work is taking place in Seattle, where I live and Palm Springs where I have a condo. 

If you are interested in this work, please listen to the following podcast which is a discussion between Claudia Whitsitt and me in Palm Springs in July. Need I say in advance, the weather was hot, 106 degrees. You can hear the fountain in the background helping cool the patio. In the podcast, we discuss progress on Claudia's novel, The Wrong Guy.

February 2010: This just in from SCWC: "SCWC21, 22, 23 and 24 conferee Claudia Whitsitt has inked the deal for her debut novel, The Wrong Guy, with Echelon Press. This makes for the sixth or seventh author discovered by Echelon publisher Karen Syed at the Southern California Writers Conference. Congratulations, Claudia!."

 

Listen to the Video Podcast Here!

I was cleaning out a closet last week and discovered another 50 copies of Gun Play vol.1 Shooting Shrink, left over from the launch at Book Expo. I am offering these copies at cost plus shipping: $18. The last time I saw a Signed First available on Ebay, it went for $50. Some folks apparently think the Shooting Shrink Series will be successful and the value will rise. The First Edition of Gun Play differs from the following editions: the blurb on the back cover reads "reluctant detective" not "reluctant Palm Springs detective." The first 50 emails I get from fans get the copies signed by me in anyway you like and a picture of yours truly.  Limit one copy per address. Email me at michaelthompkins@shootingshrink.com

 

When I first concieved the Shooting Shrink Series, I named my protagonist Dr. Tom Reynolds after my grandmother and my grandfather on my mother sides. My Mom's maiden name was Helen Reynolds; her parents were Michael Reynolds and Anne Conway, both of whom immigrated from Ireland at the beginning of the last century. Just last month I returned from Lisheenavalla, county Galway, Ireland where after days of research in Dublin and follow-up research in Galway City, I discovered Anne Conway's birth house in Lisheenavalla.

It will be my duty and delight to expand my scope as a writer and begin a non-fiction story of my discovery of my Irish roots and, simultaneously to apply for Irish citizenship. On our last night in Dublin, my wife and I met a group of Americans in a pub who had spent the last ten years looking for their roots unsucessfully. WHen they asked me, I shared that from first idea to find my "Irish writer" roots to success was less than a year. They shared my joy over pints of Guiness. I was already daydreaming of the large number of book awards in Ireland.  More later.

 

 

 

 Michael, Judith, Lisheenavalla Village historian Julia and granddaughter

 

 

 

 

 Julia Conway             Michael                     Padriach Conway

Both second cousins o.r.

 

 

 My grandmother Anne Conway's birthplace

Come to the Gun Play Author Event at Bogeys Books Saturday June 16th at 2PM. Meet the author and purchase a signed copy of Gun Play. Logo tee shirt to the first 10 purchasers of Gun Play.

Bogeys Books

223 E Street Davis CA  95616 

530-757-6127

map

Come to the Gun Play Author Event at the Peppertree Bookstore Tuesday Evening June 26th at 7PM. Meet the author and purchase a signed copy of Gun Play. Logo tee shirt to the first 10 purchasers of Gun Play.

The bookstore is located at: 78100 Main Street #101 Old Town La Quinta La Quinta, CA 92253 Tel: 760-771-6130

Come to the Gun Play Author Event Saturday, April 14, 2007 at 1 PM. Learn more about Palm Springs through the eyes of fictional detective hero, Dr. Tom Reynolds, P.S.P.D. police psychologist as he sets out to solve the murder of an accountant on the eighteenth tee of Tahquitz golf course. Gun Play logo tee shirt to the first 12 purchasers of Gun Play. 

500 First Street #1
Davis, CA 95616