As
I promised, I will be posting from time-to-time my interview by Smashwords,
which I hope will shed some insights into the creation of the two books, The Shaitan
and Hobo Handbook: Memoirs of a Homeless Poet in New York, I published through
their online Ebook distribution platform. So, here it is! As always I welcome
your thoughts.
Smashword: Do you remember the first
story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?
Daniel Canada: The first story or stories I ever read were from the Bible
with my mother. I must've been at least three years of age. After which it was
difficult reading the required books given to me by my elementary school
teachers. Stories such as Jane and Dick,
and See Spot Run.
The first story I ever read that
influenced me as a child in some way was the book Where The Wild things Are, by Maurice Sendak. That book not only
caused my imagination to run amok, but made it easier to embrace the
unimaginable.
Smashword: How do you approach cover
design?
Daniel Canada: To be sure, this
process was very difficult and a huge learning curve for me, since I primarily
am a writer and not a graphic designer. Fortunately I discovered a website and program
called Canva. The instructions were
simple enough for a design novice like myself and they even offered a tutorial.
I had several initial ideas of how I
wanted my book cover for The Shaitan
in particular to look. Though I ran into a problem at the beginning with
selecting the proper images, being that the ones provided online were a bit
costly. I resolved this challenge by taking my own photos with my cell phone
and using these. At the advice of a trusted friend I decided to change the
original book cover's images and replace it with more subtle ones.
For the Hobo Handbook: Memoirs of a Homeless Poet in New York I used a copy
of a photo taken of me and gifted to me by my former homeless partner, Hobobob. These I felt would be
attractive to the general audience and denoted more accurately what the two books
were about.
Smashword: When did you first start
writing?
My writing career began when I was
in Alfred E. Smith Vocational High School and wrote editorials for my school's
newspaper, The Smith Chronicles. After
being further encouraged by an English teacher to enter into and submit an
article in the city-wide NBC competition for amateur journalists and later
being notified that I had won, I realized that at least an amateur career as a
serious writer was a possibility for me.
My first major writing undertaking
was co-authoring an historical fiction novel entitled Hegemony, with a friend of mine, which is yet to be published.
After that time I've gone on to writing and self-publishing my own works The Shaitan and Hobo Handbook: Memoirs of a Homeless Poet
in New York, both sold on Smashword, Barnes and Nobles and other ebook sites.
“THE SHAITAN” & “HOBO HANDBOOK:
MEMOIRS OF A HOMELESS POET IN NEW YORK” ARE CURRENTLY BEING SOLD AT THESE
LOCATIONS:
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/573076
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/655627
Barnes & Noble Bookstore: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-shaitan-daniel-canada/1123886050?ean=2940152342888
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hobo-handbook-daniel-canada/1124340542?ean=2940153669205
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/hobo-handbook-memoirs-of-a-homeless-poet-in-new-york
They are not being sold on Amazon.com at this time.
To view a few sample pages or to
purchase the books visit:
https://smashwords.com/books/view/573076 (Note: You must 1st remove “adult content” filter from top
right hand corner of Smashword page to access the books, by clicking the “Adult
Content” button before
searching for the titles titles in search field).
If you want to view my Smashwords
Author Profile visit:
You can also check out the comments
I will be posting on these social media sites:
My
Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/daniel.canada3
My
Twitter account: https://twitter.com/lordlumiel
If
you wish to shoot me a personal note, this is my email address: lordlumiel@yahoo.com
