Uncle Wayne's memoir proposal thread :D

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Wayne K

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Fer real, I write 'em good. About a dozen of you a month ask me for it, so I'm gonna post it as I write it. I welcome any and all to pitch in. I started this one an hour ago. I get lots of compliments for it, so let me say that I know this isn't the only way to do this, but it has been very successful for me.



_______________________________________


A Life Gone Awry​


A Soliloquy of Love and Hate​


A Memoir​


By Wayne Kernochan​



Proposal Contents​


Overview 3

The Market 5

Promotion 6

Competition 7

Author bio 9

Chapter-by-Chapter Synopsis 10-40

Sample Text 41-68




I tab the page numbers over 8 spaces but cant do that here
____________________________________________________________




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Wayne K

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Overview​



A Life Gone Awry​


A soliloquy of Love and Hate​


By Wayne Kernochan​


A Life Gone Awry is the story of my two and a half year stay at Elan School, a therapeutic community for emotionally disturbed adolescents, which has been in the media spotlight for abuse for over twenty years.

When Michael Skakel was indicted for the murder of his next door neighbor Martha Moxley in 2000, and residents from his house told the stories of Élan’s abuse on TV, once again, they ignored us kids at the bottom of the hill. Mike’s house was full of rich kids, and their families cared about what happened to them, so they had it easy compared to Elan Seven. We were the worst of the worst, and no one cared what happened to us. The abuses that happened there are referred to as, “Lies, made up to sell a book." The truth about Elan is that the most outrageous stories are the ones that are true. Elan was an asylum run by the inmates.

At Elan School, football was a metaphor for life, without parole. As Mike was being tried for the murder of Martha Moxley, our other star running back, Wayne Weaver, was being tried for murder across town. Our halfback was Robert Gamble, who killed a man for being gay. His co defendant was Larry Rhodes, one of our defensive linemen. The coach’s pet was Pat Carlson, who raped and murdered an eight year old boy. Elan has stories to tell, and I’m one of the few left to tell them. This is a good book.

The heart of the story is provided by my director, Danny Bxxxxxxx, who forced three students to say that they had sex with Wayne Weaver. Those three were Jane Tolar, Cathy Collins, and Willie Garcia. Elan made people admit to things that weren’t true all the time, but Willie was an offense that allowed me to get all three to admit that they lied a year later, as I spent the summer playing football with Wayne and Mike.

Danny didn’t like that the women in the house loved Wayne, and hated him, so he threatened and intimidated Willie into it, to humiliate Wayne. Everyone knew, so when Danny was gone, we talked openly about the corrupt days, and false confessions.

Thirty years later Danny Bxxxxxxx is trolling Elan survivor sites on the internet, and has threatened me for telling the truth about him. The internet has drawn the attention of Elan survivors, so now, there are people that will support my allegations.

I had never done drugs, and had never been arrested, but I was put in with the worst of the worst. Doctor M. Scott Peck told my parents that Elan was the place to send me. I thought I was going to a private school. It’s a good story.

When Joe Ricci died I was relieved. I wasn’t the only one. All these years later, his death gives people comfort. In A Life Gone Awry the reader will understand why. Michael Skakel and his friends were the face of the students of Elan. They were the ones shown on TV. We were the ones they buried under the prison. This is our story.

_________________________________________________
 
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Wayne K

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Market Analysis​


The market for stories about Elan has been small to medium so far, but my book can change that. My interaction with Michael Skakel was minimal, but he was a night man at my house, and he confided in me that his admission about killing his neighbor was forced out of him. Danny Bennison is a douche and I'm going to find out who did this and have them arrested.


The market for unknown writers in the memoir genre is controversy and celebrity interactions. I have both. If people believe it, this book will take off, but will they believe it? That’s the thing that has memoir writers lamenting the genre. James Frey has people convinced that they have to be able to provide proof of their story. I’m going to go left, and use James Frey to my advantage. This story is true, but, no, I can’t prove it. Some pretty important people are going to call me a liar, but proof is a two way street. They can’t prove it’s not.


All I need is for people to take a look at the first ten pages on Amazon. That’s where I get them. You give me ten pages and I’ll sell them a book. Put me on Amazon and steer the traffic there whatever way you want, and I’ll promise you that.






___________________​
 
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Wayne K

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Promotion​



The internet is a poor man’s way to fame if he knows how to use it. I don’t, but I do know people that are experts at it. There are Elan survivor sites, as well as support sites for Michael’s guilt and innocence. Either way, this story gets people talking.

I can speak to the media or not, but after writing two memoirs I can say that there’s nothing they ignore harder than someone that’s trying to sell them a story. The other side of the coin is that the thing that riles them the most is someone that won’t speak to them. That’s when they start digging. That’s when they report on your blog or Twitter, and that’s how people go viral. The internet sells books.​






_______________________________​
 
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Wayne K

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Competition​


These are examples of books that have sold well, and are about people in this book, or Elan. All show that there is a market for A Life Gone Awry.


A Season in Purgatory (Balantine Books, 1998) was the book that eventually teamed Dominick Dunn with Mark Fuhrman, and though this book ranks low (#806,332 in books) their collaboration fared better.


Murder in Greenwich: Who Killed Martha Moxley? (William Morrow, 1998) by Mark Fuhrman and Dominick Dunne is the book that led to the conviction of Michael Skakel for the murder of his neighbor, Martha. It ranks #303,658 in books: good sales for nonfiction.


A Wealth of Evil: The True Story of the Murder of Martha Moxley in America's Richest Community, (Grand Central Publishing; Warner Books Ed, 1999) by Timothy Dumas, ranks # 324,128 in books. It is evidence that the celebrity name isn’t needed to sell a book on this subject.


Duck in a Raincoat: An Unauthorized Portrait of Joe Ricci (Menukie PR, 1991) is Maura Curley’s book about Élan’s owner, Joe Ricci. It ranks #697,956 in books, but this book shows that there has been interest in this subject since before Michael Skakel brought Elan to the public eye.


The Other Son-One Family’s Personal War on Drugs (Lagrimas & Clean Slate Publishers Group, 2006) describes Élan’s program under a fictitious name. It did poorly with sales, though it shows interest in the subject.


How Can You Defend Those People? (Lyons Press, 2008) by Mickey Sherman shows more interest in people related to this story. He is also a regular on Court TV and has Michael Skakel’s name to thank for his fame. Kennedys sell.
 
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Wayne K

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Author Bio​


Wayne Kernochan is a house painter and unpublished author living in New York City. He spends his time writing, networking with other writers, and working on the next breakout memoir.






___________________________________I dont have any room, so I'm going to give the chapter by chapter in this same post

______________________________________________________



A Life Gone Awry​


Chapter by Chapter Synopsis​


(Chapter beginnings in italics)​



Chapter One
The wind blew in our faces as we climbed the stairs to the glass doors leading into Danbury airport. Mom tugged the collar of her coat down and ducked her head. It was a cold winter. It came early that year and killed the fall colors. Everything died before getting beautiful.

In chapter one, my mother takes me to the airport, and puts me on a plane to Poland Maine, and the Elan School. I drop details about who I am, where I’m going, and why. In the end of the chapter I witness a brutal beating. Mike Calabrese needed to stop acting like a baby.
I knew I was in a bad place.


Chapter Two
The next few days were hell. In the morning, we made our beds and cleaned the dorms. The yelling started immediately. There was no way to escape it. If you were going fast enough for their liking, they found something else to yell at you about. It would have been pointless if the yelling wasn’t a prelude to the boxing ring, or the paddle.

In chapter two I witness a girl get the same physical brutality Mike Calabrese did. Danny didn’t discriminate: He was sick, and what he was doing was illegal, but there was no one there to hear our pleas. If there were, we wouldn’t talk to them. Feat was Danny’s best weapon.

The second half of the chapter is an encounter group, which was when we blew off steam at each other. After, we resolved issues, as I said, “The rest of the group was amateur pop psychology, meted out by Donald and Denise, like bologna sandwiches at the county jail.”


Chapter Three
Niggers. We had ‘em. We also had spics, dykes, faggots and bitches. Danny didn’t curb his language or hide his disdain for any of us. As the general meetings became more, so did the list of abuses. I avoided confrontation, and stayed out of Danny’s sight.


In this chapter we are called to Elan Three for a three house general meeting. Elaine Eisenberg had run away, and she was beaten and humiliated into false confessions. I begin to see that the directors are sickest to the pretty girls, and whatever they want you to do, you do.
 
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Wayne K

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Trying to format a page to the size of a page. I've done this in SYW more than once w/o a problem
 

Wayne K

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Worst thread ever.

Sucks, I thought this would be very informative.
 

Wayne K

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Still not getting it right. Can we move this to TIO so I can curse God aloud in the darkness of this thread?
 
Maryn

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Okay, the problem may be with the limitations AW has to display stuff. If you want it to fit on one piece of 8.5 x 11 paper, that I can do easily. (I used to be my office's chart queen, back when we typed 'em. Bow before me!)

If you want it to display larger here at AW, first click on Go Advanced (for a new post) or simply on Edit (for your existing post). Then select all the text you want 'biggified.' Choose a size number. Make sure you keep the tags preserving the font you want (looks like Times New Roman) and the centering, which is a [center ] tag before it and a [/center ] tag after, only with the black spaces closed.

This is your text in size 2:
Contact information
Wayne Kernochan
45-25 XXst Street 3-R
Queens, New York 11104
[email protected]
(718) 729-XXXX​

Here's size 3:
Contact information
Wayne Kernochan
45-25 XXst Street 3-R
Queens, New York 11104
[email protected]
(718) 729-XXXX​

Here's size 4:
Contact information
Wayne Kernochan
45-25 XXst Street 3-R
Queens, New York 11104
[email protected]
(718) 729-XXXX​

Preview the post to determine when you've got it the way you want it here at AW.

If you're working with paper, it's easy to do, but there are people way better with Word (and with more up-to-date versions) than me.

Maryn, whose office skills, once mighty, are now so-so
 
Maryn

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My pleasure. If you need it explained in different words, just let me know where I lose you. I am, after all, a writer!

Well, sort of.

Maryn, going blind today after too long on the computer
 

Wayne K

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Gonna try this

#

Edit

I think I got it.
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
 

Wayne K

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BTW, I was the one that rated this thread one star :D

Not a good beginning
 

Wayne K

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Actually, the proposal was kicking ass, so I decided to share it here, and then all of this happened
 

Wayne K

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Now I'm having trouble moving the numbers across the page. This is what we call epic fail, right?

My intentions were good. Sorry, I'm too old to figure this out. I had a virus that changed all my settings, maybe this has to do with that​
 
Maryn

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Trouble centering, you mean? Here at AW, it's [center ]The text you want centered, whether it's one line or several[/center ]--but again, closing the blank spaces.

In Word 2003, you'd select the text you want centered and hit Ctrl-e. Later versions are probably similar, but I haven't worked with them.

Maryn, who misses the transparency of WordPerfect
 
benbradley

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Aww, you learn one thing, then there's ten more things to learn in this little Forum editor, and it's all different from Microsoft Word or any other text editor/word processor you've ever used. Yes, it's possible to learn all this. It's also possible for me to learn to fly the Space Shuttle, but there's only two, maybe three flights left and I'm unlikely to pilot any of them.

There's the "screen dump" thing where you turn what's on your screen when running Word into a pic and then you save the pic, put it online and then add it to a post...
 
benbradley

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To elaborate, as you already know, copy/paste doesn't work, and even if it did it wouldn't look exactly the same as in a word processor (look at the "SIZE" menu here in vbulletin when you press "Go Advanced" - it's only got seven font sizes. In Word you can set it to, for example, font size 13.5).

Worst case, get a digital camera or webcam, take a pic of the screen, and upload that...
 
sommemi

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Print screen works too. :) Try that, save it as a jpg, then post it?
 
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