Offthebookshelf.com
Craig Forgrave
I am a writer (Devil Jazz, ENC Press), screenwriter (Member of Writer's Guild of Canada), playwright (first Prize/ Karsh Gold Medal winner, National Playwriting Competition) and many articles and short stories over the years.
The ebook world has opened up markets to writers in the last few years and I now manage several web sites and blogs as well as writing both fiction and non-fiction. The advantage of the web to publicize, distribute and build relationships with readers opens up an exciting new world for lonely writers everywhere. The days of sitting alone at your desk with a blank page or screen is over. As always, you are responsible for all aspects of your writing but now you have the ability to manage the entire process.
Recently, I have been concentrating on movies and investing through my MarketBOB.com web site and blog, publishing movie reviews and the impact of emotions on the financial markets as signaled by the weekly box office choices of audiences. I also have been posting humor pieces when I get time on a variety of topics, because there is always room for more laughter in the world.
In fiction, ENC Press (NJ) published my satiric novel satire on good vs. evil (Devil Jazz) where the Devil returns to earth disguised as a wise alien and convinces everyone to sin like crazy and go to hell. It is not difficult as frankly, there are too many commandments for us to remember every second of every day.
I have just published an analysis of movies we love to see in times of depression. It looks at three depressing decades and the top box office movies we paid to see during those years. Going to see movies every week could provide clues to our future fate in this economy.
My first mystery is now available and we'll see how that works out. It's a fun, quirky and cold noir private eye novel, set in the arctic where all the evil comes from other places in the hopes of striking it rich. Based on the latest stats, there were only 1 million titles published last year so it should be easy to stand out with so few competitors in the marketplace...:-)
All Books By This Author:
- Movies We Love In Times of Depression
- by Craig Forgrave
The weekly box office is an indicator of our collective emotional state of mind. It is one overlooked measure of emotion which has, since the popularity of movies started during the 1930s, reflected the mood of the nation every week. This book is a detailed review of the three depressing decades: the 1930s, 1970s and the 2000s, the first decade of the 21st century. If you only invested in the Dow Jones Index during these three decades, you would have lost 44% of your money over thirty long years. Isn't that depressing? What movies would you go and see? Disaster movies? Horror? Screwball comedy? Yes, all of these genres. When we are losing money, depression makes us want to see movies which cheer us up, provide an escape from our troubles or release from our tension and anger by watching someone suffering even more than we are. When the world is going against you, you go to the movies. The box office hits signal our investing mood of hope or fear and thus, the direction of stock markets over time. This book explains the bull and bear markets in these decades, the events that triggered crashes and the movies that comforted and warned investors during these troubled times.
- Genres: Business, Entertainment
- Frozen Stiff
- by Craig Forgrave
Blake Massey is the only private eye for a thousand miles, starting his life over on the calm, arctic shores of Remarkable Bay. Thriving on contract work from the local Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Massey finds peace in the far north until a beautiful woman hires him to find her missing father. His discovery of the frozen stiff, a disfigured body torn apart in the thawing river ice, revives memories of another woman he trusted and a violent past he left behind. Now, as his own life is threatened, Massey strips away the layers of deception and greed fighting over untold riches underground. Again he finds he must trust a woman he knows is lying but he has no choice if he wants to live. He journeys south to the source of the evil corrupting the pristine arctic wilderness he calls home.
Set in the far north, where people go to escape the pressures of city life, Frozen Stiff is a quirky, comic and violent look at life in the harsh arctic barrens. The people are strange, the climate unforgiving and the wealth hidden underneath the tundra drives some men to murder.- Genres: Mystery, Suspense
