I Want Your Best Road Trip Tale

by Christopher Gronlund on April 29, 2012

On June 20 (the first day of summer), I plan to re-release Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors. I previously discussed the idea here, and I’ve decided to go for it and see what happens.

This is where you come in…

So…What Do I Want?

In 750 words or less, I want you to share your best road trip tale. It can be funny, sad, touching, or strange — maybe all those things combined (or something I didn’t even mention).

Why Do I Want You to Do This?

Because…I want to add back-of-the-book content to the re-release of the Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors e-book, and I think it would be very cool to publish some of your road trip tales with that added content. (Think of it as the literary equivalent of DVD bonus material.)

Who’s Reviewing the Tales?

I’ll read the stories you send, and pick a big handful of my favorites. Then a couple beta readers and I will select our top 10 or so tales to go into the re-release of Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors. (And who knows, I may publish even more than 10 tales…or at least throw the others up on roadtripfromhell.com).

What’s in It for You?

The author of the favorite road trip tale will win a Kindle Touch*:

* If no one tale stands out, the top tales will be assigned random numbers and a drawing will be held for the Kindle Touch.

What’s in It for the Rest of You?

For those who don’t win the Kindle Touch, your story may end up in the back of the Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors re-release, or on roadtripfromhell.com.

Entry Details

There’s really not much more than that! Just email your essay to: hcwwpd@gmail.com.

All entries due by May 31, 2012.

Remember: 750 or fewer words!

The [Not So] Fine Print

By submitting a road trip essay, you’re giving me the right to use your tale in the back of the re-release of Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors. You’re also giving me the right to use the essay on roadtripfromhell.com.

As for me, I claim no rights to your essay. If you want to release it someplace and say, “Hey, I’m hoping to have this groovy essay in the back of this Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors book, so check it out!” that’s fine.

I don’t see a need to make this any more complex than that.

That’s it — get writin’!

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Eating At Zombie’s

by Christopher Gronlund on March 4, 2012

While food trucks seem to have taken many cities by storm, the Dallas/Ft. Worth area is just beginning to get a taste for the mobile goodness.

I was very happy to see Ft. Worth become the home of a vegan food truck called Zombie’s. Offering a variety of sandwiches, the buzz surrounding what the Zombie’s crew makes didn’t go unnoticed by me; in short, I couldn’t wait to give their food a try.

This weekend, the Zombie’s crew headed north, to Denton, Texas, where they fed hungry Keep Denton Beautiful volunteers. After that, they had public food service from 1-5.

It would have been a travesty to miss out!

Denton Bound

While I’m probably right in the middle between Denton and Ft. Worth, the drive to Denton is more scenic, and has much less traffic. That, and my wife and I just like Denton. (She also had to drop off her fiddle with a luthier in Denton.)

So off we went!

The Food

You probably don’t care to hear more babbling…you want to see the food. So here it is:

Zombie's Food Truck.

The Hanoi Polloi Sandwich in all its glory. Seriously yummy stuff!

My wife ordered the Seoul Survivor sandwich. Both sandwiches were some of the best sammiches ever! (And the sweet potato/turnip greens mash was tasty, too!)

The door opened, and over came a Zombie bearing a FREE dessert! (How cool is that?!)

Who knew avocados could serve as the basis for a chocolate pudding? I was surprised how good it was. They did more to it than just chocolate and avocado -- it was the perfect finish to a mighty fine meal!

Leaving Denton on 377 south.

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Another Glimpse at A Magic Life

November 17, 2011
A surreal fall photo.

I recently shared the opening to the novel I’m currently working on, A Magic Life. I planned to start the novel next year, but it became all I was thinking about — so I started it this month. A few chapters in, something happened: I jumped from past tense to present tense. I’ve only written [...]

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Opening to A Magic Life

October 26, 2011
Blue abstract.

Cross posted from The Juggling Writer. About a month ago, I posted about working on a rewrite of something while starting a new book I didn’t plan to start until next year. (Sometimes the urge for something new hits and you just have to run with it.) While I wanted to get another ebook out [...]

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A Recent Juggling Video

October 14, 2011

With cooler weather in the mornings, I’ve been trying to get out to juggle. Here’s a video I made a couple weeks ago — I hope you enjoy it. It’s Been Awhile I almost forgot how to log in to my main site. It’s been so long since I’ve been here. I always update The [...]

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LinkedIn Traffic Tip

December 15, 2010
The LinkedIn logo.

This is from an entry I recently wrote on The Juggling Writer. I recently did one little thing that increased traffic from LinkedIn to my websites almost three fold: I customized my link descriptions. Before and After My link descriptions used to read “Personal Website” and “Blog” — the standard LinkedIn defaults (along with “Company [...]

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The Hell Comes With Wood Paneled Doors Podcast

October 3, 2010
My Samson C03U USB Condenser Microphone.

The Hell Comes With Wood Paneled Doors podcast is live! Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors is the first novel I ever wrote. It’s a humorous coming-of-age story about a family traveling cross country in a possessed station wagon. In episode 1: When Michael O’Brien’s father, James, buys a new car just in time for [...]

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Looking Up

September 26, 2010
Thumbnail image for Looking Up

I’ve bumped into quite a few down people lately. When we chat about it, they feel bad for venting because — with the exception of one month — I’ve been unemployed since December, 2009… They know I’m uninsured and essentially pay the equivalent of another rent for medication each month… They know I have a [...]

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Podcast

August 15, 2010

I’ve wanted to podcast my first novel for a couple years. I’ve wanted to do a bi-weekly podcast for The Juggling Writer since I started the blog almost a year ago. My first novel, called Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors, is a humorous coming-of-age story about a family traveling cross country in a possessed [...]

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Writers’ League of Texas Agents Conference

June 25, 2010

This weekend is the Writers’ League of Texas Agents Conference. If you’re interested in what I’m up to, I plan to update my Twitter feed as much as possible. If you’re interested in all the goings on at the conference, check out the #wltcon hashtag. If you’re attending the conference and see me, please say [...]

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