Author Archives: chris

About chris

Chris Semal was born in New York City in 1959 and has lived there all his life. He is aware that other places exist and likes to visit them from time to time, but the city is a hard mistress to resist and he keeps going back to her. A musician, singer and songwriter, he has played pretty much every rock club in Manhattan at one time or another since the late 70s and went to school at the University of Miami to study Music Engineering, coming back north to do the only obvious thing possible, becoming a municipal bond broker and eventually working as a consultant building financial models. In the early part of the millennium, between both consulting and band gigs, he thought it might be interesting to see what would happen if he expanded on the 80 or so words he used in writing song lyrics and went for the 80,000 he would need for a novel. And so Trial Of Tears was born, along with a passion for developing plots and characters.

New interview

Posted on June 20, 2012 by chris

It’s been interesting getting feedback and seeing what kind of reviews Trial of Tears is getting. There have been quite a few from Amazon and Goodreads. If there any of you out there who want to ‘friend’ me on Goodreads, … Continue reading →

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Becoming a Hoopleholic

Posted on June 5, 2012 by chris

Due to the increased popularity of this blog (mind you, I measure popularity by the amount of spam I get on this site) and questions on how things get started and influenced, I wanted to relate a coming of musical … Continue reading →

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It lives!

Posted on April 27, 2012 by chris

I’m happy to announce that ‘Trial of Tears’, the most eagerly anticipated new book since William Shakespeare’s sequel to ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is now available as a paperback and eBook on Amazon and CreateSpace. There’s a link to buy the … Continue reading →

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Dialogue

Posted on March 29, 2012 by chris

I don’t usually take requests, but I’m as vulnerable to flattery as anyone else. That’s crap, actually. I’m a lot more vulnerable. This probably dates back to my childhood, when I hoarded whatever meager table crumbs of faint praise my … Continue reading →

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February 29th, 2012

Posted on February 29, 2012 by chris

Had a guest blog in the San Francisco Book Review this week on being a working writer, meaning a writer whose main source of income is not yet his writing. http://sanfranciscobookreview.com/2012/02/the-working-writer/  

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February 22nd, 2012

Posted on February 22, 2012 by chris

The printed galley has been corrected and sent back to the printer. It’s amazing that I can still find things to correct after umpteen drafts. Unless something out of the ordinary crops up in the next galley, this should be … Continue reading →

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Cattitude

Posted on February 18, 2012 by chris

I have been left with no other choice for this entry than to write about my cat, Maurice. My wife is out having drinks with friends and he is sitting at the front door meowing his furry little head off. … Continue reading →

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January 29th, 2012

Posted on January 29, 2012 by chris

On Feb 1st, I’ll be doing an on-line radio interview from 5-8 EST on  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/big-blend-radio/2012/02/01/rants-raves-rock-n-roll The full jacket and interior are at the printer now, so the next thing I’m going to see is the book galley in it’s physical form. … Continue reading →

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January 21st, 2012

Posted on January 21, 2012 by chris

I’m in promo mode now, filmed a funny video for the Lit Chick Show that will be on-line sometime in February. Also have written some guest posts. One interview that’s up is: http://www.thinklikealabel.com/mistakes-are-the-best-teachers-and-other-great-advice-interview-with-musician-author-chris-semal

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The Joy of Bass

Posted on December 22, 2011 by chris

OK, after the last blog post dealt with a lot of sadness, I promised to lighten up and write about something happy this time around. Since some people have a fear of circus clowns, I’ll avoid that topic and stick … Continue reading →

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