by Travis Williams | Sep 5, 2022 | Sidebar Posts
Uly is available in a Large Print paperback edition. The trim size is the same as the standard print edition, 6×9 inches. The type is set in 18 point Pelago Regular, so there are about a hundred extra pages.
If you are interested in the typeface, you can visit Adobe’s Typekit blog for an article describing it.
The Large Print edition should be available everywhere Uly is sold, but it may not be featured as an available format. If it’s not, use the search bar on your favorite bookseller’s website to search for it.
Here it is on the Books-A-Million website.
Review
A Five-star review on Goodreads.
“With all the southern charm of a meandering country lane, Uly Quits His Job is the perfect companion for an afternoon spent on a shady porch with a cold glass of sweet tea. Travis Williams cleverly combines wit and humour with misadventures and shenanigans as Uly collides with destiny and discovers humanity at its finest.” —Lisa LeBlanc
Travis Williams earns sales commissions from qualifying purchases made by following links on this webpage to Apple Books and Amazon.
by Travis Williams | Jul 24, 2022 | News & Updates
Stealth: WW 2 historical fiction
Stealth by my friend Robert Stermscheg was released at the end of 2021.
The novel follows the heroic American bomber pilot Jack Swaggart who is forced to ditch his damaged B-26 Marauder in the German countryside. Then he catches a glimpse of a secret aircraft the Germans are flight testing. Now only he can stop the Third Reich from establishing air supremacy with its new bomber.
Stermscheg offers a delightful cast and PG-rated romance in an intelligent thriller with high-stakes spycraft, German resistance, and clever (or sometimes lecherous) Nazis.
Robert is an experienced pilot himself, so he includes just the right amount of detail to put you in the pilot’s seat of both American and German airplanes.
Now, he has launched the audiobook edition of Stealth. The narrator is Canadian author, missionary, narrator, itinerant pastor, and radio guy, Ron Hughes. His rich baritone fills the room with an authentic, casual confidence that fits Stermscheg’s characters and writing style.
I’m a graphic designer, writer, and history buff. I’ve been creating book covers for authors over the last year or so, and I designed the cover of Stealth for Robert. I also had the honor of fact-checking a late draft of the manuscript before the final edit.
You can get the audiobook edition of Stealth for free at Audible if you aren’t a member yet or buy it most anywhere audiobooks are sold. If you listen to (or read) it, Robert would appreciate a review.
Travis
Travis Williams earns sales commissions from qualifying purchases made by following links on this webpage to Apple Books and Amazon.
by Travis Williams | Jun 10, 2022 | News & Updates
The countdown to launch ended.
On Friday, May 27th Uly Quits His Job launched, and suddenly Uly was officially published.
The sound of fans rushing to bookstores was like a distant rumble of raging waters.
Hardcover books my readers had pre-ordered were delivered on launch day. At T-plus 14 days since the launch, Uly reached a milestone:
100 hardcover copies sold.
One-hundred-and-three actually.
This is fantastic. I am extraordinarily grateful.
I can dream big, but I have zero expectations.
I told Colleen McCubbin, my publisher at Siretona Creative, that I would not be satisfied if I only sold twelve books. I definitely wanted to sell at least 12.
Well, as far as I’m concerned, Uly launched in a big way.
So many of you who read my posts must be telling people about my book. If you weren’t, I wouldn’t have gotten such good news after only two weeks.
But sales aren’t everything.
In my book the character of Mrs. Lucy tells Uly, “Trust in the Lord.”
I’m telling you, it ain’t me. I fumbled around and did some stuff to get the word out.
The glory goes to God. May Uly Quits His Job be in the hands of each person who needs to read it.
Authors don’t write books for buyers. We write books for readers.
If you bought the book, I would love for you to pass it along to someone else to read it. I imagine people reading tattered, worn out, coffee-stained copies warped from having been dropped in a mud puddle.
Pass it along with a warning: “Watch out. Don’t sip your coffee while reading this. It’s spit-take funny!”
If you pass your copy along, let me know. I would love to hear from my readers.
“Was it in anger, Lᴏʀᴅ, that you struck the rivers and parted the sea?
Were you displeased with them?
No, you were sending your chariots of salvation!
You brandished your bow and your quiver of arrows.
You split open the earth with flowing rivers.
The mountains watched and trembled.
Onward swept the raging waters.”
—Habakkuk 3:8-10, New Living Translation
Buy Uly Quits His Job
Photo caption: In the cover image above, a hardcover copy of my book is on the side of the road. In the story, Uly rides a bike on the side of the road for part of his journey. Credit: Travis Williams.
by Travis Williams | May 24, 2022 | News & Updates
Movie trailer
An announcer with an enviable voice provides a dramatic intro.
Short clips from the movie play with loud theme music, explosions, and all the best one-liners in the script.
The two-minute-long professional edit of scenes from a movie are meant to make people want to watch the film.
It mostly works. They’re hugely popular. People watch lots of movie trailers online.
Book trailer
A book trailer is a short video promoting a book.
Writers are always looking for ways to get the word out about their work. A book trailer is an author’s attempt to interest readers in their latest release.
The price for a professionally produced book trailer starts around five-thousand dollars. That’s why many authors opt to create one themselves using text and stock photos. Results on those are mixed.
I’ve been imagining a book trailer for Uly, but it probably won’t happen.
Therefore, I invite you to imagine a movie trailer, a preview, with all the short clips described in words.
Sort of like a movie trailer
The music of a gospel choir singing is playing in the background.
“In a world where …” words replace video, here’s my preview of Uly Quits His Job.
Uly and a young man named George are sitting on the tailgate of a truck. Groundskeeping equipment is in the background.
George dug out one of his recycled bottles of water and considered the brown lukewarm water inside. “I could use a nice cold bottled water right about now.”
Uly chuckled. “That reminds me of a story I’ll have to tell you some time.”
Uly walks down a hall in an old house-turned office building and stops at his foreman’s desk.
“Uly, Mr. West has already approved you for the trip next week.”
“Okay, that’s cool.”
“That is if you’re available on Sunday afternoon?”
“You’re driving to Savannah, right?”
After work he is standing next to his truck at a gas station.
To buy gas, he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. The work memo fell on the ground, so he picked it up. He tucked it back into the pocket. Can’t lose that.
Uly is at the ticket window inside a bus station.
The ticket agent’s attitude softened some. “I’m working with you here, sir, because I know you had to make a special run to get that all-important bag of Fritos and then you got yourself bus-left.”
Lightning flashes and thunder claps with a bang! Uly watches a man he just met when he took shelter under a bridge.
The man stood at the top of the berm under the bridge. He squatted back down. He sprang up again and paced. He wasn’t at all used to being around people. He shouted, “Jump back! What do you lack, Umbrella Fella? White Cadillac!”
Uly walks into the parking lot of an old gas station.
He walked by embarrassed, not looking at them, not knowing what had made them laugh so hard. He hurried inside, avoiding eye contact with the cashier. The laughter continued outside.
He went straight back to the deplorable excuse for a men’s restroom. Looking in the mirror, Uly had no idea who was looking back at him.
A woman is standing outside at the door of a small business checking the doorknob.
“Anyway, I’m locking up here. Do you need anything?”
Uly could see the anxiety on her face and knew she was just being nice while hoping he didn’t need anything.
“No. I don’t think I need anything.”
Later that evening
Uly lay there hungry, homeless, jobless, and penniless. He caught himself not breathing, stuck in a long, unblinking stare that accompanies a feeling of numbness.
Buy Uly Quits His Job everywhere books are sold
by Travis Williams | May 18, 2022 | Sidebar Posts
Buy the digital book for Apple Books, Kindle, Kobo, or Nook. Other devices are also supported.
Review
Uly Quits His Job is true to life and delightful!
Travis Williams collected all kinds of keen observations about humans and gave them to the characters in Uly Quits His Job. One after the other comes in, does their little dance that makes them absolutely unique, helps or hinders the main character, Uly, and then gracefully bows out.
This book is also about human connections and how the things we do that seem so random actually add up. It’s almost like the “butterfly breath” theory. Way over in Charleston, a human breaths, and Uly’s life is never the same.
I love the weird things the characters do that seem so normal to them. I love the gentle, what most people call “easy going” narrative that holds so many Easter Eggs you’ve got to read it twice and many more times just to catch on to what Williams is doing with his words.
I love how he weaves the extraordinary, hidden in the ordinary, into a sweet, satisfying journey.
—Nicola MacCameron on Goodreads.com
Travis Williams earns sales commissions from qualifying purchases made by following links in this web page to Apple Books and Amazon.
