22 Oct 2014

*The Three Lads and the Lizard King*

Shameless Self-Promotion 28 Comments

I wrote a story for my son and decided others might enjoy it as well. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, let me say that this is the most important thing I have ever written; if I had to pick one item summarizing what I’ve learned so far in life, this would be it.

Three Lads Cover

There’s actually a “Halloween hook” early in the story, so if you’re curious, I would encourage you to order it in the next day or two to get it in time for Halloween.

UPDATE: Here is the blurb at Amazon:

Three friends find themselves magically transported to a land where they learn of a prophecy–about them! The lads must use their newfound gifts of power in their battle against the Lizard King.

28 Responses to “*The Three Lads and the Lizard King*”

  1. Enopoletus Harding says:

    If it’s really any good, why isn’t it published by Regnery?

    • Z says:

      Yeah, good question. How come Oxford and Princeton rejected this book, Bob? Why didn’t you mention that and what are you hiding?

  2. Raja says:

    It’s for what age group?

  3. Samuel says:

    You’re not even going to provide us with a little snippet, by which to whet our appetites!?

  4. Joseph Fetz says:

    Thatso awesome, Bob. Seriously, that is really cool.

  5. Keshav Srinivasan says:

    Bob, can you at least give us some indication as to what its message is? You say it “summarizes what I’ve learned so far in life”, which would lead me to believe that the message is either anarchism or Christianity.

    • Scott D says:

      The lizard king is a lounge lizard, obviously, and the three lads are there to defeat him with the ancient power of karaoke.

  6. dave smith says:

    Kindle?

  7. Tom Woods says:

    My Regina loves this book.

  8. Russ says:

    So it’s about Jim Morrison and The Doors?

  9. Skyler Collins says:

    Copyright? For shame!

    • Bob Murphy says:

      You guys are exhausting. My graphics guy put that in there by default, and I don’t know enough about the laws to know if I am vulnerable to someone else preventing me from selling my own stuff unless I declare “copyright.” Needless to say, I’m not going to use a State court against someone.

      • Tel says:

        Under the Berne Convention you own the copyright regardless of whether you put a copyright notice. The USA finally singed the Berne Convention in 1988 (100 years after everyone else did… President Nixon if you were wondering) and that even covers Nashville (like it or not).

        On the other hand, a copyright notice does not hurt, and you may happen to feel that there exists God given reasons, or perhaps even economically defensible reasons, why ownership of such a work is justified. Someone caught deliberately removing or tampering with your copyright notice is likely to face a larger penalty than someone just copying a work that has no notice.

        Hmmm, I got to wondering whether Amazon can hunt down copyright infringement “on your behalf” but it seems to be a non-exclusive license and that isn’t sufficient. In my (highly non-professional) guestimate you still have the choice open whether or not to use a state court.

      • Jan Masek says:

        Goody, it ships internationally! Will make for a great xmas present for my English friends with kids.

        Copyrights are automatic and the clause is meaningless, says Dr Kinsella. You could still sue. Only what I’m not sure about is if you or your publisher owns it.
        That you wouldn’t use the state puts you morally well above Dr Paul and Mr Molyneux who shamelessly and disappointingly did it.

    • Joseph Fetz says:

      Skyler, copyright is automatic on any work. You don’t need to apply for a copyright, nor do you need to put a copyright symbol or statement on a work, it automatically holds a copyright upon its creation. Even more, you cannot get rid of a copyright on a work, even if you’re the creator of the work.

      The closest that one can do to free up their work for use by others is to use a creative commons license, which is simply a legal license that stipulates to what extent a work can be used by the non-creator under the copyright (i.e. the Creative Commons license itself is a copyright license). Currently the least restrictive license is CC0, however it is not honored by all jurisdictions; from the CC0 FAQ: “no legal instrument can ever eliminate all copyright interests in a work in every jurisdiction”.

      Placing a copyright symbol or a copyright statement on a book is a mere formality. It has no legal force because the book already holds a copyright upon its creation. Currently the CC license that is both the least restrictive and has the most legal force is the CC-BY (i.e. attribution only).

  10. John Becker says:

    That’s awesome Bob. I’ve loved everything I’ve read by you so far so I’m sure I’ll enjoy this too. I second Keshav though in wanting some kind of preview.

    • Bob Murphy says:

      Did you guys read the blurb at Amazon and want more? Or did you not read the blurb? (I’m not asking that sarcastically, I’m genuinely curious.)

      • Keshav Srinivasan says:

        I for one have read the blurb, a couple pages from chapter 1, and a couple pages from chapter 5, and I still want more information. What is the moral of the story?

        Have any reviews been written of it? That might shed more light on the book.

  11. LI Liberty says:

    Bob, there is only the same blurb on Amazon that you have about the book here. The “Look Inside” feature only has the covers and what looks to be the dedication page. No other description or sample text/pages are there. I would definitely add a bit more – Just a page or two so folks can decide if their child is ready for the book. And a short paragraph or two of the text as a description. Looking forward to getting the book for my grandson!

    • Bob Murphy says:

      OK LI but what happened is that I added the blurb here in the post in case people didn’t realize it was there. 🙂

    • Keshav Srinivasan says:

      Were you signed into your Amazon account when you clicked “look inside the book”? That allows you to access more pages when you click “surprise me”. Here are the first two pages of chapter 1:
      gdurl.com/psF8
      gdurl.com/2nUv

      [Edited by RPM for spoilers.]

  12. Harold says:

    Were these three lads later joined by a fourth before releasing the classic song “Istanbul (not Constantinople)?” If so I am guessing the main theme is karaoke.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcze7EGorOk

  13. steveZ says:

    “We want the world, and we want it now!”

    -Lizard King demolishes Keynes.

  14. integral says:

    “Lizards are endangered, you little monsters!”

  15. Greg Morin says:

    Got it last Friday and read through it a single sitting. Very engaging, draws you in to the point you can’t put it down. I particularly enjoyed the subtle economics lesson in there 😉 (well not so subtle, I knew exactly what you were doing but I imagine a child would simply get the message and not realize they had just been “taught” something). Well I won’t say much more as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but well done Bob!

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