worklife – Life in Public Relations Hell

My sincere apologies for having neglected this blog for so long

For the past two years, I have been spending a lot of time promoting my 16 indie books on TikTok and learning how to market my work via video for the Booktok audience, the platform’s community devoted to books. You can check out my account here if you are interested. I am proud of the 500-plus videos I have created for the site.

It has been a rewarding experience overall on Booktok, but it frankly hasn’t lived up to the media hype that drew me to the site in the first place. I am going to start spending more time back on Twitter (No, I will never call it X) to promote my indie books. You can find me there at @gpwriter I may eventually start a Bluesky account. I will keep you updated.

I have also completed and am editing five new indie books including the sequel to my novel, “Life In Public Relations Hell,” which picks up where volume 1 left off with the protagonist Jake Wilson out of work and questioning the future of his public relations career. Jake becomes desperate after a long job search and takes a position at a public relations agency specializing in crowdfunding public relations. More client and co-worker millennial hell ensues. I am seven drafts into the sequel and happy with how it is coming out. The sequel is funny and honest about my public relations career like my first book. I am looking to bring it out in late 2025.

You can check out my indie books on my Amazon author page.

Also in the past year, I have been learning about AI art and have worked with AI platforms OpenAI, ChatGPT-4, and Midjourney, among others, to create some fascinating developmental art images for my indie books. I have used the art mostly in my Booktok videos and for inspiration for a new book cover for my indie science fiction novel, “Robot Troubles.” I think AI art has brought a whole new dimension to the visual side of my work.

Below are some images I created for my Life in Public Relations Hell novel. They are the characters in my novel – Lulu Yilmaz, Miriam Letti, Jake Wilson, Lorne Whitney aka Cage Boy, Bob Hampton aka The Tommy Boy of PR, and Dane Flynn, the Big Agency Fool.

Miriam Letti, the Vice President of Panic, at the Yilmaz Agency

Jake Wilson, a beleaguered publicist, and my novel’s protagonist

Lorne Whitney aka Cage Boy, Lulu’s obnoxious husband

Bob Hampton, clueless manager at the Riley Hampton Agency aka the Tommy Boy of PR

Dane Flynn, a Big Public Relations Agency Fool

These are only some of the many AI images I have created for my novel and my other books. I am hoping to share more soon on this blog.

One series of images I call the Art of PR Hell was influenced by the Edvard Munch painting The Scream. I imagined that image in a modern office setting. See below for a couple of examples of my concept.

Although I support AI technology and embrace its possibilities, let me stress that I will never use AI to write my indie books. The writing in my indie books should always come from me and my experiences.

I promise not to abandon this blog again as I have many more stories and images to share about my ongoing public relations career, and life in public relations hell novel series.

“Being a publicist is truly a thankless job…”

So begins my latest controversial indie novel, LIFE IN PUBLIC RELATIONS HELL, a frank and satirical look into the dark side of the public relations industry available on Amazon as a digital book and in paperback and hardcover editions.

My novel’s protagonist, Jake Wilson, reflects on his foibles, frustrations, and heartbreaks as a long-time publicist in a searing diary where he holds nothing back.

Along the way, readers will meet a strange cast of characters, including Lulu Yilmaz, the CEO of the Yilmaz Agency, and a perfectionist and micromanager from hell, Lulu’s micromanaging accomplice, Miriam Letti, the agency’s vice president of panic, Lulu’s overbearing husband, Lorne Whitney, aka “Cage Boy,” and clueless manager, Bob Hampton, aka the “Tommy Boy of PR,” among many others.

Troubled by a late-career crisis, Jake struggles to navigate a modern work landscape fraught with whiny, lazy millennials, big agency fools, paper pushers, TV hacks, media liars, client and manager tantrums, media relations beatdowns, brainstorms to nowhere, trade show debacles, unsupportive employers and bosses, ungrateful clients, and backstabbing and undermining co-workers.

My novel also explores other intriguing topics such as the lack of diversity in the public relations industry, why the Consumers Electronics Show in Las Vegas sucks for publicists, the agony of work birthdays, early morning video calls, and PowerPoint design hell.

Yet through all of his trials and tribulations, Jake still holds out fading hope he’ll find his dream job someday.

My novel is everything I’ve ever wanted to say about the public relations industry as a publicist with a career spanning more than 25 years, a former journalist, and a Los Angeles-based author. Finally sharing my frank views on the dark side of public relations and just how nightmarish and heartbreaking it can be to work as a publicist or public relations executive has been a liberating experience for me. I wanted to give readers an honest, inside look at how difficult life as a publicist can be dealing with unappreciative bosses, ungrateful clients, and unsupportive and backstabbing colleagues.

In early 2019, I started my blog, “Life in Public Relations Hell,” to cope with my growing dissatisfaction with my public relations career. My blog inspired me to expand my work tales into a novel.

My blog and novel had been a lifeline for me, helping me cope with my ongoing job frustration. I was having a late-career career crisis at the time. You can say it was a cry for help in a way. Exploring my experiences in the PR industry has given me a new perspective on my career, public relations, and my life overall. The response to my blog has been positive as well.

Although my novel is fiction, I have strived to stay true to my real-life experiences working in public relations.

My novel has the same sardonic humor as my earlier novels, MONOGAMY SUCKS and RELATIONSHIPS SUCK. I didn’t want to hold anything back.

The first draft of my novel was an epic 700 pages, which I later split into two books. I was hoping to have my novel out sooner, but a combination of financial difficulties and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic delayed my novel’s launch.

With recent developments and trends in the job market, including the Great Resignation, this year is the perfect time to share my novel. I feel it’s a book everyone, who toils at jobs with little appreciation or pay, and yet still manages overcome challenges and hostile working environments, could relate to.

No amount of spin will prepare you for my hilarious, scathing novel from the hellish workplace trenches.

This is the first volume in a series of novels I plan to write about my public relations career. I have also completed most of the first draft of volume two in my Life in Public Relations Hell series, which I look to bring out in a year or two.

LIFE IN PUBLIC RELATIONS HELL is my ninth novel and the sixteenth book overall. My other works include the novels MONOGAMY SUCKS, RELATIONSHIPS SUCK, ROBOT TROUBLES, JAKE’S WAR: JULY 4, 2076, DEAR HEF, YOUNG, HORNY & MORMON, SWINGING WITH THE SUPERNATURAL, and LETTERS FROM CYBERSPACE, short story collection CAR DODGING AND OTHER STORIES, poetry collections TRAVELING AT THE SPEED OF HEARTBREAK, THE TRUMP YEARS, BACKYARD POETRY, THE HOLLYWOOD HOMELESS, MIMI’S DILEMMA, and BODY PARTS.

You can also find out more about my provocative novels, short story, and poetry collections on my Amazon⁠ ⁠authors page and on my Goodreads profile, which features past book reviews.

Please visit my blog for more posts about my PR hell books, media coverage, etc.

And as always, look for many more of my indie books to come.

Category: worklife

My apologies for neglecting my blog, an update on my “Life In Public Relations Hell” sequel, Booktok, etc.

“Being A Publicist Is Truly A Thankless Job…”: New Indie Novel, “Life In Public Relations Hell,” Explores The Dark Side Of The Public Relations Industry, Available on Amazon