Hottest Book Giveaway Ever is OVER!

Well folks, the hottest eBook giveaway ever is over. I seriously thought that such a crazy and simple contest would draw more participants. I mean who gives away a new Kindle Fire loaded with FIVE kindles from some of the greatest writers in America?

I did. And with only a few dozen entrants the odds were pretty amazing.  Half the participants were from rural Alaska, where my novel The Raven's Gift was set, and the grand prize winner, Debbie Hagedorn, a teacher at the Kuskokwim Learning Academy in Bethel won the Kindle Fire! While Bethel is my hometown, I haven't lived there in about ten years, which is when Debbie moved to this little oasis on the tundra. I was pleasantly surprised to find the winner happened to be living there where I once lived and where a portion of the novel takes place. The winner of print copy of the novel was Kent Johnson from Arizona, and The Raven's Gift Kindle winner was Cindy Bell (who doesn't have a Kindle, so we might be having another giveaway!).

True to my promise, Debbie scored a Kindle Fire AND five Kindles from authors who blurbed my novel! This was no easy selection, as she had way too many great authors to choose from. Who would you pick from in this list of amazing authors?

Seth Kantner, Jodi Picoult, Daniel Quinn, Craig Johnson, Pete Fromm, Kris Farmen, Eowyn Ivey, Bill Streever, Lesley Thomas, David Vann, Jo-Ann Mapson, and Ron Carlson.

A tough list to choose from, no doubt. Yet Debbie is bush teacher, she's tough, and was up to the challenge. Her selections, close to home and all West of the Missouri. Three Alaskans, one Montana, and one Wyoming cowboy.  Debbie will now have a Kindle Fire loaded with some great reading: Seth Kantner's Ordinary Wolves, Kris Farmen's Turnagain, Eowyn Ivey's Snow Child, Pete Fromm Indian Creek Chronicles, and Craig Johnson's Messenger. 

10 Rules of Writing, Please Do Not Share When I Die

Rejection: Embrace it Like a Wet Dog

Elmore Leonard's list of 10 Rules of Writing went viral the day he left us for the great typewriter in the sky. And while that is an awesome list, probably the best ten rules ever written (sorry creator of great typewriter in the sky), I'm sure all the other great writers still living sat down at their Apple IIe's and pounded out their own ten, perhaps even eleven, rules.

Should I find myself headed towards the great typewriter in the sky (which really sounds more like hell now that I think about it), I can only hope that no one ever shares this list of my own ten rules of writing.  The last thing I want is all my work ( a few blog posts, a raunchy comedy, a bathroom stall poem, a maybe a dusty novel or two) distilled down into a list of ten rules about writing.

So please, don't share this after I die. Deal?

Don Rearden's 10 Rules of Writing*

1. Don't try to find an agent before you've written your novel.
"Wait! These are supposed to be ten rules about writing!" you say. Correct. If you're trying to find an agent or asking about how to find an agent and you haven't written anything, then you aren't writing. So really, rule #1 should just say, if you're going to write, do that first. But first read the other rules, so as to not break any more rules. Really you shouldn't even be reading any of this rule business, you should be writing, but since you're obviously not doing that, keep looking for rules that might somehow make you a better writer.

2. Quit trying to find rules that will make you a better writer.
Our society is obsessed with a short cuts. Rules a writer make something something, not doesn't sense. Quit being lazy and just go write (following the rules, naturally).

3. Struggle
Your aren't going to become a writer if you don't first struggle. I don't mean at writing. I mean life. No one wants to read a book written by a guy who learned all the rules of writing as a toddler, had a full ride at Stanford by junior high, a Pulitzer his freshman year of college, and then married the heiress to the Twinkie Corporation. Even if that guy writes a mean sentence, no one wants to hear about how agents and editors mob him every time he opens up a Word Doc. You need to struggle. Work a crappy job. Be poor. Go to jail. Drink. Go to war. Have ten kids. Drink. You know struggle. This won't make your writing any richer, but you'll have more street cred when you actually produce something.

4. Produce Something
People talk a mean game. They have an idea for a story. They had a dream that would make a cool movie. They really want to write ________. But they don't. They talk about it while the real writers are at home struggling. Again, not on their writing, but on their lives. Keep that straight.

5. Revise What You Produce
If you haven't followed rule #4, then go back and first produce something, and you'd better damn well be struggling at life while you do it. Then read over your work out loud, preferably to your cat or dog (if you don't have a cat or dog skip to Rule #6). Then read it again, and again. Then give it to a friend or reader who won't blow smoke up your ass. If you don't have any friends, congratulations! You have at least accomplished Rule #3! Pat yourself on the back. Fortunate for you, if you have a friend who will blow actual smoke up your ass, you might also ask them for a great deal of money so that you don't have to struggle in your writing career. Don't worry, this is okay, because if you can talk the friend into the smoke or money thing, then you're already on your way.

6. Own a Cat or Dog
Don't question this. Just do it. Famous writers have pets. No pets, no publishing deal. Plus, you'll need someone who will listen to the shit you wrote before Rule #5 and you'll need someone there when you hit Rule #3. Trust me. Cat. Dog. Or both, to cover your bases.

7. Rewrite 
Take your first major piece of writing, say your first novel. Close that file. Open a new one. And rewrite the entire thing without looking at the old one. Why? Because I had to do that in grad school and it really sucked, nearly broke me (I struggled), but that struggle is what got me here today. So you should have to do this as well. Especially if you're the kind of person who reads long lists of rules about writing when you should actually be writing.

8. Revise what you Rewrote
See Rule #5 if you don't get this point. Better yet just go sit with Rule #6 on your lap and stare out your window.

9. Rewrite
Rewrite what you wrote. Again. Except this time I'm talking about that query to an agent. It's not agent time, yet, relax, You're a long way from that. Instead, find more readers. Seek out writers who are better than you. Make sure they are struggling. Then add to their burden. Ask them to read your manuscript. Correct it. Critique it. And maybe forward to their agent (after they have edited fixed the plot holes and grammatical atrocities).

10. Never Give Up
You've written your opus, and perhaps your wife, the Twinkie heiress, has lost her fortune and left you for someone who knows how to struggle and liked dogs. You can't find an agent. You can't find a publisher. All hope appears lost. You've followed all the rules. You're looking for more rules. Rules to write by. Rules to live by. Keep looking, friend, and keep writing. Never give up on the dream that some day you could die and a list you wrote might be shared around the world.



*Don't actually follow these rules. Except for maybe #1, 6, and 10.

A Booklist Review --- Unstarred, but what's a Star?

A Booklist review suddenly appeared on the Amazon Page of The Raven's Gift, and it's a good one. I thought I'd share it all for you. I appreciate what the reviewer, Connie Fletcher had to say, and I really loved the imagery of the last line:

This is part dystopian survival tale, part Jack London wilderness saga, and part Stephen King/Michael Crichton–style suspense story. Holding it all together, and making this much more than a what happens when people can’t defend against a massive threat exercise, is Alaska native Rearden’s deep knowledge of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and the culture of the Yupik Eskimos living there. Rearden takes an adventurous, idealistic young couple (John and Anna), gives them jobs as first-year teachers, and plunks them in a tiny village in a tiny home free of all amenities. From the start, though, readers will know something is off: Why, in the scene before the couple’s job interview, are an unidentified man and woman crawling through the snow, looking for signs of life? The narrative consists of three separate time lines—what happened before almost everyone in the village disappeared; John and Anna’s first efforts to teach and adjust; and John’s desperate efforts to survive and return to Anna. This narrative mix is deliberately confusing, like following tracks in the snow, and just as engrossing. --Booklist, Connie Fletcher

 I'll that that review with a grin, and of course have no problems with the Jack London/Stephen King/Michael Crichton comparison! So who needs a "starred review" with those stars involved, right?

(Don't forget to sign up for the Kindle Fire Giveaway! Only a few days left! See the other posts for details!)

Tuesday Poem: in the presence of a God, dead

Tundra Raven, photo by Julien Jacobs

In the Presence of a God, dead
 
A raven
rumpled black
in the snow
this vision
haunts me still

a people's creator
his power lost
long before a wing
clipped the wires
--the new power--
hanging over the land
 
Sometimes I still stand

over the ruffled raven corpse
the cold burns my cheeks
I blink ice
and wonder what one
should do
in the presence of a god,
dead and
I cannot bury him
in the crusty white
covering the tundra

(April 3/2009)

Turn Again --- and a Kindle Fire!

An Alaskan "Must Read" Novel

All the excitement of the Washington Post review nearly had me forgetting that I was running the hottest book giveaway ever! Now we only have two weeks left, so I'd better get to sharing with you some of the cool possibilities!

Today I want to highlight my buddy Kris Farmen's novel Turn Again. This is an incredible Alaskan novel, and the first novel I had the honor to provide a blurb for:

“Kris Farmen’s Turn Again is a spellbinding masterpiece. A powerful epic with unforgettable characters, rich Alaskan history and culture, and an authentic glimpse at a time when humanity was forsaken in the name of progress. Farmen has crafted a haunting tale of mythical transformation and lost love. There is much to be learned from this modern parable.”
            —Don Rearden, author of the critically acclaimed novel, The Raven’s Gift
  
And while I might be a creative writer and story teller, the above is simply fact. Farmen writes one hell of a story, and an important one at that. He's such a gifted writer that I often wonder how much fiction he put into his own blurb for my novel, which has found its way in the new Canadian Pintail edition of The Raven's Gift:


"Don Rearden is a masterful storyteller, and an artist of extraordinary talent and vision. Like all great books, The Raven’s Gift transcends geography and culture; it provides a window into what it means to be human in an age when humanity is all too often pushed aside and those who live at the margins forsaken in the name of political expedience."
–Kris Farmen, author of Turn Again and The Devil's Share

What is definitely not in question is that Kris Farmen can flat out write a great story. You'll have the chance to agree with me if you win the Kindle Fire in my giveaway and choose to have Kris's book as one of the books the Kindle will come with!

Here is how to enter:

There are THREE ways to win! You can do ONE or all THREE!

1. Read the first chapter of the book for free on my website.
Then answer the following question:  The main characters nearly 1000 mile trek will begin on what river? Send your answer to ravensgift.thebook@gmail.com

2. Post a photo of yourself with your copy of The Raven's Gift on the Facebook page here.

3. Order your Kindle, iBook, or Nook copy of The Raven's Gift and tell your friends and family on your Facebook page, Twitter, or wherever and email a link to your posting at ravensgift.thebook@gmail.com

But wait!!! There will be more ways to win will coming over the coming weeks. I'll draw a winner of the grand prize for the Kindle Fire on August 30th. Books and ebooks will be given away from now until then!

Review: Author's debut novel an apocalypic vision of Alaska flu epidemic - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Sundays

Review: Author's debut novel an apocalypic vision of Alaska flu epidemic - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Sundays

Speechless!

(see full image)

Sent by Carrier Raven