A New Book Trailer for The Raven's Gift

The New Book Trailer for The Raven's Gift. Enjoy and share with friends!

I finally got around to cutting a new trailer for my novel. This one includes a few of the blurbs from The Raven's Gift and footage from where I grew up. Be sure to have your volume turned up!

Win some Alaskan Summer Beach Reading and a Kindle Fire!

Beach life in Alaska --- a rock bar in Prince William Sound.

Our Alaskan summer has been insanely nice. Sure the occaisional mosquito flies off with some poor old lady's dog, but that is just par for the course with endless summer sunshine.
And with summer sun comes the need to read a few good books. So what is better than a good book? Easy. A FREE book!
With this latest giveaway you'll have the opportunity to win a copy of my novel, which should make for some great summer reading --- and if you don't believe me you can see what other authors have to say about the book AND you could win one of their books. How cool is that? Here's the deal.You'll have the chance to win a Kindle Fire and pick five of the authors who have written blurbs for the novel!

Are you a fan of the Walt Longmire Mysteries? Here is what Craig Johnson had to say about The Raven's Gift:

"At first glance, The Raven's Gift might appear to be an epic thriller set in the ancient land of the Yup'ik tundra, but it goes much farther than that into the delicate frontiers of the human heart--the best book I've read this year."
-Craig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire Mysteries

You can read more of the blurbs here and think about who you'd pick!

There are THREE ways to win! You can try 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!


*Water-logged books that have been submerged in floods, boating disasters, or toilets void this warranty.

Exciting Raven News Coming

Stay tuned for exciting news in terms of distribution for the June launch of The Raven's Gift!
In the mean time, watch the sky for the luck Raven might drop from his back upon you!

Is Publicity the END of the World?

Before I actually signed the publishing contract, before I found an agent, and before I finished my first novel I had come up with clever ways in which I would help sell my book. Okay, I'm lying. I'd never thought about that stuff -- didn't even consider it, in fact. Beyond a little concern about how terrible my handwriting is and how I would ruin the books people wanted me to sign, I hadn't really allowed myself to dream of what I would do when my first novel finally came out.

Then, after signing a contract with that same goofy signature, I discovered I actually had a ton of work to do before the novel came out. If I wanted people to read my book I would need to work on publicity, of all things! Develop a platform, a website, start a blog, Twitter, and even start a Facepage (which is my mom's endearing name for Facebook).

In the depths of writing my novel I spent an enormous amount of time pondering the apocalypse. To be honest, the self-promotion and salesmanship I would need to partake in sounded worse than the end.

Which brings me to the end of this posting --- as I flounder and bungle my way towards the next few months of publicity prior to my book coming out, I am realizing that this isn't the end of the world. A writer can actually have a little fun with this nightmarish idea of actually working to share one's writing with the world. One might even be surprised about how excited people are to help and share their knowledge and time, even in today's over-saturated media crazy market!

My book doesn't come out until January 25th, 2011 --- last week I spent three days in the Amazon Canada top 100 list. Surely this is a sign of the apocalypse, or I just have friends and family who really love me, or just maybe this publicity stuff won't kill me after all.

(This post first appeared on 8/26/10 on  49 Writers.)