A Hope links page...

It's early days, but here are a number of links to places to learn more about (and in some cases buy) Hope:

Review by a retired English Literature Professor (which I am understandably VERY proud of!) 

Link to a Goodreads page for Salt Lake County Library Service, where, if you live close to, you can borrow the book.

Another positive review (from Shauna Wheelwright at ilovetoreadandreview)

A plug for my novel at Diony George's blog

Good news on Goodreads--happily, a developing page...

A link to the store I used to work for; love the social media plugins at the bottom of the page! Wish I knew the people who have clicked Facebook 'like'.  I'd love to thank them.

Link to Deseret Book (where there are currently 3 easy to access reviews).

List of some couple of dozen retailers who should all be able to source the book

The BYU Bookstore

A second distributor (who will specialise in supplying Amazon and Barnes and Noble orders--watch this space).


Further to the link above (Update 13th May 2014) 


Amazon.COM (i.e. USA)

Amazon.CO.UK (i.e. UK)

Amazon.CA (i.e. Canada)

Amazon.DE (i.e. Germany)

Amazon.FR (i.e. France)

Amazon.ES (i.e. Spain)

Amazon.IT (i.e. Italy)

Amazon.CO.JP (i.e. Japan)

Amazon.IN (i.e. India)

Also, (in no particular order)

Wordery

Book Depository

Announcing Hope...

Englishman Isaac Shaw is dead. For sixteen years, his family has struggled on in shame, believing he died a criminal—responsible, in 1837, for several deaths when he set fire to the village mill. When Isaac’s youngest son Manny runs away, straight into the path of a traveling Mormon elder, the meeting threatens the family’s future. Charged with care of a letter that challenges the village’s history, Manny must find a way to reveal the identity of a young woman called Hope. The quest is destined to change everything. This plot-driven mystery is a tale of humankind’s eternal search for peace.

Here it is.  My book.  After the best part of thirteen years--struggling, doubting, and, against the facts hoping--publication is finally at the doors.  By the end of March I should be able to call myself a published novelist.

I'm not sure I can fully believe it.  I'm not even quite sure what comes next.  I know I am enjoying the process; the novel is to be published by the Utah based Walnut Springs Press, via its Currawong Press imprint.  I am over the moon that Deseret Book Distributing are an official distributor and delighted Hope will feature in the Deseret Book summer catalogue (that goes out a huge mailing list.)  I almost feel like my writerly life is complete. 

There's a moment in a favourite film (Chariots of Fire) in which Harold Abrams finally takes gold in his event, the 100 yard dash, and soon afterwards is invited by his friend Aubrey to celebrate; instead, Harold leaves the changing area in a daze, without so much as a goodbye.  Lord Lindsay advises Aubrey to leave Harold be, explaining how hard it can be to comprehend and accept one's own success.  Ah.  Yes.  I have a little inkling about that now.    

There's a danger here, of course, that in getting so carried away with the fact that a bona fide publisher actually wants and enjoys my work, I begin to sound like a Megalomaniac.  Or worse, that I begin to think like one.  I hope I don't come across this way.  I apologise if I have or ever do.  That would be awful.  

But in a way, I do feel like I have just been given parole. 

For years I have felt imprisoned by falling short, occasionally and (more recently) increasingly in despair, wondering if I would ever achieve my goal, and I suppose a little afraid that it might just have been delusion.  It has been a choice to pursue creative ventures, but it has rarely if ever been easy on our family.  My wife has been unbelievably loyal, constantly.  So this achievement is sweet because I have wanted so much to be published for her sake, for her faith in me.  That's why after some thirteen years--and arguably longer, since I began a sustained approach to creative writing the year we married, 1997--this feels like parole.

I hope you won't misunderstand me: my feet are very much on the ground about the book's prospects.  I want it to do well.  And I'll be trying to make sure it does.  But, for nearly six years, I sold books for a living... I know what the realities are.  So this is not about getting rich quick (I've got thirteen years to remunerate!)  It's about honouring a feeling that creative talents are important.  It's about trying to stay true to a belief that the arts can make a difference.

Hang on to the idea that perseverance wins out. 

Hopefully you'll forgive this little bit of self-congratulation, and, if you are also doggedly slaving away at a secret--or not so secret--creative project, scratching your head at your defiance of the 'facts'... permit me to encourage you to keep going.  Just keep going.  It turns out 'they' were right all along: perseverance does pay off in the end.   

Hope is due for release April 2014, and will be available in both paperback and electronic forms.  Paperback: ISBN 978-1-59992-904-0; E-book: ISBN 978-1-59992-905-7. 

The paperback can now be ordered here...