For those of my readers in the UK, today is a big day. It's the day my brand-new novel DON'T LET ME GO is on sale.
For my US readers, the wait shouldn't be long. Within a few months we should see a US edition. And in the meantime, SECOND HAND HEART is out in the US (please see the "buying buttons" on the Second Hand Heart page), and next month WHEN I FOUND YOU will release in the US. That should give you plenty to read while you're waiting.
And today, on the day DON'T LET ME GO hit UK stores, I discovered that the Amazon.co.uk page for next year's novel has been created.
Here's what it says:
But first, a special message to those of you who had every intention of getting in on this one, but it just didn't pan out. Wait, don't tell me. Let me guess. You have a life. I get that. Here's what you can do. Send the darn thing anyway. Anytime. The fact that I've closed the second slideshow means I just opened to photo submissions for the third. Jump in early, and I promise you won't miss the deadline, which will be months down the road. It's something like the Never-Ending Story. You send them, they will get used.
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If you read this blog often, or have been to my site before, you may have heard me say that my UK-only titles, Second Hand Heart, When I Found You and the forthcoming Don't Let Me Go, would soon be available to U.S. readers.
Well, today's the day for Second Hand Heart as an ebook. Today Second Hand Heart is available electronically on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords, at a very attractive price. Just follow the links in the previous sentence, and you'll see what I mean.
If you don't have an ebook reader, don't give up and don't tune out. The paper version will follow very shortly, and I will announce it on this blog as soon as the
You may have noticed that there's a new book cover on my Home page, and on my About Me page. And there's a brand new book page on the left-hand navigation bar.
The book is Don't Let Me Go, an adult novel scheduled for September 29th release from Transworld UK. US readers, I'll be making up some links, when available, to help you buy this book online. And please stay tuned to this site, because in the next couple of months you'll start seeing a whole new availability of these UK titles here in the US, starting with Second Hand Heart and When I Found You. We're working on it.
But Back to Don't Let Me Go.
Over 40 years ago, a public high school teacher named Lenny Horowitz changed my life completely by helping me believe I could write. And, since it was a change that was slow to grow fruit, I was never able to tell him. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease the following year, and died shortly after I left Buffalo.
For those of you who missed my big Jumpstart the World blog tour...or even part of it...well, I can see how that could happen, because it was quite extensive. Twenty-five stops. As it was going on, I'm sure it would be easy to miss bits and pieces of it. The posts just kept stacking up. (In a good way!)
The good news about the tour is that you don't have to experience it in real time. The posts will stay around a while.
Well, it's here! Second Hand Heart has been in stores in the UK since Thursday. The blog reviewers have been wonderfully positive in their reception of the book (I just added a big bunch of review quotes to the Second Hand Heart book page) and I'm already beginning to hear from readers. That's what makes this all worthwhile.
A quick note for those of you who are reading the book, are just about to read the book, or who have read it. On the Second Hand Heart book page, I have some original photos that I took myself. You see, Vida and I have been to some of the same places.
The photo you see here on this blog is the memorial stone at Manzanar. The one Vida visited with Victor and Esther (and Jax). But I also have a photo of Mt. Whitney from
Several months ago, I posted a blog making an offer. I had just cleaned out a storage space full of books, mostly my first two small-press titles, Funerals for Horses and Earthquake Weather. It didn't pay to keep storing them, but I didn't think I could fit them in my garage. So I offered to give some away.
Well, with the help of many loyal readers and fans who sent stamped, self-addressed mail bags, plus a fundraiser for the new Cambria library in which I gave three of my early hardcovers to anyone who donated to the library fund...they fit.
But I'd still be happy to give a few away.
I’ve given away a lot of books on this blog. But I’m hoping this giveaway will take the prize.
At the end of this month, I’m clearing out a paid storage space which is 75% full of brand-new-in-the-carton rare first edition hardcovers of my first two books, Funerals for Horses and Earthquake Weather. It just doesn’t make sense to keep paying to store them.
Now. Here’s the only problem. There are more than I can fit in my garage. Some may go to fulfillment sellers, and that’s all well and good. But what about my loyal readers?
Here’s my Brainstorm.
The Cliffs at Ragged PointI seem to have a preoccupation with cliffs, both in fiction and in my everyday life. In Love in the Present Tense, Leonard launches his home-built hang glider off one. In The Day I Killed James, James drives his motorcycle off another. I quit my day job and became a writer.
Sounds like a one-time jump, but nothing could be further from the truth.
This morning I took a good look at my appointment book for the rest of the year. It’s a lot different from last year, because of my landmark (for me, anyway) decision to stop traveling and speaking on behalf of the Pay It Forward concept.
