Following The Ice Star down under, I find myself regularly asking Google what time it is in Australia “right now”. And right now, The Ice Star is moving up the charts for International Mystery and Crime on Amazon.
So, as a crazy thank you to the sudden boost in readers taking a chance on my book, I dug around for an Aussie song from my childhood… I was 10 at the time. Right now, well, I’m a little older.
Thanks again to Aussie readers! Have a great day/evening.
Sometimes called “fall winds” (wikipedia) catabatic winds are common in Greenland. Fittingly, this fall, I will be releasing my first Arctic Short with the title Katabatic.
In Police Constable David Maratse’s first solo outing, set some time prior to the events in The Ice Star, I will be exploring the tragic themes of shame and suicide through a journalist’s narrative documenting the pursuit of a hunter who murdered his brother in a drunken brawl.
Is that Noir enough for you? Then be sure to check it out, and maybe even pre-order it.
The official release date is October 23rd, 2017. Until then, Katabatic is available for pre-order on Amazon kindles and tablets, and other devices with the Amazon app.
A lot of books get an awful lot of abuse, but the best-loved and most abused, in my opinion, are the ones squeezed onto hastily-erected shelves in frostbitten huts plunged into darkness for three to four months each year. The Ice Star has yet to join the hallowed spines of polar greats, but it is on its way to the Arctic, in the library of an Aurora Expeditions adventure cruise ship – they just posted about it on their Facebook page.
I have discovered interesting books in remote cabins in the far north of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska. Tracing a finger down the cracked and splintered spine of a much-read, and much-abused book evokes a sense of adventure for it takes an adventurous spirit to reach such cabins in the wilds.
In the same way that frost can often eat into a book in a remote cabin, books can eat into the miles taken to reach such places. When the stove is burning, your wool socks are thawing on the line looped between the rafters, and you’re kicking back in a bruised-wood chair, a sleeping bag wrapped around your knees, a cup of cocoa in one hand and a book in the other, well … you get the picture. There’s nothing better after a long trek, paddle, climb, or ski than following the path of another adventurer through the pages of a book.
I plan on sending more books into the wilds, perhaps you’ll find one someday.
Photo of Shackleton’s bookshelf from The Smithsonian.
I mentioned the nerves, but bundled in among them is a serious jag of excitement, not least due to the increasing number of books sales, pre-orders and ratings from Australia.
That settles it, I have to have an Australian character in book three: The Shaman’s House.
Book three is already well under way, building to a serious climax in The Greenland Trilogy.
Stay tuned, mate!
Fenna scrabbled to her feet and kicked the Gunnery Sergeant in the groin. He moaned, she kicked him again in the head, and then, a third time, planting the sole of her size five desert boots in the centre of his chest. She ignored the Gunnery Sergeant and collected her equipment, slipping her arms through the straps of the empty hydration pack, closing her notepad and stuffing it into the cargo pocket of her trousers, before pushing the rubber caps over the ends of the scope and slinging the rifle over her shoulder. The evening chill descended quickly, cooling the sweat on her back. She tugged a buff from her trouser pocket and slipped it over her neck. She took one last look at the Gunnery Sergeant and took a breath. It was time to move.
This is it then, book two in The Greenland Trilogy is less than a month from release, doing well in the pre-sales, and serving up a smorgasbord of nerves – for the author, anyway.
In book two, Fenna is plagued by demons from the past, but, at the same time, she must confront new adversaries like the USMC Gunnery Sergeant, above.
There is plenty of intrigue to offset the action in book two, but, I will admit, it gets a little rough at times, and, in Greenland, anything goes.
Curious? Then, you might be interested to pick up a cheap pre-order of In the Shadow of the Mountain, available from Amazon for kindle books and apps. The paperback will be available to buy on the date of publication: August 1st.
Today is a good day. There have been many good days on this indie author’s journey, but today is especially good as I have now – according to my budget – moved out of the red and into the black! I have now earned back the money I have paid for covers and promotion, and am now a colossal £7 or $10 richer! Of course, after Danish tax, that means about £3.50 or $5 richer, enough for a coffee without cream. But the journey to this point has been wild. And it’s the journey that counts!
So what’s next?
Well, it’s not like I don’t have any plans, but for this moment anyway, it’s time to kick back and enjoy the coffee – without cream – and dream of distant peaks, and icy summits, for the climb is what it is all about, summitting is just the moment when every step on the journey comes together.
I have a lot of steps left as an indie author, it’s time to gear-up!
Curious about that “next step”? I’ll be sure to post more information soon, but until then, you might be interested to pick up a cheap pre-order of book two in the Greenland Trilogy. In the Shadow of the Mountain is available from Amazon for kindle books and apps.
Jane and I visited Nuugaatsiaq (photo: 2008) in July and August 2008, while living and working in Uummannaq, Greenland. Now, almost nine years later, much of what we saw, and even some of the people we met, is gone. A tsunami crashed into the settlement on the 18th June, bringing tragedy to one of Greenland’s prettiest and most exciting areas. It’s hard to imagine how people are coping, and suddenly, a place that is very dear to me, is very far away indeed.
My thoughts go out to the people of Nuugaatsiaq, and Uummannaq fjord.
It is possible to help through donations coordinated via the Bank of Greenland (follow link for the Danish page.)
