Spring Fantasy Novel Giveaway for ‘The Seeker’ – Third Excerpt

“The Seeker,” by Malcolm R. Campbell, Vanilla Heart Publishing (April 14, 2013), contemporary fantasy, 224 pages, trade paperback, Kindle, Nook, PDF

The Novel

Adventure, love, loss, war, and betrayal in this Book 1 of the Garden of Heaven Trilogy, The Seeker.

The story begins in the high country of Montana where young David Ward negotiates life with his dysfunctional grandparents (Katoya the medicine woman and Jayee the railroader and surveyor) and sees his future spread out before him in a vision quest. He meets his soul mate while employed as a seasonal worker at a resort hotel, saves her life on a dark street in Florida, and runs afoul of the consequences of using old magic to alter a person’s destiny.

The Giveway

One autographed trade paperback copy available within the United States and three Smashwords coupons for e-book downloads in multiple formats available anywhere.

How to Enter: All you have to do is leave a comment, hopefully friendly, on any of the five posts entitled Spring Fantasy Novel Giveaway for ‘The Seeker,” followed by an excerpt number by midnight (U.S. eastern daylight time) on May 31, 2013. Please include an e-mail address, Facebook page, web site, or other online way I can find you if you are among the winners.

On June 1, 2013, I will put the names of all the commenters from the five posts into a hat. The first name drawn out wins the paperback; the next three win a Smashwords coupon.

Good luck!

Brief Excerpt Number Three – Of Flood and War

Neighborhood west of the park…a scene repeated in multiple towns

On August 4, 22 illusory torpedoes were launched by North Vietnamese patrol boats against the U. S. destroyers Maddox and C. Turner Joy in the Gulf of Tonkin. Born a world away from the lotus falling into a sea of fire, the sweet fictions of credibility gap sustained them long enough for the prescribed protocols to ensure the hardship of 58,175 deaths, the price of 153,303 wounded, and the burden of a national psyche forever scarred.

On August 4, David called out the names of the stars as he walked with Anne Hill in the Garden of Heaven. They kissed in the spray of Morning Eagle Falls and made promises they could never keep. Born of blue columbine and larkspurs beneath the Angel Wing on top of the world, their sweet fictions sustained them long enough to ensure they would be forever scarred.

On August 12, David’s birthday, he and his longtime friend Tom Elliott hiked along Lower Two Medicine Lake, unprepared for the scars left by the June floods. For the world at large, the evidence of Montana’s worst flood—a “zone of war,” according to the Associated Press—would be short lived in spite of the towns, bridges, livestock, dams, Great Northern mainline, roads, houses, and families that were down, out, broken, undercut, missing, ruined, and swept away when time was flung in a crowned deluge down the rivers, the Bear, Big Blackfoot, Birch, Cameron, Clark Fork, Cottonwood, Dearborn, Divide, Dupuyer, Flathead, Grant, Hardy, Kennedy, Little Blackfoot, Marias, McDonald, Missouri, Moccasin, Ousel, Sheep, Spring, Sun, Swan, and Teton.

“I lost friends down there—too many to help simultaneously,” Tom said, as they climbed up Looking Glass Hill, leaning on their alpenstocks like old men.

“Grandmother won’t speak the names of the dead,” David replied. “She says they’re heavy on her tongue.”

“Sure, sure, yet the name is not the river, nor the town, nor the man.” Tom lit his pipe. “But the names are not without weight.”

“Are they heavier than smoke?” David asked.

“About the same,” he said, “but they’re prayers nonetheless.”

–Malcolm

You can see the book’s Amazon listing here and its Barnes & Noble listing here. Excerpt number one is posted here. Excerpt number two is posted here.

Spring Fantasy Novel Giveaway for ‘The Seeker’ – Second Excerpt

“The Seeker,” by Malcolm R. Campbell, Vanilla Heart Publishing (April 14, 2013), contemporary fantasy, 224 pages, trade paperback, Kindle, Nook, PDF

The Novel

Adventure, love, loss, war, and betrayal in this Book 1 of the Garden of Heaven Trilogy, The Seeker.

The story begins in the high country of Montana where young David Ward negotiates life with his dysfunctional grandparents (Katoya the medicine woman and Jayee the railroader and surveyor) and sees his future spread out before him in a vision quest. He meets his soul mate while employed as a seasonal worker at a resort hotel, saves her life on a dark street in Florida, and runs afoul of the consequences of using old magic to alter a person’s destiny.

The Giveway

One autographed trade paperback copy available within the United States and three Smashwords coupons for e-book downloads in multiple formats available anywhere.

How to Enter: All you have to do is leave a comment, hopefully friendly, on any of the five posts entitled Spring Fantasy Novel Giveaway for ‘The Seeker,” followed by an excerpt number by midnight (U.S. eastern daylight time) on May 31, 2013. Please include an e-mail address, Facebook page, web site, or other online way I can find you if you are among the winners.

On June 1, 2013, I will put the names of all the commenters from the five posts into a hat. The first name drawn out wins the paperback; the next three win a Smashwords coupon.

Good luck!

Brief Excerpt Number Two – Vision Quest

David’s vision quest occurs at the summit of Chief Mountain, a prominent peak near the border of Montana and Alberta. – Wikipedia photo

Now the mountains loomed beneath a red sun that dripped blood into the rivers. The noise was deafening like war or a heart out of control. From the smoke of trees that burnt charged a horse with a name that was Sikimí, black, dripping sweat and salt, ruler of storms, pawing the earth into ridges, tearing clouds off the sky, chasing a primitive injunction behind wild eyes. David ran, and when Sikimí was larger than life behind him, he stumbled into a loop of Stookatsis vine—ghost’s lariat—and fell against crumbled rocks left when Nápi ripped Kátoysix from their mother. Suffice it to say, time did not give him leave to contemplate the point of a small white cross that drove through the palm of his left hand like a large nail as he fell. But he saw the spark in Sikimí’s left eye before he felt the hooves.

-

–Malcolm

You can see the book’s Amazon listing here and its Barnes & Noble listing here. Excerpt number one is posted here. There is also a giveaway for “The Seeker” on GoodReads (ending May 21, 2013).

Spring Fantasy Novel Giveaway for ‘The Seeker’ – First Excerpt

“The Seeker,” by Malcolm R. Campbell, Vanilla Heart Publishing (April 14, 2013), contemporary fantasy, 224 pages, trade paperback, Kindle, Nook, PDF

The Novel

David Ward grows up on a Montana ranch where he develops an enduring love of mountains and the magic of the high country secrets he learns from his medicine woman grandmother. A vision quest at the summit of a sacred mountain opens his eyes to his future while blinding him to the details.

As a seasonal employee at a mountain hotel, David meets Anne Hill during the summer of Glacier National Park’s worst flood. Out of the ravages of water, they spend an idyllic summer in the beautiful Garden of Heaven.

When Anne is confronted by a stalker on a dark street in her Florida college town, the magic David uses in an attempt to save her changes her and leads them into the dark territory of misunderstandings and the blood of Tate’s Hell Swamp.

The Giveway

One autographed trade paperback copy available within the United States and three Smashwords coupons for e-book downloads in multiple formats available anywhere.

How to Enter: All you have to do is leave a comment, hopefully friendly, on any of the five posts entitled Spring Fantasy Novel Giveaway for ‘The Seeker,” followed by an excerpt number by midnight (U.S. eastern daylight time) on May 31, 2013. Please include an e-mail address, Facebook page, web site, or other online way so I can find you if you are among the winners.

On June 1, 2013, I will put the names of all the commenters from the five posts into a hat. The first name drawn out wins the paperback; the next three win a Smashwords coupon.

Good luck!

Brief Excerpt Number One – Burgers and Fries

David and his grandparents are eating in a cafe in Browning Montana with the mountains of Glacier Park not far away – gohomekiki photo on Flickr

For reasons unknown to David—and he knew better than to poke into the matter—his grandparents finished their hamburgers before attacking the fries. Katoya stacked her fries up as though she planned to set fire to them; they looked like kindling arranged for a campfire. Then she dumped ketchup over the resulting pyramid and sloppily plucked them out two or three at a time. Jayee stacked his fries up like cordwood on the left side of his plate, saving the longest of them for constructing an enclosure on the right side of his plate for a man-made lake of ketchup. Under no circumstances was any of the ketchup allowed to sully the plate’s central work zone. Jayee lifted each fry in turn off the cordwood stack with his fork, cut it into equal lengths with his knife in the work zone, put the knife down across the far edge of the plate, transferred the fork to his right hand, carefully dipped the fry into the lake, and ate it without smearing any of the ketchup on his mouth. Nonetheless, he swiped a folded napkin across his face after finishing the last piece of each fry. He sipped his Coke after every three fries.

He ate with precision and order.

“I thought we might drive down to Heart Butte and see the tipi rings,” said Grandmother as
she licked the ketchup off her hands.

Jayee jumped like a spooked cat. His fork, which was hovering over the ketchup with a precision-cut section of a French fry, crashed into the lake. The damn burst and ketchup flooded across the work zone, engulfing the fries stacked on the far side of his world.

“Now look at this mess,” said Jayee. “I’ll need another plate. I’ll need another God damned
plate. Lucy, bring me another order, will you?

-

–Malcolm

You can see the book’s Amazon listing here and its Barnes & Noble listing here. Read the vision quest excerpt here.

Announcing a new contemporary fantasy about love and destiny

The Seeker (Garden of Heaven Trilogy), by Malcolm R. Campbell, Vanilla Heart Publishing (April 2013), 224 pages, e-book and trade paperback, contemporary fantasy.

Can we cheat destiny?

Do the rules of life allow us to save ourselves and our loved ones by fighting or running, but not with precognition and magic? Some people believe magic is a way of “getting away with something” that the Universe doesn’t intend for us to avoid, much less survive.

In my new contemporary fantasy, The Seeker, released by Vanilla Heart Publishing this month, lovers David Ward and Anne Hill learn there are consequences to confronting predators and gods.

David knows magic. He learns it from his grandmother, Raven, Eagle and Black Horse. He finds visions in the mountains and wants to expand upon them by climbing the highest peaks on the planet. Yet, as his utilitarian grandfather Jayee sees it, such things are best left alone because the world does not believe in magic and hates people who do.

David and Anne meet when they’re hired as summer workers at a Glacier National Park resort hotel. David grows up on a sheep ranch and loves the Rocky Mountains. Anne lives with her aunt in Florida and has become attuned to the Gulf Coast barrier islands and swamps. Like many others who find each other at a beautiful or exotic location, they believe their intense summer romance will last forever.

From the Publisher:

David Ward develops an enduring love of mountains and the magic of the high country secrets he learns from his medicine woman grandmother growing up on a Montana ranch.  A vision quest at the summit of a sacred mountain opens his eyes to his future while blinding him to the details.
 
David meets Anne Hill, another seasonal employee at a mountain hotel during the summer of Glacier National Park’s worst flood.  Out of the ravages of water, they spend an idyllic summer in the beautiful Garden of Heaven. Together in their hearts, each returns to their college lives.
 
When Anne is confronted by a stalker on a dark street in her Florida college town, the magic David uses in an attempt to save her changes her, and leads them both into the dark territory of misunderstandings and the blood of Tate’s Hell Swamp.

Excerpt from the Novel:

“After they finished the dinner they prepared together, after the meadowlarks’ piccolo-sharp whistles enfolded into the raspy songs of wind and creek, after darkness flowed up out of the cottonwoods, after they watched the stars materialize in the sky above the circle of box elders, after Anne’s Christian Brothers Napa Rose wine connected them to the light of the waxing crescent moon, they fetched an old horse blanket and a kerosene lantern and walked arm in arm up the bright path to the chokecherry tree. David hung the lantern on a limb below the ripe fruit while Anne flung out the blanket. The pale yellow light spun a cocoon within the night, extending outward just shy of the altar upon which the sweet lamb was slaughtered in the eagle’s dawn raid eleven years ago.

“Anne stepped into the center of the blanket and lifted her arms above her head in a long, slow, cat-like stretch. Her figure was fine and young, and when her hair caught the light, the world stopped, cloaking the rising whispers of his blood within an immense silence, suspended and potent. She looked at him over her shoulder, eyes sweeping his body. Then they looked past each other and waited for signs.”

The Trilogy

The Seeker is the first novel in the Garden of Heaven Trilogy. Book two, The Sailor will be released this summer. Book three, The Betrayed is due out this fall. The Seeker is available on Amazon in trade paperback and on Kindle. The e-book edition is available on Smashwords and on OmniLit. The  novel will also be available on Nook in the near future.

While the novels in this trilogy are definitely fiction, they were inspired by my experiences growing up along the Florida Gulf Coast and working as a bellman at a Glacier National Park hotel during the Montana flood of 1964. David’s navy experiences in The Sailor, grew out of my tour of duty aboard an aircraft carrier, and his work as a college teacher in The Betrayed, is a highly “ramped-up” version of my years as a journalism instructor.

I hope you enjoy the series.

–Malcolm

Announcing. . .’Emily’s Stories’

I’m happy to announce the Vanilla Heart Publishing release of Emily’s Stories, my e-book fantasy collection of three short stories about Emily Walters, a sharp, inquisitive fourteen-year-old north Florida girl who loves maps, her rusty old bike, and the forest behind her house.

Sometimes her dreams tell her the future and sometimes her waking hours bring wise birds and other spirits into her life. In these three short stories, join Emily in her adventures and mysteries.

In “Map Maker,” Emily uses her skills to fight against a developer why wants to turn the woods behind her house into an upscale subdivision.

The family travels to the mountains in “High Country Painter” where Emily must learn to paint dreams into reality to avoid a hiking tragedy.

And, in “Sweetbay Magnolia,” she learns the secrets of her grandmother’s favorite backyard tree, the old house down on the driver, and why a certain ghost who comes around for a visit already knows her name.

Excerpt from “Map Maker”

Just yesterday, she asked her dad why his civil engineering firm cared about Barrett Hills.

“When I saw you experimenting with my old case of drafting instruments, I thought the map might provide an interesting learning experience.”

She laughed. “You’re always thinking up interesting learning experiences for what I call doodling.”

“Who knows, Punkin, you may doodle yourself into a career as a map maker,” he said. “But there is another matter you’re not going to like. The last of the Welles family’s known heirs passed away several months ago and his estate wants to sell the property behind our house.”

“How can they part with their The Ancient and Sacred Forest?” she asked.

“Nathaniel Welles is probably the last of the line,” he said. “If no heirs are found, the executor will dispose of all the assets in accordance with Mr. Welles’ will. A developer would want everything from our property line down to Old Welles Road to make a project viable.”

“Viable? What does that mean? What will happen to our woods?”

“Several developers have expressed an interest. With all of it, there’s enough space for 25 new homes and prospective new friends. That’s progress we can watch from our own back yard.”

Emily’s dad sounded upbeat, even excited. Maybe that meant Walters and Associates would design the new streets. If so, she didn’t want to know. The thing was, he was staring out the living room windows while he talked as though something highly interesting was happening between the back door and the Millie Macs.

“Losing The Ancient and Sacred Forest doesn’t sound like progress to me, Dad.”

“I know.”

“It’s regress, you know what I mean? When Mr. Welles’ executor disposes of assets he’s disposing of the shortleaf pine, the blackberries, hundreds of oak trees and the homes of thousands of birds and small critters.”

“Sorry, Punkin.”

“Saying ‘Punkin’ doesn’t fix it, Dad.”

-

Enjoy the stories. In addition to Kindle, the book is available in a variety of e-book formats, at $2.99, on Smashwords, OmniLit, and Payloadz.

–Malcolm

Announcing a New Fantasy Adventure Trilogy

I’m happy to announce the upcoming publication of The Seeker, The Sailor and The Betrayed throughout 2013 in my new Garden of Heaven fantasy adventure trilogy.

Set in Glacier National Park and Florida’s Tate’s Hell Swamp, The Seeker will be released in March. The Sailor, set on board an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea, will follow in June. Wrapping up the trilogy in September, The Betrayed is primarily set within the ivy walls of a supposedly idyllic middle western university.

The Seeker – From the Publisher

David Ward grows up on a Montana ranch where he develops an enduring love of mountains and the magic of the high country secrets he learns from his medicine woman grandmother. A vision quest at the summit of a sacred mountain opens his eyes to his future while blinding him to the details.

As a seasonal employee at a mountain hotel, David meets Anne Hill during the summer of Glacier National Park’s worst flood. Out of the ravages of water, they spend an idyllic summer in the beautiful Garden of Heaven.

When Anne is confronted by a stalker on a dark street in her Florida college town, the magic David uses in an attempt to save her changes her and leads them into the dark territory of misunderstandings and the blood of Tate’s Hell Swamp.

Vanilla Heart Publishing has posted a wonderful trailer for The Seeker on YouTube.

Yes, I know I told you I’ve been working on Florida short stories this past year. That was true. More of them will be released this year. However, I’ve also been working on the exciting project I couldn’t tell you about until now: this new trilogy. I hope you like it!

–Malcolm

It’s really spooky: ‘Moonlight and Ghosts’

I’m happy to announce my really spooky short story “Moonlight and Ghosts” was published today by Vanilla Heart Publishing in an e-book format.

Publisher’s Description: On a moonlit night, Randy’s intuition is drawing him back to an abandoned psychiatric hospital where he once worked. He and his friend, Alice, have heard the ghost hunters’ claims the building is haunted, filled with strange lights, apparitions and the voices of former patients calling for help. The Forgotten point Randy and Alice to a crime in progress… and there’s not much time to save the victim.

That abandoned building…

There used to be an abandoned psychiatric hospital and developmental center near the house where I grew up. Before it was converted from a secondary hospital for use by the state department of mental health, I visited patients there–and it all seemed normal enough. It closed for a variety of reasons, including lack of funding and ended up sitting as an abandoned and often vandalized building for over two decades.

During this time, it became a magnet for ghost hunters. The more I looked at the pictures on line, the more my imagination started tinkering with an idea for a story. Like the main character in the story, I once worked as a unit manager at a center for the developmentally disabled. Fortunately, I never worked in this building. But what if I had and what if I went back on a moonlit night and found several ghosts waiting for me with an emergency message?  Hmmm…

I hope you like it!

Price: 99 cents on Kindle, and in multiple formats, on Smashwords.

Watch the Book Video on YouTube

Read the beginning on Amazon (use “look inside”) or on Smashwords (use “view sample) for free.

–Malcolm

and now a word from our fantasy sponsor

My book reviews, interviews and posts on Malcolm’s Round Table, Magic Moments and Literary Aficionado are brought to you by, er, me.

Speaking of myself now in the third person, Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of magical realism, contemporary fantasy and satire published by Vanilla Heart Publishing of Washington State. While my noir satire, Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire, is set in a fictional Texas town with a really screwed up fictional newspaper, my three other novels are set in Glacier National Park, Montana and other places where I have lived or visited.

Last summer brought the release of Sarabande, a harrowing heroine’s journey and contemporary fantasy about a young woman who is haunted by the ghost of her sister. Sarabande seeks the help of a young man who has, on one previous occasion, bent time to “raise the dead.” The solution to the problem is not without its nasty down side.

Satire for your Nook

In 2004, I came out with the first edition of my novel The Sun Singer, the story of a young man whose psychic dreams ultimately lead him into a dangerous mountain world where it will take all of his skills to survive. First things first: he had to figure out who the good guys are and who the bad guys are and, as it turns out, who exactly he is. The second edition of The Sun Singer was released in 2010. College students at Lone Star College, Texas, read and discussed the novel this past Spring as part of a Wayfaring Heroes course.

Garden of Heaven: an Odyssey (also released in 2010) is magical realism about a man who grows up on a Montana ranch who loses his way when a failed love affair sends him down dangerous roads along which is is betrayed multiple times by those he cares about the most. The book is also available as an $4.99 e-book from OmniLit.

Where To Find Malcolm R. Campbell on the Internet

• The Sun Singer, Sarabande and Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire are available at multiple online booksellers, including the paperback and Kindle/Nook editions at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
• The latest news can be found on the Malcolm R. Campbell website as well as on Facebook.
• Campbell has an author’s page at Vanilla Heart Publishing, and is also on LinkedIn and Twitter.
• Latest Interview: Interviewed by Melinda Clayton.

Excerpt from Sarabande

Only $4.99 on Kindle

Gem pulled her hands away and stood up so quickly she knocked over her spinning wheel. She didn’t appear to notice. She walked to the window and leaned out as though making sure no one else would hear her words.

“I was shamed by the king.” Gem pulled up her left sleeve to reveal the letters SJ in a bold pink scar that contrasted with her walnut-colored skin.

“Your strike brand!”

“I bore Justine’s mark as well as his child. Both were conceived in pain in a dark cell covered with urine and rat droppings.” Sarabande went to her, but Gem rolled down the sleeve, covering the ugly mark that signified Sovereign Justine. “No, my friend, I cannot abide your seeing it close at hand. My daughter, though, this doting mother will speak of her at great length if allowed to do so.”

“Cinnabar has shown me her brand,” said Sarabande.

“Discretion is a lesson I was never able to teach her. But listen: on your journey to Osprey’s house, you won’t walk through the domains of kings.”

Sarabande gasped and sat down, suddenly lightheaded when she understood why Gem showed her the scar.

“If there are no kings, what dangers have you seen?”

Gem put her hands on Sarabande’s shoulders and kneaded out the growing knots. Her touch always felt like a touch of power, and she wondered if she shared Osprey’s way with healing magic.

“I have seen a dark creek beneath a bridge on a foggy night. I have heard screams and howls outside my comprehension. I don’t understand it,” said Gem, holding their eye contact as though she understood more than she would say. “Sarabande, you know without my lecturing at great length about the ways of the world. A a woman on a lonely road can be a target. Travel with a sharp knife.”

The impromptu massage felt good. The unclear warning did not. Vague predictions were worse than silence. They stirred up what did not need to be stirred up.

“Yes, I know that, Gem. I will carry a knife and take care to have it handy.”

“With due care, you can avoid your fate, but destiny is the way you’ve already written your life’s story.”

“I wanted to walk the sixteen hundred and fifty miles to Osprey’s house long before it occurred to me I would ever do so. If there is to be shame in it, then I will live or die with whatever I find on that lonely road.”

-

Thank you for stopping my Malcolm’s Round Table today!

–Malcolm

Magical realism novel moves to new website

When my magical realism novel Garden of Heaven: an Odyssey (Vanilla Heart, 2010) began going through the editing process prior to publication, I started a separate web site for the book. I appreciate all of you who stopped by that site to learn more about protagonist David Ward and his attempts to sort out who betrayed him and why.

Now you can find the book along with my other three novels on my primary author’s site at malcolmrcampbell.com. The story begins in the high country of Montana and sweeps through Chicago, north Florida and the South China Sea before reaching its unexpected conclusion on a small college campus in central Illinois.

I had the luxury of seeing my location settings first hand. I grew up in north Florida, served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger (which made stops at at the former Subic Bay Naval Base, Republic of the Philippines), worked as a seasonal employee in Montana’s Glacier National Park, and had family in central Illinois.

Excerpt from the Novel – Sailor Town Liberty

Olongapo

Night was settling down over the hazy first lights of the bars and hourly rate hotels along Magsaysay Drive and the razor-sharp edges of Kalaklan Ridge like an old whore.

David dropped several 25-centavo coins over the railing, heard an explosion of whitewater, heard the laughter and the shouting, ‘Salamat, Joe, Salamat.’

He crossed Perimeter Road, ignored the hopeful greetings of the money changers behind their well-caged windows, then dodged a badly mixed throng of sailors, girls and honking multi-coloured jeepneys that swelled out into the Gordon Avenue intersection. He cut across the street, smiling, waving at imagined friends in the distance, and moved with the deliberate intent of a man who had crossed this street hundreds of times.

Casual alertness, that’s the key to surviving Olongapo’s jungle of thieves, gangs, girls, high-strung Marines, bored Shore Patrol and Hard Hats, and drunk boatswain’s mates and snipes, Lowell had said.

“Hey Joe, cold beer cold beer cold beer, nice girls.”

–Malcolm

A combination of incongruous things

“pot·pour·ri n. pl. pot·pour·ris – 1. A combination of incongruous things: “In the minds of many, the real and imagined causes for Russia’s defeats quickly mingled into a potpourri of terrible fears” (W. Bruce Lincoln). 2. A miscellaneous anthology or collection: a potpourri of short stories and humorous verse. 3. A mixture of dried flower petals and spices used to scent the air.” – The Free Dictionary

1. I’ve about finished reading An Uncertain Age by Ulrica Hume. That means you’ll be seeing a review of the novel here soon. According to the publisher (Blue Circle Press), Justine’s life is uncertain when she meets Miles Peabody on the Eurostar. She has lost her job, her fiance, everything except her dream of becoming an artist. Miles Peabody, a retired librarian and beekeeper, has always led a cautious, philosophical life. Now, faced with his mortality, he needs a miracle. Drawn inexplicably to each other, their relationship is tested when Miles invites Justine to join him on a Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage. But before she can answer, Miles goes missing. Desperate to find him, and nudged by the French police, Justine slips into a dark night of the soul. A fascinating theme!
2. I you keep up with publishing news, you know that the Independent Publishers Group and Amazon could not agree on Amazon’s slice of the pie. Consequently, Amazon turned off the buy buttons for the 4,000 e-books from the author’s IPG represents. In a post called “What Should an E-book Cost?,” IPG compares print and e-book pricing. Not being one to keep quiet about such issues, I posted “The low prices of e-books are bad for writers” on my Sun Singer’s Travels blog.
3. While I’m happy that The Artist, Meryl Streep and Christopher Plummer won Oscars last night, I’m also happy that I only watched the last 15-20 minutes of the event on TV. It was long, ending a little after 11:30 p.m. (Eastern), but not as long as it has been before.  Had I watched all of it, I think I would have agreed with Andrew O’Hehir’s assessment in a piece he wrote for Salon: “From Billy Crystal’s cringe-worthy act to the obvious winners, the Academy Awards felt old, tired and out-of-touch.”
4. My brother Douglas has entered the world of fiction writing with a fantasy/allegory called Parktails. The novel tells the story of a massive forest fire in a national park from the animals’ point of view. In many ways, Parktails is a quest story; the animals are seeking answers and inspiration and must travel many miles to learn how to keep their community together. Doug teaches art at George Fox University in Oregon. He is also the author of Seeing: When Art and Faith Intersect,  published in 2002.
5. I have been updating my website to better display my books. Among other things, I needed to add my recently-released free e-book Celebrate Glacier National Park. The 48-page PDF about Glacier’s history, personalities, facilities, plants and animals can be downloaded from the Vanilla Heart Publishing page at Payloadz. In addition to the website, you can learn more about my 2011 contemporary fantasy novel Sarabande on my Sarabande’s Journey weblog where my most recent post was “Check your imagination at the door.” If your book group or class is planning to read and discuss the novel, you”ll find a list of sample discussion questions here.
6. If you’re an author and/or an avid reader, I invite you to stop by my daily list of links for book reviews, book news, contests and writing tips called Book Bits. It’s usually posted in time for your lunch-time web surfing. Tomorrow’s edition will include a feature for writers called “Know Your Competition” and a review of Kate Alcott’s The Dressmaker.
7. You can still download Vanilla Heart Publishing’s free, Valentine’s Day e-book called A Gift for You. The book, which features fiction, nonfiction and poetry focused on love, includes my short story “Those Women” as well as work from authors S.R.Claridge, Janet Lane Walters, Anne K. Albert, Chelle Cordero, Marilyn Celeste Morris, Collin Kelley, Melinda Clayton, Charmaine Gordon, Smoky Trudeau Zeidel and Joice Overton.
8. Even though it’s not yet spring, I’ve already had the lawn mower out once to trim the front yard. I’m always somewhat surprised when it starts right up without a lot of tinkering, oil changes, or a trip over to the auto parts store for a new spark plug. The yard looks better now and even somewhat green due to our recent thunderstorms. We’ll have to decide soon whether to clean out the garden in the back yard and then fight with the deer all spring and summer over our vegetables. Oddly enough, they seem to be drawn to the hot peppers–I thought they would leave those alone.

Wherever you live, I hope you’re seeing signs of spring.

Malcolm

contemporary fantasy for your Kindle