Progress Blog

The story, THE MINE has been long time in development and is now available. Ah, but the promotion seem to be more work than the writing. On this page, I will keep you posted of my efforts at getting this novel into the mainstream market. My ultimate goals are:

To heighten awareness of the tragedy of mining in America today, both past and present operations that continue to poison our publicly-owned lands and waters.
To motivate our state and federal politicians to toughen mining laws, to hold mining companies and individuals fully accountable for environmental protection, and to cleanup our numerous existing mining disasters.
To promote THE MINE. And to keep writing.

THE MINE is available on Kindle!
What a kick! I prepped and uploaded files, (several times to be sure everything worked), did a final check, and released for publishing on Kindle. One day later, the book is for sale there! Wow! And it's well-priced at $2.99! Check it out!

July 3rd, 2010
I'm having a lot of fun. "The Mine" is selling well in independent bookstores here in the Pacific Northwest, including Cannon Beach Book Co. Powell's Books, and Annie Bloom's Books. I'm giving a reading at Cannon Beach Book Co. on July 17 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. Valerie, the owner there, is a gem. She read it until 1:00 am one morning, fell in love with it, and has ordered a total of 37 copies. :-) Wow. So, eat your heart out, John Grisham! Thanks so much to all of the independent bookstores who carry my book; this would go nowhere without them. Let me explain to those who don't know: The big chain bookstores (i.e., Borders) only purchase books through the big book distribution companies like Baker and Taylor, and Ingram, who only get their books through the main publishers. So self-published authors rely on independent bookstores to carry their books, and only if they agree to do so. So I wind up developing a relationship with each store, which I enjoy immensely. The independents are family owned, and they offer customer service and a refined selection of books that save you the hassle of wading the Sea-Of-Books at Borders or Barnes and Noble. Long live the independent bookstores! I love them.
Happy Fourth!
-Dan

June-July Giveaway on Goodreads.com
I just completed a ten book May giveaway on Goodreads.com and I'm doing another now, ending July 16. These are a lot of fun and I get to meet some great people from around the country, even Canada and Great Britain. And the reviews from these folks have been great! For 20 reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, THE MINE is averaging 4.9 stars out of 5.0 possible.

May Giveaway on Goodreads.com
I just completed a ten book giveway on Goodreads. That was fun. There were 851 entrants from the U.S. and Canada. The ten winners were announced May 31 and books were mailed June 1, 2010. Let's see what the winners think. There will be more giveaways over the summer and fall. Stay tuned!

May 30, 2010
THE MINE is now for sale in 14 stores, with more stores coming. Check Purchase here for a list that I update periodically. And I'm scheduling readings over the summer and fall, currently at Cannon Beach Books and at Eagle Harbor Books, with more coming soon.

Massey Energy. On the news front, the FBI is investigating the tragedy at the Massey Energy Company's Upper Big Branch Mine, where 29 miners perished in April, 2010. The investigation is presumably for criminal violations of mine safety rules and regulations intended to protect miners. Massey Energy has a long and astounding history of safety violations at its mines. The CEO of Massey, Don Blankenship, is quoted as stating that the mine safety rules that Massey violated over 3000 times at this same mine, are "as silly as global warming." The deadly disaster at Upper Big Branch, the worst in 40 years, occurred shortly after this statement. Mining in America is in desperate need of reform. The internet is packed with the sad and sorry history in mining in America and I encourage you to take a look and get involved. See A Toxic History here for a short primer.

April 21, 2010
The journey continues. The reading at Annie Bloom's Books was fun. A warm group asked lots of good questions and I actually handled the butterflies pretty well. That was great. More stores will soon carry the book and I'm scheduling more readings over the year.

Midwest Book Review gave THE MINE a great write-up. See it here under Reviews.

And I confess: I actually needed to revise book files to fix some of those embarrassing grammatical errors, so printing was turned off for a few days to update. But we'll be back up and printing/shipping by April 28 -Done!

Of course, unregulated American mining is a travesty on many levels, not only in terms of environmental issues, but also in mine safety. My deepest condolences go to the families of those miners killed in the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia. If you care about these issues, I encourage you to write to your elected officials at all levels, write to newspapers, and speak out whenever possible about the need for widespread mining law reform.

January 25, 2010
Happy New Year! Things are moving along. Book sales softened a bit in the second week of January, as expected, but have already begun to pick up again. A revised printing went on sale January 19. It features an updated back cover with reviewer excerpts.

I am scheduled for a book reading/signing at Annie Bloom's Books, March 10. Thanks very much to the folks at Annie's for hosting this event. I love that store, the ambiance, the people. The place is well-staffed and well-stocked.

Over the next few months I'll be promoting the book out to several more Oregon and Washington bookstores and regular literary reviewers. I'll update the list of stores on the Purchase tab, on this site.

Some time back I set up a Google Alert to track all news events relating mining pollution. I have to say, the number of news articles that come up daily, regarding mining spills, new permits awarded, violated permits, accidents, violations of the Clean Water Act, massive pollution, legal action, mountaintop removal, and other events is just amazing. In one example, it was revealed that the coal mining giant Massey Energy had committed over 12,000 violations of the Clean Water Act and mining laws at their coal mining operations in West Virginia. Stories like this are entirely common. Apparently, the nation's environmental laws don't apply to mining companies.

December 22, 2009
Rebecca's Reads has provided a terrific review of the book; excerpts from that review are posted here under Reviews. You can read the full review at Rebecca's Reads. Both bookstore sales and internet sales are growing; thanks so much to those who have bought the book. Reviews on Amazon and here are thoughtful and, frankly, amazing. Thanks much to those who have offered their thoughts.

November 23, 2009
Annie Bloom's Books likes the book! Bobby, the original founder of Annie's, read the book, loves it, and made it a "Staff Pick." It's displayed on a table in front with other favorites. I'm very grateful. You can read Bobby's full review here under Reviews, or visit Annie Bloom's Books. I've also placed the books in Broadway Books in Portland, Graham's Books in Lake Oswego, and Saint Johns Bookseller in Portland. And I'm also sending evaluation copies to other independent bookstores in Oregon. Powell's books would be good, but they seem to behave more like a chain bookstore than an independent, because they only deal with mainstream distributors, which I cannot yet do.

November 22, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving. I've been working my butt off. Last month, I ordered several copies of The Mine to begin promotion of the book to reviewers and bookstores. The book has been through years of review, but I read it again and found 45 or so typos, minor punctuation errors. So the 20 copies I sent out to the Sierra Club are not the very best they could be. I hope they won't mind. I've since updated the book files and resent them to Amazon. And I've just received 20 new copies, with the corrections. So I am happy for now. I gave a poof copy to Annie Bloom's Books here in Portland for their consideration, in hopes they might carry a few. They are reading it (I think). Next: The Reviewers. These are the reviewing outfits around the country that give a reader a sense of the book. I am about to send out copies to 3 or 4 of them, hoping they will review and say nice things that I can use. I have had reviews from local readers, people I know who have bought the book, and these are extremely positive. That is encouraging. But I need more reviews. The work is endless. I wish I had more time to work on the next novel; it just might be about the environment (do you think? :-)).