Progress Blog

The story, THE MINE has been long time in development and is now available. Ah, but the promotion seems to be more work than the writing. On this page, I will keep you posted of my efforts, successes and failures, 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.

Progress Blog

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? :-)).