Dear friends:

Every once in a while, I get an e-mail from Inkshares with the subject line “You’re Selling Books.” Opening those e-mails is like opening a long awaited present. Those e-mails mean that a bookstore has decided to take a chance on my novel, and it will be carrying one or several copies of The Catcher’s Trap.

The first thing I do when I get those e-mails is googling the bookstore,  finding out where is located and then sending them a thank you tweet for taking a chance with a new author.

So far six independent bookstores will be carrying my book: A. C. Vroman, in Pasadena, Ca. Common Good Books, in St. Paul MN. Tattered Cover in Denver CO. Prairie Lights Book, in IOWA City IA, Mysterious Galaxy Books, in San Diego CA and Flyleaf Book, in Chapel Hill NC.

There are over sixteen hundred independent bookstores in the U.S. It would be a dream come true if all of them carry my book, but, in the meantime, I’m thankful for those 6.

Hopefully, a bookstore in my home state of Connecticut will take a chance on me.

I also dream about taking a road trip and visiting every single one of the bookstores carrying my book. So far my map looks like this:

My trip would cover 4 thousand miles and it will take 61 hours of driving. If I’m lucky, and readers love my book as much as I do, many other stops will be added. Maybe I’ll have to take a year off to cover them all. An author can dream, right?

 Have a wonderful weekend!

Greetings from Tennessee!

Open skies and open carry. Can you even smell the freedom? I do, and it smells like freedom and the state law which requires creationism to be taught in public schools, hmmm, yeah, freedom. 

We are twenty orders away, and after my sixth round of emails to my followers I’ve only had two people demand to be taken off my email list. Joke’s on them because I got three orders off that last round and if they think internet trolling will stop me.... mwahaha. Now I have a stable place for a week (free WIFI) and I’m 20 orders away from Quill. That means publication. That means I will become an author. That means, I will ascend to a higher plain of existence, and I will show this fact to my ex-wife who will look at me and say, "Why are you showing me this? I already pre-ordered, I’m happy for you."

Yes, that’s right, I have a reasonable ex. Can you imagine? Where does she get off, supporting me regardless of personal differences? Ugh, it makes me sick. 

Oh, the whole point of this is to help me reach Quill. We’re 20 away. Let’s do it!

Sweet Dreams,

Stephen