publishing

In search of a living blue.

/ Gin Getz / 2 Comments

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bleeding aspen

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Allow me share this with you first, a minute of Book Business since that’s what seems to be consuming the majority of my time right now.  And then come with me, back to the mountain…

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The Color of the Wild is almost a week old.  I still haven’t seen a hard copy.  I understand it’s beautiful, and have the publisher, Sammie and her team at Norlights Press, to thank for that.

Again, sincere thanks for all the reviewers.  Please keep them coming.  They also mean so much to me.

Starting today, GoodReads  is having a Giveaway for The Color of the Wild.   For those active on GoodReads, you know it’s a great chance to get a free copy.  The promotion lasts today through the 23rd.  If you’re a member of GoodReads, give it a try, even if you already have a copy.  You could always share one copy if you win another.  If you’re not a member, and you love books, it’s a pretty neat sight – I’m new to it, just learning, and definitely enjoying.

A  special note to Bookstores, Book Clubs and Libraries. Thanks to those who have expressed interest and inquired.  For all of you, and any others interested in carrying The Color of the Wild, please contact Sammie, the publisher, directly at publisher@norlightspress.com ; or give her a call at 1-812-675-8054 .

Everything you read tells you the Amazon numbers are the Big Ones.  But the numbers only matter so much to me.  What I’d like to see is people reading what I wrote to share,  and old fashioned as I may be, I still think a lot of those readers are finding their books at the local library and corner bookstore.  As it’s been three months since I left the mountain, I confess, I’m grateful for Amazon.

So, please keep the book in mind when browsing your local shelves, and ask for it if you don’t see it.  If y’all hadn’t noticed, I’m not a big name yet. (Gin Who?)   So they might not know about it otherwise.

Now, let’s put the Book Business aside and get back to the mountain…

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dead needles 2

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Muddy horses for the first time in months.  It’s early for mud season.

Big brown circles of fresh, wet dirt beneath the trees.  Odors I have not savored in months. Earth. Rich and raw.

The air is alive with song stronger than the coming of the spring winds.  Redwing blackbirds, chickadees, juncos, grosbeaks.  The Woodpeckers this winter here have been as plentiful as flies on a bloated carcass  Yeah, yeah, I know, that’s an exaggeration .

Lovely birds, but I know what their presence means.

Where there are woodpeckers there are bugs. The more woodpeckers, the more bugs. This winter has been good for both.  Not so good for the trees.  You can see it coming.  Or rather, now you know it’s here.  Hidden beneath the bark.

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redwing blackbird

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The thermometer reads 47 F (over 8 C) and I don’t know what to wear.  It’s warm.  It’s snowing.

I strap on snowshoes and hope the snow is too warm to stick.

A walk in the woods.  Or rather, a snowshoe.  The temperatures are unprecedentedly high and have been all winter up here but for the most part, our world remains white.  The blanket it getting thin. The only patches of dirt are on the south side of the cabin and exposed steep slopes.   The only dirt I step on still is three, maybe four steps with my snowshoes grating on rock and mud.

Thunder.  I’m sure I heard it.  A quarter mile later, I hear it again.  Ten thousand feet elevation, mid February, it’s almost fifty and still it snows.

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slipping bark 2

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In search of a living blue.

I’m on this photo safari looking for a live Blue Spruce for the cover of the next book.  I’m inspired.  A wild woman on a crazy mission.

At first glance, you’d think there they’re all over the place. A whole bunch of trees with blue green needles.  Right. Now take a closer look.  You don’t see these things from the airplanes flying over assessing damage nor from your truck window rolled up to the cold.

Yellowing of the needles on the lower branches.

Slipping bark.

New growth of mistletoe.

Pin holes  and dripping sap.

Needles on the snow.

And a pile of chipped bark around the base of the big ones.

You get good at it. Seeing through the last of the green to the tell-tale signs behind.  You get used to the yellowing color, like a child sick with fever.  And the slipping bark. As if the very core of the tree has given all it could to rid itself of the beetle and pushed its own life out in the process.  The bark looks loose.  I don’t know how to describe it.  Like a snake skin preparing to slough off.

You get used to seeing the signs and learn to find them fast.

I try to find a live spruce tree.  I’m not so sure I see one.

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dead needles 4

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I hope you’re still with me.  I wanted to share this with you.

Calm now, in the soothing comfort of remaining snow and silence.  The time of solitude remains with us, allowing us healing, the mountain and me. I rest, she recovers, my pain and fear are comforted. Life goes on. We adapt, adjust.  Find the beauty in the beetle kill, in the burn.

I want to walk in the burn.

I have not left the mountain since sometime in the middle of November.  I still do not care to leave her, but want to go down to her darker places, below the Dam, in the still long blue shadows and grainy snow that has not and will not set up, and post hole through and be out there, in there, with her.

I think I can handle it now.

The burned face of my beloved.

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dead needles

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Today!

/ Gin Getz / 21 Comments

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cover

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Today is the big day.

The book, The Color of the Wild, is released and available.

It can be found on Amazon.com in paperback and through the Publisher. The e-book and Kindle version will be available shortly following.  The book will also be available soon through Barnes & Nobles and Smashwords as well.

I would also like to ask for your help.

Please start by reading the book!  I sincerely hope you will enjoy.

If you do, please share the news with your family and friends.  Spread the word, through your e-mail lists, acquaintances, co-workers, social networks, book clubs, reading groups, the local paper or someone you know from a glossy magazine, old friends, friends of friends, the woman next door…  You get the idea.

If you can, please leave reviews, especially with Amazon and Goodreads.   This is how the word spreads beyond my little circle.  And that’s what writing is for. To share.  (So even if you don’t like it and leave a bad review, it still helps me, believe it or not.  Though of course, I’m hoping you’ll like it!)

The success of this first book is up to people like you and efforts like this.  I thank you all for your support.

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aspen leaf in warm snow

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Since starting High Mountain Muse at the end of 2008 and then moving onto this site a few years ago, I was surprised to learn one of the best parts of writing is sharing and reaching out. I have had the honor of getting to know some wonderful people. Some of you I know and have known for years though we have never met.  You’ve become a part of our family, are on a first name basis around here. Like Amy in BC, Maggie in New Hampshire, Don in Vegas, Ann from Greenville. Some of you I have had the pleasure to meet because of writing, like Al from Garland, and Julian from across the ocean who we’ll have the pleasure of meeting here soon.  And some of you I only got to know better, like Karen in Keller and Pia in Poland.

I don’t know why I’m sharing this now, except somehow I know it matters. Because at the end of the day, that’s what writing is all about.  I read recently a renowned author state, “You must write for yourself and be-damned with the rest.”  Well, maybe I’ll never be renowned, but I write for my readers.  I write for you.

Maybe I’m caught up playing the heart strings today.  Why not?  It’s Valentine’s Day!

Thank you once again for your support and your help, your understanding and your encouragement.

An extra special thanks to the publishers of this book – Sammie & Dee and Nadene of Norlights Press. You guys are awesome!

With the warmest of wishes,

And best wishes for a Happy Valentine’s Day to all!

Gin

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looking towards starvation

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A Request for Reviews!

/ Gin Getz / 4 Comments

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aspen

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Looking for a few good reviewers!

If you want a sneak peak at The Color of the Wild, if you have time to seriously sit down and read over the next two weeks, and if you are willing and able to post a review on the sale’s page for the book on  “Opening Day” or shortly thereafter (the launch date is scheduled for the 14th of February)… please e-mail me (gingetz@gmail.com). I’m looking for a few (actually, twenty-five of you) good readers.

This is a great opportunity for me to get some feedback (important stuff for my first book, and you, dear reader, are the perfect person to help!).  And you get a free download of the book before it is available to the public.

If you are interested and would consider this, please e-mail me. I’d really appreciate your help – and hope you’ll enjoy. Think about it.  Drop me a note if you have questions.  I’ll be here.

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rose hips

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And so, yes, you read that right.  The launch date is set.  The 14th of February. Valentine’s Day!  Isn’t that a nice choice! (Thank you Sammie, Dee & Nadene…)

Only two more weeks, and something I’ve been working on for years is really, finally happening.  Wow.

My first book, The Color of the Wild will be released.

Like a wild beast let out of cage? At least, that’s what I’m kind of hoping.  But maybe nothing happens on that day except you can buy the book on Amazon (please do!) and I can say I’m a published author. Nothing more? Well, the beer we bottled today will be ready to taste, and I’ll be busy baking heart shaped goodies for my sweetie.  Yes, I am a sap.

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sap 3

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But the book… for me, it’s incredibly wonderful and exciting, the beginning of something new, the reward of so many years working towards this, a future unfolding in the pages of one little book…

So, if this is all so great and wonderful, why the heck am I so scared?

Seriously.  I’m worked up, nervous, on edge.  I’m running around trying to be Wonder Woman and get everything done, ready, in place, set up, perfectly.  Do all I can, learn all I can thanks to the help of other author’s blogs and web sites and forums. And at the end of the day I feel I’m spitting in the wind.

Me?  A published author?  What if my efforts are futile and no one reads it? What if it’s a bomb?  What if the reviews (if I’m even lucky enough to get them) are all terrible?  What if my writing really stinks? It’s like a day of reckoning, I guess.

Any other authors out there willing and able to share a few first-time-publishing-blues stories?  Please share.  I’d love to hear. I sure could use a little encouragement right about now.

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willow

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Oh, and besides working on the marketing, which I knew nothing about before Friday, and now I’m suddenly a self-professed pro, we’ve got a new piece of heavy equipment into the ranch, we’re finishing up logging before the river opens in this heat, getting the house plans designed, bottling that new batch of beer… and my son is on his way home. Yes, here’s the most special news of all:  Forrest is done with his job at the South Pole for this season, and is coming home!

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road home

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