Margaret's Ark Now Available!

Hi. I'm happy to report that my new novel, Margaret's Ark, is now available from Other Road Press! You can get a copy in print or ebook pretty much everywhere now. Before I get into what "Other Road Press" actually is, here's the full poop:

How to order:
Trade Paperback Edition:
274 pages
ISBN-10: 0983732906
ISBN-13: 978-0983732907
Price: $12.99

Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all major online retailers (or through special order for the moment, at any of the remaining brick & mortar stores)

Kindle & Other eBook Editions:
Price: only $ 2.99
Kindle available at Amazon
All Other ebook versions including Nook, iBooks, etc are coming to their respective outlets any day now, but you can get them right now in any format you want from Smashwords.com, again for only $2.99



What’s it about?
The blurb reads:
On April ninth, thousands of people wake from the same dream, angels instructing them to build a biblical ark in their front yard, or the town square or little league field. Anywhere, to prepare for the worst natural disaster to strike the world since the days of Noah. A widowed California high school teacher risks everything to build a boat in the sixty days she is given. A homeless and self-proclaimed prophet of God preaches across Boston's waterfront, unaware that he is not alone in his visions. A young priest is torn between the signs around him and the skepticism of his Church.

In the end, only thirty people may board each boat. As the world slowly comes to grips with events unfolding around them, they must weigh their own faith in the exceptional and identical visions of so many people. The skies are clear, without a hint of rain. But if the dreams are true, something terrible is looming on the horizon.

What is Other Road Press?

The publisher, Other Road Press, is really just me. Yea, this is what I'm calling my Grand Experiment. It's said that "money should always flow to the writer," and I agree with this sentiment, but most authors get paid such a small pittance for royalties, if they ever get paid at all, and bear the brunt of the responsibility for marketing and sales. While there are plenty of fantastic small presses out there, I decided with the tools at my fingertips - and the technical knowledge on how to use them - it was worth taking a shot at the publishing role, once, without paying ridiculous rates to a self-publisher (that's the other extreme I don't care to venture into). Other Road Press is me - formatting and distributing a novel myself using the tools out there today, as many other writers are beginning to do as well, for no real cost but a serious commitment of time, a commitment we as authors are mostly responsible for, anyway, regardless of which publisher pumps out our books.

Whereas Margaret's Ark was well-received by some pretty significant editors over the course of its original marketing effort, none could ever decide where to pigeon-hole it genre-wise. Part suspense, part horror, part religious/Christian fiction, it never fit neatly into the secular or religious sectors. Taking risks is usually not in the larger publishers toolbox. Still, while I continue to write, and market my work to the ever-dwindling number of major publishers, I wanted to give this little puppy a home.

Out of this, Other Road Press was born (I had to come up with a catchy press title, and my first choice "Scary Monkey Press" was a cool name, but didn't really fit for a title like Margaret's Ark). This book is one of my favorites and which, I feel, epitomizes my recent style of blending themes of faith and suspense. It's a quiet novel, based on my original short story from way back titled "Lavish" (if you want to know which magazine, Nick Kaufmann can tell you). Ever since the story was published, I'd wanted to back up and tell the whole story, hence the novel.

If I ever decide to open up Other Road Press to other authors (which I'm not right now, but who knows what the future holds), this would likely be what it would focus on, probably: finding a home for novels where the characters struggle with everyday, and/or supernatural, experiences, while still swearing and spitting and praying and getting disemboweled, depending on the story of the moment. Right now, though, it's just an experiment, a vehicle to get one of this quiet, suspenseful novels off my shelf and into readers' hands.
Go buy it so I can pay Andrew's new tuition bill. :-) And let me know what you think. Spread the word!

Thanks

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