Pitch

I'm being boring and talking about my book too much, but you don't have to read it.

I think I finally got my pitch right. It took me a minute (or 25 queries) to really get what they need. Here it is, if anyone is (still) interested:

I wrote a 57,700-word adult literary fiction novel called Desolation Ghosts. It is set in North Cascades National Park and is about park rangers battling over how much effort should be spent to locate a missing traumatized and suicidal female veteran with alcohol and relationship addictions during the Covid-19 pandemic and the beginning of law enforcement reforms following the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.

This book will appeal to readers who are interested in national parks, outdoor recreation, the Pacific Northwest, and the controversial issue of how emergency services treat people with mental health challenges.

It includes exciting stories, based on real-life events, about using rock climbing and short-haul helicopter techniques to rescue a pack string mule who fell off a trail and a climber who fell off a mountain, a shoot-out and its impact on park rangers, a couple drownings, an aquatic body recovery and other sad outdoor tragedies, and funny and scary encounters with bears and other wildlife.

Desolation Ghosts is my first novel. My realism style has similarities to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pete Dexter, James Dickey, and Jack Kerouac, whose experiences in the North Cascades serve as a historical backdrop to the story. I have a bachelor’s degree in English and have published several newspaper articles and a short story. I wrote obituaries during the decline of newspapers, served as a cop in the U.S. Air Force, worked on a crisis response team, and dispatched at North Cascades National Park.

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Somewhere the right agent is looking for this book. We just have to find each other ...