Desolation Ghosts is a 65,000-word adult literary fiction novel in the vein of The Human Stain. It is set in North Cascades National Park and is about a missing traumatized female veteran with alcohol and relationship addictions who changes her mind about killing herself, but then falls off a mountain and must survive in the wilderness while park rangers battle over how much effort should be spent to locate her. The story takes place 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 mountain climber who fell off a crag, 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. If you like Jack Kerouac, Nevada Barr, Bree Loewen, Jon Krakauer, Michael Connelly, James Dickey's Deliverance, Matthew Quick's The Silver Linings Playbook or Scott Heim's Mysterious Skin, you may enjoy Desolation Ghosts.

Sunday, November 7, 2021

Publishing Perspective

The thing I have to remind myself of is that Desolation Ghosts was given to me as a gift. If it's supposed to have a life in the world, all I have to do is take some basic actions to make it available. I don't have to run around in a chaotic world (publishing via agent) that clutters up my head and feels yucky. Self-publishing, at this time, doesn't feel right. Paying someone else to "self-publish" it is definitely off the table. Trying too hard to get an agent is out, but I can use QueryTracker to occasionally look for possible matches and send out some queries, even if it feels like it's not enough or like it's a waste of time. And I could research some magazines and write some short stories and send them off. That feels pretty clean, but only if I don't force the work. I'm interested to see if the wind of inspiration might return for some short stories or if it was a one-time deal. It is also possible DG just needed to be written - to exorcise ghosts, to validate a friend, to keep me sane during Covid - not actually published. And I need to remember that, too.

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