An Announcement

I started writing it in Northern California. I continued in Turkey, wrote snippets in Israel, moved it along in Goa during a long monsoon when I had a baby. I worked hard in Dharamsala, Northern India, in the mountains when the rain thundered down all around. I worked more in Goa, in Canada, back in California (where my visions of California were refreshed, for it takes place there, after all) and back in Goa again. Now, four years later, I am getting ready to independently publish my book.

Why Independent Publishing?

The reasons are many. I am a different kind of writer. One who grew up on the laps of blogs and learned about what readers enjoy by publishing, day after day, one short essay, photo, or thought at a time. My writing life has been formed around readers, and more and more I feel that my publishing life should be formed around readers as well. And I have readers. Beautiful, encouraging, limerick-writing, dedicated, insightful readers.

Just like blogs have enabled the web to be reader-driven, (you find what you like and keep reading) ebooks and print-on-demand publishing have enabled books to be reader-driven. So I stare down the obstacle course of agent, contract, editor and publisher and find that I just don't have to run it.

Friends combed through it and made suggestions, and I hired an editor with a ton of experience who evaluated the book twice and helped me through many revisions. Scenes appeared. Scenes got cut.

I have worked harder on this than I have worked on anything in my life.

And I will be releasing the book NEXT MONTH, so you'll finally get to read it. Stay tuned for more about the book (like what it's about!) and about the release dates.

But for now, a little sneak peek of the cover in process.

The Eve Tree: A Novel

Can you guess which incredibly talented, loving, Superstar man created this for me? Let's just say that I'm over the moon.