Book Launch for In Pursuit

The Book Launch for In Pursuit will be next Thursday at 7 PM in my hometown of Dothan, Alabama. The event is open to the public at the Cultural Arts Center, the perfect venue. Ann Cotton, the director, knows how to throw a very classy party.

Since I write this blog also to help others who are following the same path behind me, I want to emphasize that the success of the novel depends upon reviews those who buy the book post upon Amazon. Those reviews can make or break the novel.

How does one go about organizing something like this? My Facebook friends, of course, become the first guests invited after setting up an event page. I then use Word to create a flyer that I then attach to emails and send through other email accounts I might have. Sometimes one must use the mails and send invitations to those with whom one is not connected through other media. I have also been invited to Live @Lunch at our local television station and that also should broaden the scope of those who know about the book. Marketing a novel falls mainly upon the author.

I believe the theme of this novel is an important one. It is based on events shrouded by the passage of time and the politics of the day. The poignant stories of the remnant of Red Sticks who survived Horseshoe Bend and the destruction of the Negro Fort on the Apalachicola River inspired me to write In Pursuit. Books have the power to open a window onto an era and invite people in. I hope In Pursuit will be such an invitation.

But, In Pursuit is first and foremost a love story. Joie and Godfrey, first introduced in Swimming with Serpents set during the Creek War, come together once more and live an adventure with pirates, Red Sticks, Andrew Jackson's army, and British officers determined to build an empire. I hope readers will come away from the novel satisfied with the love story and adventure, motivated to honor the memory of some of those forgotten people in the history of our country.