THE PATH OF THE WIND gains honors

I received exciting news yesterday. My latest novel, The Path of the Wind, was awarded 1st place in Fiction and Grand Prize over all of the KinleBookPromosBookContest2017, the fifth year they have awarded these prizes.
     Two book clubs in California have taken it as their book of the month, one in Oregon and one in Nebraska.
     AND, The Feathered Quill awarded it First Place GOLD in Adult Fiction today. Exciting. But you know, a book could win 100 awards and if people don't buy it and read it, what the author ends up with is a shelf of awards and little validation that his work has resonated with readers.
     That's why I like to meet my readers, get letters and emails, and especially see that they have taken the time and thought to write a review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads. That's where the rubber meets the road.
     Patti and I are headed to Nebraska tomorrow where I am to give the keynote address and conduct a writing workshop at the Nebraska Writers Conference. Then we're off across Nebraska to towns that I never saw growing up during the depression and WWII when money, gasoline, and tires were hard to come by.
     There's a grizzly old rancher who told me in Broken Bow that I needed to come up to the Niobrara River country, that there is a story there for me. We're headed to the Niobrara, then south to Red Cloud and sniff out the Willa Cather homestead. Back in Alaska mid April. Until next time, good reading.  Jim