Strategies for 2011

I have pitched both 'Mystery at Little Bitterroot' and 'The Killing Zone' to agents and publishers, generating some interest from a few agents both via mail correspondence and in-person interviews. I'm still trying to find that one agent or publisher who will understand the marketing potential of my novels. With the advent of many CSI-type shows on TV and with our society becoming more multiracial and beginning to understand the precarious ecological balance of our Mother Earth, I know that my writing of a mixed-blood sheriff involved in CSI investigations while solving mysteries and who experiences conflict within the modern world and his Native American traditions will resonate with a large group of readers.


My strategy is to finish the final draft of 'Montana Harvest' (chronologically, the first of the novels that I've written so far) by the end of September and then send it to my editor. I will review her corrections and recommendations, then finalize the manuscript by the end of this year and then in early 2011, self-publish that novel. Then while 'Montana Harvest' is available at Amazon.com, Borders, Walden Books, etc., I'll continue to pitch 'Mystery at Little Bitterroot' and 'The Killing Zone' to traditional agents & publishers.

I plan to volunteer at a Red Feather straw bale house build on the Northern Cheyenne Indian reservation in Montana during June, 2011 and if all goes well, by then I will have three published novels available and will be working on the fourth novel, 'Secrets of the Bob Marshall Wilderness' which takes place prior to 'Montana Harvest' while Jim is a newly commissioned Montana Highway Patrolman. I plan to blog about my volunteer activities while in Montana and my intent is to make people aware of the hardships and neglect prevalent on today's Native American Indian reservations.