7/28/2021

Chili, the Grumpy Tortoise

 My first children's book, "Chili, the Grumpy Tortoise", has gone live and is available on Amazon (or you can order it directly from me if you want a signed copy).

You can find it at Amazon, at the following link: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B09B4F2KTG


It's the story of a very grumpy Russian tortoise with a past that he explores with the help of a friendly Redfoot Tortoise he lives next to in their outside enclosures.

On the one hand, it's a piece of speculative fiction that considers the possibility that Chili is one of the tortoises that flew around the moon and returned to the Earth in 1968; then filtered through a number of different hands and households in the global pet-trade... on the other hand, it's a meditation on compartmentalizing past outrages and suffering to avoid letting them rule your present... on a third hand (maybe a foot or claw) it's a lovely little story with gorgeous artwork, almost entirely my photographs, run through software to look like paintings, that anyone could enjoy reading with the little people in their lives.

I hope you enjoy the book! 

If you do like it, it would be great if you could leave a 5-star review and then tell five friends who might also like it.

If you'd like multiple copies, signed copies, or multiple signed copies, please reach out to me, and we can make that happen.


Thanks - Jamie



7/19/2021

Books in Progress, update and reveal

 I noticed that it's been too long since I posted here, so here goes....

I reached out to 30+ agents and publishers with query letters, interested in trying out a more traditional publishing route for my latest mystery novel, The World Beneath The World, the first book in a series about a pair of detectives hiding out in New Hampshire with a greenhouse full of rescue tortoises. I've heard back with numerous polite "no thank you" emails, a non-committal (yet) expression of some degree of interest, and lots of silence.



I've been noodling with writing a children's book about my tortoises for a while, trying to find the right story and words and pictures to do such a book, and the tortoises, justice. I finished a draft of the book, Chili, the Grumpy Tortoise, today, and ordered a copy so that I can see how the artwork translates... I used my own photos almost entirely, running them through a "photo to painting" app to dial down the photo-realistic feel of the pictures.



I'm also working on a collection of short stories and novellas, Criminal Elements, that will gather some new stories as well as some renovated ones from the cellar, all of them looking at good and bad guys on both sides of the blue line. The impetus for this collection grew from a number of stories I'd written, or wanted to write, that hadn't made it into earlier collections or got shelved before they got written because of other priorities.

I'm excited about working on all three of these projects and hope to have more news about each in the coming weeks.

Thanks - Jamie