THE LATEST 

I’m happy to share that the paperback version of THE TOWPATH is available for pre-order now (ebook will be this Spring)! And while I’ve been waiting to share the cover design, the cat will be out of the bag anyway if you check it out on Amazon. The publishing world is still a mystery to me, and timing can be very difficult to understand as huge online marketplaces like Amazon and Barnes & Noble are governed by their own rules, processes, etc., and things drop without my knowledge unless I proactively go out and see what’s happening.

COOL STUFF THAT MIGHT ONLY INTEREST ME 

Let’s delve into time travel for a moment, shall we? In The Towpath, things only get worse for you the longer you stay, the further you go back, and the more you attempt to meddle with your own past. Not only do you become marked, even putting the Earth’s creatures on high alert (yep, they want no part of you), you will look different too—at least, temporarily. I won’t give away how time travel happens, but let’s just say the physical effects may remind you of the weird story of the Children of Woolpit. That is, if you’re familiar with it.

If not, allow me to bend your ear for a moment. In this bizarre historical account that took place in Suffolk, England, in the 12th century, a group of villagers came across a young boy and girl whose skin had been tinted a sickly green and they were acting strangely, if not temperamental. The kids didn’t speak any language that was recognizable to the villagers and were taken in by a local man who tried to feed them, but they refused to eat. Over time, they acclimated: their skin turning to their natural color and eating what food was available to them.

The boy died young, but the girl adjusted to her new life. When she was eventually fluent in English, she said that she and her brother came from the land of St. Martin, which was a place of perpetual twilight where the sun never shone, and she did not recall how they made travel from their homeland to Suffolk.

I also find it interesting, at least according to this Wikipedia entry, how the sister was described as being “very wanton and impudent.” There have been many attempts to theorize where the children came from, and some people have asserted that they came from underground and could even have had extraterrestrial origins. Other theories simply assert that the kids were malnourished, lost, and spoke an unfamiliar dialect or language.

I won’t describe just how much this bizarre story has influenced the mechanics and consequences of time travel in The Towpath, but you’ll likely make some connections after having read the book, including how characters behave based upon their length of stay and what they do during those visits.

WHAT’S UP NEXT

I’ll admit that self-promotion is not a natural inclination for me. But I also get that it’s a necessary evil, even if my novel is going to be traditionally published by Collective Ink. From what I’m learning through my crash course on the world of fiction publishing, even authors published by the “Big Five” (Macmillian, Penguine Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster) still need to hit the proverbial streets, grow a following, and drum up interest. It’s also overwhelming just how many options authors need to consider for promotion and how they should strategize building interest for a book that could take several months to finally release.

But I’m starting to get a handle on this and have made a deliberate decision to grow my audience through the following channels:

• Facebook—I find that Facebook has some nice options for sharing rich content and growing an audience inorganically through ad campaigns. My page, The Towpath Novel, is where to find me on Zuck’s platform
• Twitter(X)—regardless of how I or others feel about all the recent changes with the platform, it remains a solid environment for connecting with readers. Further, I’ve been on it since 2008 and have invested quite a bit in growing my audience there, where I am leveraging my personal handle, @JonDWalter, to promote The Towpath
• Amazon—this will be a new area of growth for me, and I am still researching how to best leverage the platform, use its ads campaigns, and connect with prospective readers. More to come!
• My personal website—my site is and will continue to be my central nexus for generating content and where I want to ultimately drive people. Of course, I also want them to go to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and any other book marketplace to purchase the book or at least engage with it (whether through reviews, ratings, etc.). An extension of my site is my newsletter, The Trailhead, which will be my way of connecting with readers via their inboxes with exclusive content (I can’t wait to share Gil’s diaries—they’re frickin’ wild)

Well, that’s all for this post. Until next time! Sapere Verdere.

For more on The Towpath:

• Read an overview about the book
• Get to know the characters
• Learn about the settings and locations
• View an original image gallery
• Check out the blog

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