Category — Oregon

So what I have been up to these past few months?

Well, I went and co-founded a publishing house: Ashland Creek Press.

As you know, I’m passionate about animal rights and the environment.That’s why I wrote The Tourist Trail.

But one of the reasons I struggled to find a mainstream publisher for this novel was that mainstream publishers didn’t know how to market the book.

Publishers want to publish books that address well-established markets. Like mystery novels or thrillers or chick-lit.

Publishers are not very good at identifying new markets.

Like eco-literature.

The eco-lit label has been traditionally used to describe nonfiction environmental works. But there is no reason why a novel can’t he labeled eco-lit. For example, we recently published a young adult paranormal romance novel, which also happens to be the world’s first “vegan vampire” novel. I would consider this book to be eco-lit, but also one that fits more established categories as well.

Amazon does not yet offer an eco-lit category for publishers. For now, we will build upon existing categories. Next year, we’ve got an eco-mystery planned, as well as two novels that both fall under the eco-lit theme.

The best thing about starting this press is that I’ve realized how many other writers out there who share our passion for eco-literature. I believe the readers are out there as well, and that their numbers will continue to grow.

Every genre has got to start somewhere.

Perhaps Midge and I took Earth Day a bit seriously this year.

We visited Oregon Caves Nationals Monument and spent the afternoon underground getting dripped on (euphemistically called ‘cave kisses’).

I really recommend the tour. Ranger Joe was excellent (and great with the kids) and his passion for the caves was evident. This cave is rather unique in that it is carved out of marble (only about 5% of caves are marble). They also found the oldest grizzly bear on record deep within — more than 50,000 years old.

Here are a few pics. First, the old wood lodge near the entrance.

And the entrance (a bit narrower than I expected):

And during the course of the tour I got a refresher on stalactites, mites, columns (everything I forgot long ago).