Off to the Battlefield

Avery's Battlefield: Set in Virginia

10. Off to the Battlefield with Avery and Gunner
(Chapter 10. Selling Books Stories)

    I was interviewed on the radio by Donald James Parker for his radio show, Wielding the Sword of the Spirit. After the interview concerning the therapy dogs’ and our ministry, he graciously gave me a moment to announce the new arrival, Avery’s Battlefield.
   I held a launch party at our Writer’s Group in Cashiers. Now it really felt official. For months I’d been preparing for this book. My spread sheet expanded. I notified all the indie sellers once again, with personal notes to those who’d responded before, or those I knew were carrying my therapy dog book. I added National Park Service museums and battlefields. I subscribed to Civil War Times and Virginia online. Since Journey Forth Publishing has a large footprint in the homeschool market, I looked up home school associations and schools in areas I hoped to visit. I bought appropriate period clothing and set myself up as a sutler who could attend Civil War reenactments and sell Civil War books.
   Our local paper put a very nice article about the book on the front page, and so did my old hometown paper in Michigan, thanks to my new friend Elena Hines, the BJU grad at the Three Rivers Commercial I’d met the year before. Both papers also included pictures of the book’s cover.
   My friend Chris Pierson lost her husband a few months ago. He had been a Civil War hobbyist. I used his library for much of my research on the Avery and Gunner stories and he’s acknowledged in both the Avery books. Weekends were lonely and the hardest for her. I invited her to accompany me on my Civil War road trips. She and I mapped out the first trip, filled the car with books, and the end of April took the first of many trips to Virginia. We stopped in Brevard and presented a therapy dog seminar at Silvermont Opportunity Center, then away we went. I was eager to sell more books.

Monday: Tornado and Sunshine