Customers Also Bought...

If you've ever looked up a book on Amazon, you've probably noticed that each page includes a section called "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought." Before I became an author, I never used to pay much attention to this feature. Now I study the titles listed on The Poacher's Son page trying to determine if there's some secret pattern to be discerned in the books purchased along with mine.

At the moment the list includes:

  • The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larrson (OK, everyone's reading that one)
  • The Glass Rainbow: A Dave Robicheaux Book by James Lee Burke (Maybe because I have a French last name?)
  • Junkyard Dogs: A Walt Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson (An outdoorsy mystery series, so I guess this one makes sense);
  • Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (OK, everyone's reading that one)
  • The Passage by Justin Cronin (A post-apocalyptic vampire novel? Naturally! The perfect follow up to The Poacher's Son)
  • Faithful Place by Tana French (Dublin undercover cops, Maine game wardens: basically the same professions)

I don't see much of a pattern here. Do you? But at least my novel is in good company.

Happy 130th, Maine Warden Service

Down East Magazine, a publication I know a little something about, has announced the recipient of its thirty-second Down East Environmental Award. Here's the dedication in the October issue:

Founded in 1880, the Maine Warden Service is the oldest conservation law enforcement agency in the nation. The state’s first game wardens were volunteers recruited to stop the wholesale commercial hunting and poaching operations that were then laying waste to Maine’s fish and game populations. Over the past 130 years the service has evolved into an elite team of professionals whose responsibilities have grown to include not only the enforcement of snowmobile and boating laws, but also curtailing the spread of invasive milfoil and arresting individuals who seek to sabotage Maine’s ecosystem by smuggling foreign species into our woods and waters. For their record of accomplishment and sacrifice, the editors of Down East are proud to award the thirty-second Down East Environmental Award to the men and women of the Maine Warden Service. 

Congratulations to Maine game wardens, past and present. Contributing Editor Rob Sneddon has written an excellent overview of the service and its duties for Down East. You should read it.

Trade Paperback Cover

At the end of the workday today, I received a surprise in my email: the new design for the The Poacher's Son cover. It will be used for the trade paperback edition of the novel (in stores April 12, 2011). The design was created by David Baldeosingh Rotstein, the executive art director for St. Martin's Press, and definitely captures the menace of the story. The blurred letters suggest that the plot is fast paced and maybe hints at Mike's confusion, too. It certainly looks like some dark places I've been in the Maine woods. It's bold. I think I like it!

What's your first impression?

Bitten by a Bear

If you've read The Poacher's Son, you know that a rampaging black bear plays a prominent role in the story. The incident was inspired, in part, by a real-life occurrence that happened in Waldoboro, Maine, a number of years ago. I did make up one significant detail for the novel, however. In reality the bear never took a bite out of the man who shot it.

Such was not the case in Township 5 Range 7 in Maine today. Here's Maine Public Broadcasting's account of the misadventure:

A Shin Pond man is recuperating after being attacked by a bear on Maine's first day of bear hunting with dogs season. Ryan Shepard, 37, was charged by the bear Monday while hunting in Township 5 Range 7 with three friends, officials told the Bangor Daily News….

Shepard was bitten in the arm and leg by the bear, which weighed at least 300 pounds. He was taken to Millinocket Regional Hospital, and state game wardens say his injuries do not appear to be life-threatening….

Shepard fired at the bear when it charged past dogs that were holding it at bay. The bear was mortally wounded. 

Lucky guy, unlucky bear.