North Woods Law

A couple of years ago, National Geographic launched a TV show about California conservation officers. It was fun, but I thought that, for sheer weirdness and wildness, nothing would beat a reality series on Maine game wardens. I'm delighted to say that Animal Planet saw the wisdom of taking my advice. Set in Maine and featuring many of the officers who advised and inspired The Poacher's Son and Trespasser, "North Woods Law" premieres this week. There's a sneak peek tonight (March 11) at 11 p.m. Going forward, the show will air on Fridays at 9 p.m. You'll know I'll be watching.

Essential Doiron Pronunciation Guide

In my eternal quest to help book readers everywhere learn now to spell and pronounce my name I have another post up on the subject—this one at MaineCrimeWriters.com. I manage to work in some interesting trivia about Nathaniel Hawthorne and William Faulkner so it's not entirely self-promotional and a waste of your time. I even cite Cecil Adams, world's smartest human being and author of The Straight Dope, which means I really did my research.

Does Social Media Really Sell Novels?

That's the question I explore today at MaineCrimeWriters.com. We're all living in a brave new world where cultural conversation is increasingly shifting to online venues like Twitter and Facebook. But writers are under additional pressure from publishers to use these social media platforms as marketing tools, and many of the novelists I know are secretly wondering whether the time spent tweeting is a misplacement of priorities. As I write in my post, "If an author tweets in cyberspace and no one is around to read it, does it actually sell a book?"

A Recommendation from Nevada Barr

I had the pleasure of meeting New York Times bestselling author Nevada Barr at the BookMania festival last month in Stuart, Florida. It was a long time coming. Readers have been comparing our outdoors mysteries for the past couple of years (which is flattering to me, since she was one of the real trailblazers in our little sub-genre). Fittingly, we really hit it off, and she agreed to write a blurb for Bad Little Falls, after I sent her an advance copy to read. 

But Nevada was actually much more generous than that. In this week's edition of The Week she gives my career another much-appreciated push:

Nevada Barr's 6 favorite books

The best-selling author and former park ranger recommends adventure stories by Victor Hugo, L.A. Meyer, and Neil Gaiman

The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron (Minotaur, $14). Paul Doiron's sleuth, Mike Bowditch, is a 24-year-old Maine Fisheries and Wildlife man, and most definitely not hard-boiled. Using Bowditch's youth and vulnerability, Doiron gives us a fresh sense of the harsh realities of crime and law enforcement that years of tough guys have allowed us to forget.

Nevada current best seller, The Rope, is her seventeeth novel featuring National Park Ranger Anna Pigeon. I think it's one of her best yet. You should run out and buy a copy. I'd say that even if she hadn't been so nice to me.