"Mystery Scene" Gets It

It's always good to get a favorable review. It's even better when the reviewer understands what you set out to achieve with your book. Here's the perceptive Hank Wagner writing in the new "Mystery Scene":

Bowditch is an extremely relatable protagonist, whose reactions to the trials and tribulations his creator throws at him are entirely believable. Doiron has also created a fascinating personal life for his hero—readers can see him changing as the series progresses, affected both by his human relationships and his experiences on the job. Doiron...also takes great pains to bring Bowditch's home state of Maine to vivid life.

One of the lucky readers on GoodReads who scored an advance copy of Massacre Pond called it "the one in which Mike grows up." I wouldn't go quite that far. But readers of my previous novels will begin to see where this series has been heading from the start.

Massacre Pond Word Cloud

Whenever I launch a new novel, I like to post a word cloud of the names and words I use most commonly in the book. It's my version of a teaser and alerts me to words I need to stop overusing (e.g. like)!

Here is the word cloud for Massacre Pond. I don't think it gives too much away:

"Massacre Pond" Is "Masterful," says the Bangor Daily News

My next novel won't be published until July 16, but John Holyoke, of the Bangor Daily News (BDN), is out with a glowing review of my most challenging and controversial novel yet:

Grant Doiron this: He’s got guts, taking on such hot-button topics as a North Woods National Park and the still officially unsolved Soldiertown moose massacre, and linking the pair together in a fictional work.

And that work is — as usual — masterful.

Doiron, who toils by day as the editor-in-chief of Down East magazine, has quickly become one of the state’s top literary properties. And in Massacre Pond — his fourth Mike Bowditch thriller — he raises the bar once again.

It's always rewarding to receive a great review, but as I've said before, it means even more when it's from a reviewer that knows Maine and the Maine Warden Service the way someone like John Holyoke does. 

One Month and Counting

Thirty days from now, my fourth novel Massacre Pond will arrive in stores — and on e-readers.

I've always found this time in the publishing process to be the most stressful for me. Writing is easy. Waiting is hard. The advance reader copies are with reviewers, the book itself is at the printer, and there is nothing I can do but gather my forces for the long tour ahead.

Of course, waiting is frustrating for readers, too. If it's been months since you finished Bad Little Falls and you've been wondering what mischief Mike Bowditch could get into next, I do have some good news to tide you over until July 16.

Macmillan has posted an excerpt of Massacre Pond on its site. It's just the first chapter, but it's still a hint of what's to come for Maine's most trouble-prone game warden.

Adam and Eve of the Maine Woods

Over at the day job I have a new Editor's Note up about Maine's history as a haven for hermits. Long before Christopher Knight, the so-called North Pond Hermit, was grabbing headlines, there was "Naked Joe" Knowles and Walley and Olive Estes, the "Adam and Eve of the Maine Woods."

Those early turn-of-the-20th century hermits were publicity hounds of the first order, utterly unlike Christopher Knight who seems to have stumbled backward into fame (or infamy). As I write in my column:

For someone who wanted to disappear completely, Knight has now found himself inside a multimedia maelstrom that didn’t exist when he began his self-imposed exile. His story has been broadcast from Bangor to Buenos Aires to Brisbane. Meanwhile, the hermit sits behind bars in the Kennebec County Jail, awaiting trial on a handful of theft charges. He is said to be a model prisoner. So far, he has refused all media interviews.

How different from Walter and Olive Estes, who parlayed their two-month camping trip into fifteen minutes of fame. The photogenic couple made money selling pictures of themselves dressed in furs and appeared in vaudeville shows; Olive even wrote a book titled True Experiences, including Adam and Eve in the Maine Woods. It remains to be seen whether Knight will succumb to the inevitable pressure to cash in by selling the rights to his life. What seems clear is that Adam and Eve were far better adapted to this era of reality TV stars and celebrity wannabes than the most famous hermit of the new century.