Silver & Gold: Mid-Month Update

Make new friends, but keep the old.
One is silver, the other is gold.
A circle is round, it has no end.
That's how long, I will be your friend.

Thank you, my friends! Thank you for subscribing to my Substack blog/newsletter! Whether you are an old gold friend and long-term subscriber or a shiny new silver friend and recent subscriber—thank you! I am deeply grateful to each one of you.

I do my best each month to provide you with fun, interesting, and valuable things to read. I write about stories and storytelling. I write about places and adventures and beautiful things in my world. My hope is that you will be uplifted or inspired when you read what I write. Thank you!!

Usually, I create a fresh Substack at the start of each month. Occasionally, there’s new news that just can’t wait, so I send out a mid-month update like this one.

Wow! Over 180 people entered the recent Adventure Book Giveaway! To celebrate two significant anniversaries, my friend and sister Black Rose Writing author, Jann Alexander, and I offered up copies of our two book for a drawing. Jann’s historical novel Unspoken is celebrating its first birthday! And I am celebrating the 20th anniversary of the John Muir Trail trek that became Force of Nature. The following lucky readers had their names drawn from the magic hat! (Actually, it was a random number generator! But I like that image of the black top hat and magic wand better than some faceless computer app.) Thanks to everyone who entered the drawing!

• Susan won a signed copy of Force of Nature

• Arlene won the audio version of Force of Nature (narrated by Anna Crowe)

• Yvette won a signed copy of Unspoken

• Lowell won the Kindle version of Unspoken

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. But you have to promise not to tell anyone. Mum’s the word! Zip the lips! Cross your heart!

My publisher, Black Rose Writing, has come up with an amazing way for us to celebrate the Twentieth Anniversary of the John Muir Trail Adventure that became Force of Nature. I set out on the JMT with Cappy and Jane twenty years ago! We stepped foot on the long-distance trail through the heart of the Sierra Nevada on July 19, 2006. “Follow the Yellow Brick Road!” we playfully sang as we walked across the bridge into Lyell Canyon that day. We finished on August 15, 2006.

Twenty years ago TODAY Cappy and I, along with a new hiking friend we renamed Zoe, came down off Mt. Whitney and walked into Whitney Portal on the east side of the Sierra Nevada. (Craving fresh fruit and those amazing bacon cheeseburgers!)

To celebrate the adventure and the book that grew out of it, there will soon be a very special hardcover edition of Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail!

It will have two color photos inside!!

I spent last week sifting through more than 1200 photographs from the trek! (Most of which were not from my camera. If you read the book you know why!) I could only pick two of the 1200! The photos had to be vertical or portrait (not horizontal or landscape). They had to include people, one of whom was me. And the images had to have enough pixels to print vividly. Suddenly, there were fewer than ten (!) that fit all those requirements. It was a hard choice!

You’ll have to wait to see the two photographs that did make the cut.

But wait! There’s more! The special edition has another over-the-top feature, too! But that one is still TOP SECRET! Not even any hints are allowed. I’ve not even seen it yet myself. So we’ll all just have to wait a few weeks.

Leave a comment

Since this is a special, short mid-month post, I’m going to skip the recommendations this time. But I have been reading up a storm and have several really good titles to share with you in two weeks when it’s time for a new month’s Substack. In the meantime, if you want to see what I’m reading, you can always follow me on Goodreads, where I post everything I read. You can also check out my Bookshop.org pages, which are still a work-in-progress.

Help me promote my Substack blog/newsletter by (1) leaving a comment, because that activates the Internet’s algorithms, (2) liking/heart-ing it, which also tickles the algorithms, and (3) share it with your book/story-loving friends. Thank you!

Leave a comment

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. I donate to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.

I am also an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. In addition, as an affiliate, I will earn a commission if you use my Bookshop.org page and make a purchase. I donate my profits to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.