Come To Ireland With Me – Part II

Last month I mentioned (I mean, announced) that I’ll be the guest writer/teacher next summer for Ireland Writer Tours.

I got the invitation from Ireland Writer Tours organizer Fiona Claire a few months ago.  As far as I was concerned, it came clear out of the blue. It was incredibly flattering.

(A quick update: the dates for our week in Ireland have shifted from June of 2021 to mid-August—specifically Aug. 8-15.)

Once Fiona and I had traded a few messages about the possibility of my involvement, I asked Fiona, “why me?” And she explained. 

And as I mentioned last month, it would never have happened without Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. 

Let me connect the dots.

Fiona had read my second novel, Buried by the Roan, based on an Amazon recommendation (because she also reads and likes C.J. Box). The robot algorithm was my friend! In her initial email, she said very nice things about my writing and my main character, hunting guide Allison Coil. She later informed me that Buried by the Roan also taught her how to make a margarita (at least one the way Allison Coil likes it). 

My first book was published in 2007—in large part thanks to all the things I soaked up hanging around RMFW, especially those free monthly workshops and Colorado Gold. Buried by the Roan came out four years after the first, in 2011, and I’ve had subsequent books in the series published in 2015, 2016, and 2018. So never forget that once they are out in the world, your books have a life of their own.

My late friend Gary Reilly passed away five months before the publication of Buried by the Roan, which is dedicated to him. Gary left behind two dozen beautiful but unpublished novels and in the early days of beginning to publish those books, I met book publicist Sami Jo Lien. At the time, Sami was with a bigger publicity firm but she now works on her own, in Denver. Her company is Roger Charlie. Again, I would never have had the confidence to launch a publishing company without knowing I had tons of friends in RMFW who could help answer questions as needed.

Sami and I have stayed friends ever since and she has helped me, immensely, with marketing my books, too. 

Earlier this year, I pitched a piece to Writer’s Digest about Gary Reilly and the one thing he lacked in his writing career—specifically, a network. Sami handled the pitch to Writer’s Digest and the pitch got accepted.

Side note: Even with my last book nearly two years in the rearview mirror and no book on the immediate horizon (my agent is now trying to sell two), I’ve kept working with Sami on a regular basis so she could keep me in mind for possible opportunities. You don’t need a publicist only when you’re launching a book.

In Ireland, after Fiona Claire read Buried by the Roan, she went online to check out anything else she could find about me and she quickly came across that Writer’s Digest article, which (she told me later) convinced her that I might be a suitable fit for Ireland Writer Tours.

So there you go.

There is absolutely no way this would have happened without a network—a powerful network that is the huge family known as RMFW. 

Join us in Ireland if you can make it work. Fiona has told me that Ireland Writer Tours regularly attract RMFW members, who are always praised by hotel staff and others for being so, as she put, “nice.”

I agree.

Once again, here’s the link: http://www.irelandwritertours.com/