Monday's green books series - 'East Garrison' by G.M. Weger

This week we're getting back to one reviewed book on Monday and today we have a great book that has it all: romance, suspense, adventure, relationship, man vs. nature and a surprising ending. And it all happens in East Garrison in California.

Our book for today is:

East Garrison


Author: G.M. Weger
G. M. Weger lives near East Garrison, in the town of Salinas, California. She works as an editor for the Department of Defense on former Army base Fort Ord.

In 1996, she moved to the Central Coast of California on former Army base Fort Ord and began driving around the haunted, empty place during lunch hours.

The inspiration for East Garrison began during one of these treks when she saw the strange juxtaposition of wildlife and deserted Army buildings and discovered the pioneer Whitcher cemetery. Since then, numerous housing developments have popped up, destroying habitat and food supply for many animals. This new construction pushed predators into residential areas that border the wild lands.

Reports of mountain lion sightings on Fort Ord and attacks in other California parks encouraged her muse, and she wrote East Garrison. As she was writing the novel she found her true love—researching the history of Fort Ord prior to the Army. Her next novel will uncover the real story of the Whitchers.

Publisher: Synergy Books

Published on: February 1, 2009

What it is about:
All Tracy Dade wants is to deliver a healthy baby and be a good mother, but she fears her unhealthy relationship with her father - a Vietnam vet suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder-will sabotage her ability to have a normal life. She decides reconciling with him is her only hope and begins a pilgrimage to Fort Ord's abandoned East Garrison to track him down. In her way stand acres of land polluted with unexploded ordnance, an overprotective husband, a dangerous predator stalking the base, and her own stubborn heart. With her labor just hours away, she's running out of time.

Why you should get it:
This is a breathtaking thriller that it is really hard to put down before the last page. G.M. Weger, just like a good chef, takes complicated ingredients like family relationships, history, man-nature coexistence and suspense and skillfully mix them into a powerful novel. She brings up important issues about the relationship of humans with nature and wildlife and the ramifications of the development of urban sprawl, including the depletion of wild ecosystems. Even if you don't live near East Garrison like the author or haven't never heard about the mountain lions before, you definitely understand these issues much better after reading the book.

Last but not least - I always like an unexpected ending!

What others say about the book:

"G.M. Weger's East Garrison is an excellent read. G.M. Weger is a true origial. She can create characters I guarantee you've never met before." - Scott Baker, Winner of the World Fantasy Award

"I read a lot of stories in my job and G.M. Weger's is one of the original and memorable." - Billy Tackett, Award-winning artist and illustrator

You can learn more about the book at the author's website - www.gmweger.com. Here's also a video of G.M. Weger from her website on the book:

WANT TO WIN A COPY OF THIS BOOK?

All you have to do is to join our Earth Day celebration on our Facebook group. We're celebrating there Earth Day with tree planting, giveaway of green books and an effort to increase our group to 1000 members! Every day, until the end of the month, where at least 14 new members will be added, we will have a raffle of a green book of authors and publishers we work with, including a copy of 'East Garrison', gift of the publicist, Phenix & Phenix!

So if you're already a member, bring along more Facebook friends to the group. If you're not a member, join in and bring other friends with you. Remember - every day with more than new 14 members we'll have a new raffle and we have great books to give (check out our post tomorrow for more details).Plant a tree for every book you read!

If you're looking for other interesting green-themed books, you are invited to check out our green books page on our website's green resources section.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Going green - a Literary Publicist's Perspective

We were first contacted by Phenix & Phenix, literary publicists based in Austin, to review The Ovum Factor, and that article is coming up tomorrow. However, we were also intrigued by some green themed posts on their blog and asked them to elaborate on the topic.

They embraced the challange enthusiastically, and here are the results:

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Like everything else right now, literary publicity is going green. While it doesn’t seem as likely a candidate to need a green makeover as say, cars and grocery bags, there are plenty of opportunities to help save the earth in book promotion.

As publicists, we rely on galleys, the unedited bound manuscipts that help us leverage long-lead coverage and pre-pub attention for our clients' books. But when a particular title doesn't make the cut, the galley graces more rubbish bins than book review columns and magazine spreads. Needless to say, we are thrilled to hear of a new service announced recently in PW DAILY:

Publishers Weekly has signed up with Rosetta Solutions to use the company’s netGalley service in connection with the magazine’s book review section. NetGalley, which Rosetta introduced last year, allows publishers to send and track galleys online. PW will use NetGalley to capture information on books—such as title metadata, press materials and promotional plans—when the books are submitted for review. At the current time PW will still accept printed galleys for review purposes, and will primarily use the service to collection title information, which publishers can upload.

Green literary PR practices don’t end there. Alongside online Galleys, virtual press kits (the ‘VPK’ to industry patrons) are also playing a growing role in the green movement. The average press kit is usually stuffed with papers - author biographies, press releases, examples of past interviews, sample interview questions for the author… Just like galleys, if the media isn’t particularly interested in an author or book, the press kit makes a b-line for the garbage bin. Now is the time to take advantage of technology and the VPK and virtual press room. Besides, doesn’t everyone prefer email these days? Putting an emphasis on a virtual exchange of press matieral, rather than the old-school blanket mailout/fax methodology, publicists can save a a forest full of trees, thereby reducing its landfill byproduct.

Don’t forget about this environmentally-friendly PR tool (a practice that is already in widespread use!) -- YouTube. Today authors and publicists can post their video interview footage, book trailers and material from recent speaking events on video sharing websites. Gone is the need to burn DVDs to then mail to media prospects. Thanks to the popularity of viral marketing, this technique gives authors even more exposure than they would with burned DVDs, and reduces energy consumption and waste.

One more opportunity that we have to promote sustainability is to use the services of other companies that work to reduce their carbon footprint. At Phenix & Phenix, we use the services of DHL to send mailings several times a day. They maintain energy efficiency by optimizing delivery routes, using hybrid vehicles, and by raising awareness of environmental protection initiatives.

We’re just one chapter in the green movement story. We’d love to hear what practices you’ve adopted to make a difference for future generations of readers.

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Phenix & Phenix is a literary public relations firm that has been serving the unique publicity needs of authors and publishing houses since 1994. Our client list includes a wide range of authors, such as Philip Carlo, Stephen Baldwin, Vicki Courtney and Les Parrott; publishers such as St. Martin’s Press, Tor/Forge, FSG/Sarah Crichton Books, Zondervan and Thomas Nelson; and best sellers such as Crucial Conversations, The Ice Man and Revolve. Over the past two years, P&P has added 16 best sellers to our overall tally of nearly 30. We also frequently work with literary agencies and are among the list of recommended publicists at top distributors around the country. For more information, please log on to: http://www.phenixpublicity.com or visit our blog at: http://phenixpublicity.blogspot.com.

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Plant Trees with Eco-Libris!