Book Birthday – KEVIN CRAIG

The Camino Club ARC Anniversary!

So, two years ago today something magical came in the mail! The Advance Reader Copies ARCs of The Camino Club! It was such an exciting day for me! Though my 7th novel, it’s the first one with a bigger publisher and, therefore, ARCs. And what gorgeous ARCs they were!

From the cover design to the interior, I am still madly in love with what my publisher (CB MESSER, of Interlude Press/Duet Books) did with The Camino Club. Such lovely details. I felt like I was losing my mind with excitement as I flipped through the pages.

I can’t begin to explain how much I love every little thing about the design. It’s still perfect, after two years. What surprises me is that I didn’t keep any of the ARCs for myself. I do have one final copy of the book at home, though.

On this 2nd anniversary of THE CAMINO CLUB ARC arrival, I just know that my next book is soon to arrive. It went out to the printer a while ago and it’s only a matter of time! Book of Dreams is almost here!

Releasing to the world on September 13th, Book of Dreams is destined to arrive on my doorstep any time now. I have such amazing news about this book and I have been sitting on it for so long that it’s burning a hole in my soul! The very second I get the okay to share this news, I will be screaming it from the rooftops.

Have you pre-ordered your copy of BOOK OF DREAMS yet? If you are local to the GTA, you may want to wait for an as yet announced author signing to take place sometime in September. This will be after my return from walking the Camino de Santiago from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. I am out of country from Sept 7th to Sept 23rd. Yes, that’s right…I’ll be walking the Portuguese Camino on the day my book releases! This was NOT planned. The original release was May, 2022. The Camino was booked long ago and when the release date changed, my plans were already carved in stone. So look for a book signing sometime late in September or early in October.

You can PRE-ORDER BOOK OF DREAMS wherever books are sold. Here’s some links:

Here’s the description for BOOK OF DREAMS:

BOOK OF DREAMS (Duet Books/Chicago Review Press, SEPTEMBER 13th, 2022) EBOOK NOW AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER!

Gaige’s curiosity gets the better of him when he discovers a bookstore on an abandoned street where no bookstore should be. He steps inside and is immediately enthralled by its antiquarian sights and smells. But one book in particular calls to him. It isn’t long before he gets a bad feeling about it, but it’s already too late. The store’s aged bookseller gives him no alternative: once he touches the book, it’s his—whether he wants it or not. It’s bought and paid for and there are no returns. The book leads Gaige on a horrific descent into the unknown. As he falls into the depths of its pages, he loses blocks of time, and his friends become trapped inside ancient cellars with seemingly no means of escape. Gaige soon learns that the ancient bookseller is a notorious serial killer from a previous century, and fears that he has fallen into a predicament from which he may not escape. When all seems lost, he finds the one person he can turn to for help—Mael, a sweet teen also trapped inside the book who didn’t fall for the bookseller’s tricks. Together, they race against time to protect Gaige from joining a long string of boys who vanished without a trace inside the Book of Dreams.

Although I won’t share the cool interior design of BOOK OF DREAMS just yet, I will share the EPIGRAPH and the DEDICATION. Here they are…

It Helps with the Blues – A New Book by Bryan Cebulski

Yesterday was the Book Birthday for Bryan Cebulski’s new book, IT HELPS WITH THE BLUES! I read an advance copy of this book and fell in love with Cebulski’s sleek style of storytelling! You really should pick up a copy!

Synopsis:

Jules leaves. Gabriel rages.
Estelle changes. Joshua hides.

In the aftermath of a classmate’s suicide, a boy embroils himself in a community of Midwestern teens, each doing what they can to cope as they stumble—together and apart—toward a life worth living.

I was more than happy to blurb this one. It reminded me of the literary stylings of F. Scott Fitzgerald in a big way. I really enjoyed the epistolary bits throughout, and the narrator’s struggles and self-reflection were palpable. A quick read and a memorable one!

My blurb for IT HELPS WITH THE BLUES:

It Helps with the Blues is a raw look into the tumultuous world of teenage love and loss. This coming of age story is a tour de force of emotions and self-discovery. Navigating what it means to find oneself while losing others along the way, the young narrator takes readers on a complicated journey of introspection they won’t soon forget. With almost reckless abandon, he wanders through the threads of this story teetering on the edge of his own inborn privilege and a need to turn his back on it all in favor of his own ‘humble inadequacy.’ This story burns through and through, and stays with you long after its simmering outcome. – Kevin Craig, author of The Camino Club

Pick up a copy at any of the following places:

AMAZON USA

AMAZON CANADA

Traum Books

Kobo Books

Add IT HELPS WITH THE BLUES on your Goodreads Shelf!

Bryan Cebulski’s Website

Follow Bryan on Twitter

GIVEAWAY!! The Camino Club is One Year Old Today!

It’s hard to believe that on this day ONE YEAR AGO the novel of my heart made its way into the pandemic world!

As Robbie Burns noted in his poem To a Mouse, “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men gang aft agley.” or, translated, The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

We did not foresee a pandemic crashing in ahead of the release of The Camino Club. It certainly is interesting to launch a book in Covid Times…as I’m certain any author on the face of the earth could agree.

Still, we make do. We persevere. We soldier on. We do all the other sayings that get us through unsuspected and difficult times.

The Camino Club was published by DUET BOOKS, the YA imprint of INTERLUDE PRESS.

The Camino Club has had some great success in the year since it left my publisher’s loving embrace and was set free in the world. For one, it can now be found in roughly 500 of the world’s public libraries (and maybe even some school libraries?), including 10 of the branches in my own hometown of Toronto. I’m thrilled to see the reach it has had in the world beyond the nugget of an idea that it was as I walked the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route across Spain in May of 2014.

It was featured in SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, KIRKUS REVIEWS, and BOOKLIST. All three gave it lovely reviews, of which I am extremely proud.

I’m thrilled to see that something that meant so much to me as I envisioned it, and worked so hard to bring its vision to life, was met with such positive energy in the world beyond its birth. Even if it was birthed into a world rife with major catastrophic uncertainty.

Today, on the 1 year anniversary of THE CAMINO CLUB‘s release, I’m hosting a GIVEAWAY for a paperback copy! Not just any paperback copy, but one with the little SILVER MEDAL award sticker on the front cover! The Camino Club won silver in the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award for Teen Fiction!

Click the pic below to visit the IBPA announcement page:

The giveaway will take place on TWITTER. All you need to do is RETWEET my announcement or my PINNED TWEET to enter. A winner will be chosen randomly from those who retweet. Open to international entries. Retweet by OCT 12th, 2021 to enter.

Here’s a link to my pinned tweet that you have to RETWEET in order to enter: MY PINNED TWEET

Good luck! And if you don’t win, you can always pick up a copy WHEREVER books are sold.

Here’s a LINKTREE to visit for various links to purchasing The Camino Club, as well as my other books.

The Camino Club Book Birthday! Places in the book…

It’s book release day! It’s a day filled with excitement and anxiety! My baby is in the world! Will they like my baby? Will my baby be okay? MY. BABY. IS. IN. THE. WORLD!!!

THE CAMINO CLUB lands TODAY!

Thanks from the bottom of my heart to CB MESSER, ANNIE HARPER, and CANDYSSE MILLER—the fabulous team at INTERLUDE PRESS/DUET BOOKS! CB made the best cover in all the world when they created the cover for The Camino Club. I get weepy just thinking about it. It’s the aura colours of the Camino itself. Exceptional! And Annie was incredible to work with as an editor! They made my little novel BETTER. And Candysse does ALL THE THINGS all at once! Amazing! I’m so thrilled with this team behind me and the little book of my heart!

Once book day arrives, there really isn’t much left to do (especially during a pandemic!), so I thought I would share some pics of places you’ll find in the book…places that made it from the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage path in Spain to the pages of The Camino Club.

**Creepy Jesus of Cacabelos**. Cacabelos, Spain. Discovered by Claire, who took Troy to visit it under the illumination of a full moon…

One of the main entrances of the **Castillo de los Templarios** in Ponferrada! This is where the teen pilgrims in ***THE CAMINO CLUB*** began their Camino. The castle was a Templars stronghold and it was built in the 12th Century.

This milestone marks the beginning of the GALICIA Region of Spain. As the group of pilgrims approached this marker (after a long uphill mountainous climb), Greg wanted to find an A & W restaurant and a cold mug of root beer at the top. Instead, they found this marker. SELFIE TIME!

Inside the church in O Cebreiro! **Igrexa de Santa María A Real do Cebreiro**. In Chapter 22, Bastien tells the teens about the miracle that happened here inside this church…on the day of a snowstorm centuries before.

Inside the dining hall where the magical Queimada ceremony was performed in Fonfría! Perhaps one of the group’s most beloved experiences.

The stamp books that every pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago carries. They get it stamped at hostels (albergues), restaurants, etc. They show it at the end of the journey to prove that they actually walked the Camino. Each place that gives you a stamp also writes in the date you were there.

The monastery in Samos, Spain. The compound looks almost like a village itself. Shania, Manny and Diego tour the monastery with Gil and Meagan. **Monasterio de San Julián de Samos**.

They were shocked to find Diego’s doppelgänger in the murals on the monastery walls!

The scallop shell fence that Diego, Bastien, and Shania hopped to go for a late night swim in Samos.

The magic at the end of the yellow brick road! The *Catedral de Santiago de Compostela* in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Where the bones of St. James the apostle are said to be interred. It is found in the **Praza do Obradoiro**…a huge plaza where all the pilgrims gather and celebrate their journeys.

If you pick up a copy of THE CAMINO CLUB, I hope you enjoy it! My wish is that it lights a spark for your own Camino. One can dream, right! (-;

Here’s a LINKTREE list of purchase links! It’s now available everywhere.

ENJOY! BUEN CAMINO, PEREGRINO!

Darius the Great Deserves Better!

August 2018 gave the world DARIUS THE GREAT IS NOT OKAY. It was a great debut by Adib Khorram…one of my favorite reads of 2018.

Here’s the cover blurb for the first DARIUS book…

Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He’s a Fractional Persian—half, his mom’s side—and his first-ever trip to Iran is about to change his life. Darius has never really fit in at home, and he’s sure things are going to be the same in Iran. His clinical depression doesn’t exactly help matters, and trying to explain his medication to his grandparents only makes things harder. Then Darius meets Sohrab, the boy next door, and everything changes. Soon, they’re spending their days together, playing soccer, eating faludeh, and talking for hours on a secret rooftop overlooking the city’s skyline. Sohrab calls him Darioush—the original Persian version of his name—and Darius has never felt more like himself than he does now that he’s Darioush to Sohrab. Adib Khorram’s brilliant debut is for anyone who’s ever felt not good enough—then met a friend who makes them feel so much better than okay.

Fast forward two years, and here we are…August, 2020! Time for another glimpse into the life of DARIUS THE GREAT! Today is the release date for DARIUS THE GREAT DESERVES BETTER!

What a great cover! Here’s what’s going down in the sequel:

Darius Kellner is having a bit of a year. Since his trip to Iran, a lot has changed. He’s getting along with his dad, and his best friend Sohrab is only a Skype call away. Between his first boyfriend, Landon, varsity soccer practices, and an internship at his favorite tea shop, things are falling into place. Then, of course, everything changes. Darius’s grandmothers are in town for a long visit, and Darius can’t tell whether they even like him. The internship is not going according to plan, Sohrab isn’t answering Darius’s calls, and Dad is far away on business. And Darius is sure he really likes Landon . . . but he’s also been hanging out with Chip Cusumano, former bully and current soccer teammate–and well, maybe he’s not so sure about anything after all. Darius was just starting to feel okay, like he finally knew what it meant to be Darius Kellner. But maybe okay isn’t good enough. Maybe Darius deserves better.

If you haven’t read the 1st book yet, pick it up…it’s a delight.

Here’s some of the places you can pick up ADIB KHORRAM‘s latest release, DARIUS THE GREAT DESERVES BETTER:

Find ADIB KHORRAM on the interwebz at:

Website | Twitter | Instagram

HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY TO ANOTHER DARIUS BOOK!

We Go Together – Abigail de Niverville —OUT TODAY!

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Happy Book Birthday to fellow Torontonian author Abigail de Niverville! Their latest novel, WE GO TOGETHER (Nine Star Press) releases TODAY!

WE GO TOGETHER

The beaches of Grand-Barachois had been Kat’s summer home for years. There, she created her own world with her “summer friends,” full of possibilities and free from expectation. But one summer, everything changed, and she ran from the life she’d created.

Now seventeen and on the brink of attending college, Kat is full of regret. She’s broken a friendship beyond repair, and she’s dated possibly the worst person in the world. Six months after their break-up, he still haunts her nightmares. Confused and scared, she returns to Grand-Barachois to sort out her feelings.

When she arrives, everything is different yet familiar. Some of her friends are right where she left them, while some are nowhere to be found. There are so many things they never got to do, so many words left unsaid.

And then there’s Tristan.

He wasn’t supposed to be there. He was just a guy from Kat’s youth orchestra days. When the two meet again, they become fast friends. Tristan has a few ideas to make this summer the best one yet. Together, they build a master list of all the things Kat and her friends wanted to do but never could. It’s finally time to live their wildest childhood dreams.

But the past won’t let Kat go. And while this may be a summer to remember, there’s so much she wants to forget.

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You can pick up your copy of WE GO TOGETHER at the following locations:

Directly from NINE STAR PRESS

Amazon Canada Kindle or Paperback

Amazon USA Kindle or Paperback

BARNES AND NOBLE

You can find ABIGAIL DE NIVERVILLE online:

WEBSITE
TWITTER
INSTAGRAM

Into the Void I Go…

Today I step my feet into the void once again. This reminds me, of course, of the quote from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.

“100 years from now? All new people.” ~ Anne Lamott

When I first came back to writing somewhere around the turn of the millennium I dove head first into the soundbite world of both Anne Lamott and Natalie Goldberg. Lamott spoke to my urgency to marry my words with the sacredness of life. Goldberg spoke to my need to tell my secrets, to get down my words…to write down the bones.

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.” ~ Natalie Goldberg

The writing of both of these women thrilled me and moved me. They made me want to be not only a better writer, but a better version of myself. With her insistence on going deeper into the things you fear the most, Goldberg gave me the courage to write about those things I did not speak of…And Lamott, with her beautiful and tragic ‘100 years from now? All new people‘, made me think, ‘What the hell…I’m going to die anyway. Without a trace.’ We are transient…this alone should be enough to remove the fear of going deeper. The two women converged to make me a more fearless writer. Later, these teachings helped me to be a more fearless person.

Together, they brought me back to writing. In a new way…one I feared less. I have them to thank, one catchy soundbite at a time.

Today I released a LONG short story into the void. It will most assuredly get lost in the din of words riding the ether superhighway these days, but that’s okay. I’m fine with this. I’m only here for a little while. I wanted to write this story. I wanted to ignite a passion in maybe ONE person. One little person out there in the world of somewhere in the ballpark of 7.5 billion people. If the right person finds my short story set on the Camino de Santiago and says to themselves, “I want to go there,” my job is done. I myself have been ignited through literature…I’ve found my way to many a places in this way.

It’s been almost twenty years now since I have reignited my journey as writer, and I have since heard much smack-talk about both of these women. The words granola and hippy and earth mother, etc, etc, etc have been bandied about–as though they were negatives, no less! I have even heard gimmicky used—that one, I really can’t tolerate. These women have FED me. One should be open to find inspiration wherever they find it. In them, I found it in abundance.

What the essence of creativity really comes down to, in the end, is that we all have our own paths to walk. How we get to creative expression doesn’t matter. Hell, some of us never fully get there or have no desire to get there. Or find creativity in things others might not think of as conventional creative activities. We are all on our own paths. And in the end, in the bluntest and simplest of terms, we are all essentially walking to our graves. “100 years from now? All new people.” How we make that journey? Therein lies the rub.

Today, I made another little pit-stop on my own creative journey. My LONG short story LIGHT NEAR THE END OF THE WORLD is NOW live on Amazon and Kobo. If you take a chance on this short story, I hope you enjoy it. Even if it doesn’t ignite a spark of desire in you to get out there and walk the path to Santiago de Compostella, I hope it at least entertains you.

HOMEWORK: Don’t forget to search out those things that scare you today…and go deeper. Past the fear. We’ll all be gone before you know it. Today is the day…

Buen Camino!

Camino Short — Pick up ***Light Near the End of the World*** today. Discover the Camino…

Corinne began her Camino de Santiago pilgrimage way back in St. Jean Pied de Port, France, weeks ago. Exhausted, spent, and on the verge of giving up, she meets a pilgrim who gives her the inspiration she needs to carry on. But is it enough to get her there, to the famous cathedral at the end of the journey in Santiago de Compostela? Follow Corinne’s path along the Way of St. James as she struggles to carry on and to find herself along the way.

Light Near the End of the World on GOODREADS

AMAZON USA BUY LINK

AMAZON CANADA BUY LINK

AMAZON UK BUY LINK

KOBO BUY LINK