The audiobook for BOOK OF DREAMS is now widely available!
Narrated by the talented CJ HEINEMAN, my newest novel BOOK OF DREAMS is now available as an audiobook! CJ does such an amazing job narrating this story!
Thanks and gratitude to CJ HEINEMAN for bringing BOOK OF DREAMS to life! And thanks to Duet Books and Chicago Review Press!
I have been dying to shout this bookish news from the rooftops and now I finally can! This is big! A bucket list item!
BOOK OF DREAMSIS GETTING AN AUDIOBOOK!!!
O.M.G!
I am so excited about this development. This will be the first time one of my books has been recorded as an audiobook. And the voice actor recording the book? CHEF’S KISS! I actually got to listen to some of the auditions along the way, and then some samples of the actor eventually hired to record BOOK OF DREAMS and I could NOT be happier!
The voice actor is CJ Heineman! The second I heard their audition tape, I knew they were the one! Without a doubt, CJ was Gaige! They do such an incredible job. I’ve only heard the first couple of chapters so far, but it’s pure magic. They’re just the perfect voice to narrate Gaige’s story. If I had imagined Gaige’s voice in my head, CJ is what I would have heard.
This is truly a dream come true. This little book that began with the idea WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THIS KID STUMBLED UPON A BOOKSTORE WHERE NO BOOKSTORE SHOULD BE? at the Muskoka Novel Marathon is now an audiobook! This nugget of an idea that I ran with amidst the chaos of 40 writers hanging out together in one room has been realized into an actual book. Writing is magical, isn’t it!?
Thanks to the people at the Muskoka Novel Marathon for giving us writers a warm friendly place to make magic.
The Active Living Centre in Huntsville, Ontario, where the marathon usually takes place (when there’s not a pandemic).
And thanks to my publisher, Chicago Review Press, and its Duet Books imprint, for believing in my story enough to not only publish it…but to produce the accompanying audiobook.
And a HUGE thanks to CJ Heineman for bringing the story to life with their flawless rendition of my narrator, Gaige! Click the pic to be taken to their Twitter profile:
Check out the audiobook of BOOK OF DREAMS today!
It takes a while for the audiobook to be uploaded, so as of yet there is only one place where it is available. I will update this post as it appears on other sites. BUT OFFICIALLY, IT’S AVAILABLE! It just showed up at KOBO CANADA!
Just a quick reminder that I will be signing paperback copies of Book of Dreams at Chapters-Indigo Oshawa Centre on Saturday October 1st, 2022 at 1:00pm. THAT’S THIS COMING SATURDAY!! Please come out and say hello!
I don’t know how long this is going to be available, but AMAZON and Kobo are currently having a 99¢ sale for the Kindle/ebook versions of my young adult novel THE CAMINO CLUB! (PURCHASE LINKS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST!)
Michael and I arriving at the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela at the end of our own Camino in September 2019! I wrote The Camino Club after my first Camino in May of 2014.
This award winning novel places six teens on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route across Spain. Think of a more diverse THE BREAKFAST CLUB but instead of taking place in a school library over the course of a Saturday, it takes place across a country while the delinquent detentioners face the struggles of hiking through mountains and villages and vineyards.
The Camino Club was the Silver Winner of the 33rd annual Independent Book Publishers Association’s Benjamin Franklin Book Award!
Here’s the synopsis of THE CAMINO CLUB:
After getting in trouble with the law, a group of wayward teens are given an ultimatum: serve time in juvenile detention for their crimes or walk the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage across Spain over the summer holidays with a pair of court-appointed counselors. Although they come from diverse backgrounds, the unlikely friends try to make the best of their situation. The pilgrims grow closer on their journey, but they may not make it to their destination—the Cathedral in Santiago. If they do, will they each find what they’re looking for, and will their newfound friendships endure?
The Camino Club is from Duet Book, the LGBTQ YA imprint of Chicago Review Press!
For a limited time, you can pick up the Kindle/ebook versions of this young adult novel on Amazon/Kobo for $0.99 (price varies with country)! I don’t know how long this will last, as this is a sale my publisher, Chicago Review Press, has instigated.
On Monday I shared the cover of the upcoming young adult novel from Brien Crothers. Pre-Orders are now active for CAMINO CHILD! I thoroughly enjoyed this book and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to fans of both young adult fiction and stories set on the Camino de Santiago.
Camino Child by Brien Crothers – RELEASE DATE: TUESDAY OCTOBER 4th, 2022!
CAMINO CHILD – Fifteen-year-old SUMMER DARLING and her grandmother have left their home in southern California to fly to the rugged coast of northern Spain, following a crypticnote and pages from a forty-year-old travel diary neither knew existed. The answers to a family mystery, Grandma Pat is now certain, lie along the ancient pilgrimage trail called the Camino de Santiago.
To be honest, Summer isn’t all that interested in the journal. She’s learned the hard way to view family with suspicion and keep outsiders at arm’s length. But Summer will do anything for Grandma Pat, and so she hefts a backpack and sets out for a walk of more than 500 miles.
When tragedy strikes, though, Summer has to make a choice. Can she continue the journey alone, trekking across a country she knows almost nothing about? And will the answers she finds on the journal pages fill the aching, lonely hole in her own heart?
As she explores the sunny beaches of the Camino del Norte and the wide-open spaces of the Camino Francés, Summer will discover friends in the most unexpected places, beauty on the most difficult days, and more than a little “Camino magic.”
Pre-Order today and be among the first to read Camino Child when it releases on Tuesday, October 4th!
From the moment Summer Darling touched down on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in Spain, I fell in love with her strong-willed spirit and tenacity. Camino Child was an amazing read, filled with courage, strength, and perseverance against all odds. Summer is such a strong young woman and it was a pure delight to watch her grow into her power in this beautiful story.
This giveaway is ONLY taking place on Twitter (as in, Twitter is the only place you can enter). It’s easy to enter. Simply FOLLOW ME (if you are not already doing so) and RETWEET the GIVEAWAY TWEET or THREAD. Winners will be announced on Monday September 5th. I’ve made it really easy for you.
Reminder, while you’re here…I will be at the Oshawa Centre Chapters-Indigo at 1pm on Saturday, October 1st, signing copies of Book of Dreams!
The GIVEAWAY TWEET is my PINNED TWEET, which means when you go to my Twitter profile it will be the tweet at the very top of my tweet-stream. Just RETWEET that, or the thread it’s attached to, and you will be entered into the contest.
Once you follow me and retweet the pinned tweet, you will be entered. Watch my Twitter on the 5th of September for the announcement of the winners. If you happen to win, I will send you a DM (direct message) asking for your full name and mailing address. Once I have this, I will mail you your copy.
THIS CONTEST IS ONLY OPEN TO THOSE LIVING IN CANADA…mailing address must be in CANADA.
Duet Books and Chicago Review Press are giving away 10 copies of my upcoming release, BOOK OF DREAMS! This GOODREADS giveaway runs until MONDAY SEPTEMBER 5TH, 2022, so enter soon!
OPEN TO USA ONLY.
10 Copies of BOOK OF DREAMS up for Grabs on GOODREADS! Enter now! USA ONLY.
Here’s the link that will take you to the giveaway page pictured above. Once there, you can click on the button that says ENTER GIVEAWAY (you will have to be logged in to Goodreads):
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.
Lastly, I’ll be at CHAPTERS-INDIGO Oshawa Centre, signing copies of BOOK OF DREAMS, on October 1st!
Enter the Goodreads Giveaway today! USA ONLY. Contest closes SEPTEMBER 5th!
Every once in a while I get to read an amazing manuscript prior to its release. When this happens, I can’t wait to talk about it, to tell everyone how much they will love it! The wait is always so difficult. Then, finally, one day the manuscript has a release date and I can finally shout about it!
That day has come for CAMINO CHILD, the amazing upcoming novel by BRIEN CROTHERS!
If you’re a fan of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route across Spain, and an avid reader of books set on the Camino, you will absolutely adore CAMINO CHILD. Like my own The Camino Club, this is a young adult novel. The main character of CAMINO CHILD is such a fierce, strong female lead. You’ll fall in love with Summer Darling and the grit and tenacity she summons as she attempts to complete the Camino de Santiago and land at the cathedral in the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela.
Here’s a brief synopsis of the novel:
CAMINO CHILD: After they receive pages from an old diary, Summer Darling travels to Spain with her grandmother. When Grandma Pat dies, Summer is left to walk 500 miles on an ancient pilgrimage route and to unravel her family’s mysterious past.
SUMMER DARLING’S life had an unusual start. She was born in an apple orchard. By her teenage years, she was living in a commune on the Olympic Peninsula, where her father grew pot with his friend, Paul, the leader of The Camp. When Paul, a lustful man and controlling leader, began to notice Summer’s beauty, she was whisked off to southern California by her Grandma Pat.
When Grandma Pat receives the first few pages of a travel journal written in 1982 by her older and now deceased sister, Georgia, Pat and Summer follow the diary to Spain and the famed El Camino de Santiago. They wonder who sent those journal pages, and why the mystery. The ancient pilgrimage route stretches out 500 miles ahead of them. More of the journal pages are received then forwarded from home. The mystery unfolds as Summer negotiates a path through tragic loss, shyness, weather, blisters, and boys.
What will Summer discover about her family and herself as she treks across an entire country?
The cover reveal for this novel was yesterday, and I’m glad to share it here today.
Camino Child, the upcoming young adult novel by Brien Crothers!
Brien Crothers, author of Camino Child.
AUTHOR BIO: BRIEN CROTHERS grew up in rural northern California, where he still lives today. His writing journey began with a journal Brien wrote when he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and went on photo safaris in the Serengeti. Since then, Brien has written about his travels and published some of the more useful information for others to enjoy. Now, Brien focuses on more travel opportunities, meeting amazing people, listening to their stories, having his own experiences, and blending those into travel adventure stories and novels for young people and the young at heart. Brien’s one true hope is to inspire young people to expand their worldview, gain perspective, and make this world a better place.
CAMINO CHILD Release date: October 4th, on Amazon. Other outlets soon after. As purchase links are made available, I’ll share them here.
This is one you won’t want to miss. It has all the feels! I was thrilled to read the early version of this manuscript and so glad to see it will soon be hitting shelves! Mark your calendars!
Yesterday, my author copies arrived from my publisher!
My novel hits bookstores in exactly 3 weeks from today, on Tuesday, September 13th. And they’re all printed and boxed and ready to go!
BOOK OF DREAMS (Duet Books/Chicago Review Press, SEPTEMBER 13th, 2022) 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.
AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER WHEREVER BOOKS ARE SOLD! Also, put Book of Dreams on your Goodreads shelf!
Always a delight to get a package from your publisher in the days leading up to a new book release!
I’m still sitting on some amazing news regarding this novel. I can’t wait to share it! And the very second I’m able to share it, I’ll be shouting it from the rooftops. Stay tuned for the announcement!
A box of books!
If you’re local to the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), you can get a signed copy of BOOK OF DREAMS at the Chapters-Indigo in the Oshawa Centre. I’ll be there Saturday October 1st, 2022 at 1:00pm. Hope to see you there!
I just came across an article I wrote in 2014 for the WCDR Wordweaver. After reading it, I was surprised to see mention of my future novel, THE CAMINO CLUB. I didn’t know I had formed the idea for the novel so early. I mean, part of me did…but this article from June 11th 2014 definitely proves it! Wow. I really did carry that novel with me for a while. It released on October 6th, 2020, but I walked with it in my head in May, 2014 as I walked a portion of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route across Spain.
The article, as it appeared in the WCDR Wordweaver in 2014. I loved the layout so much!!
Here’s the article:
✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸
The Camino de Santiago – Walk Now, Write Later…
by Kevin Craig
Pilgrims have been walking the Camino de Santiago since medieval times. All the Camino routes lead to the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, where the remains of the apostle St. James are said to be buried.
I recently walked the Camino from Ponferrada to Santiago and grossly underestimated its power. Naively, I thought I would be able to write while on my journey. I even contemplated leading others through writing exercises. I strapped a brightly coloured journal to my backpack and planned to fill it with the wonder I was to encounter there.
On day one, prior to that first step, I sat in our hotel lobby and began to write. The entry was filled with the eager anticipation I had of taking those opening footsteps with my fellow peregrinos (pilgrims). The entry took up a quarter of a page. I made it short, as I was enamored with the oversized contraption filled with fresh oranges and colorful gadgetry in my periphery. I quickly learned it made orange juice. A Willy Wonky moment! I was in the Chocolate Factory.
I never opened my journal again.
I always talk about writers writing when they’re not writing. On the Camino, I lived this belief. I struck out on the path as a child, filled with wonder. After a glass of orange juice, made from a magical contraption, I knew immediately I was off to see the Wizard.
I’m now certain the Wizard of Oz is a parable for the Camino. I followed not the yellow brick road, but yellow arrows. I walked not with the lion and the Tin Man, but with my fellow peregrinos. We were all looking for something, and we all had unwavering faith we would find it once we arrived in the mystical city of Oz.
Like Dorothy, I met many people along the way. But I’m a writer. Whether I walked in solitary or in a group, I always clung to that kernel of need; I must write about this. I must share this experience in words.
On the day we walked up a steep mountain pass of jagged rocks and mud, I began to form my 2014 Muskoka Novel Marathon novel idea. While walking I thought, ‘a YA novel about a group of inner-city kids in trouble. They each have to choose—face the serious consequences of their actions or walk the Camino.’ The idea formed as I walked barefoot through mud and pine needles. I was giddy from the splashing, the cushion-y comfort of needles, and the powerful aroma of the eucalyptus forest surrounding me.
As the Camino is wont to do, it later gave me a timely present. Two Irish women walked up and started talking to me about barefoot walking. They had already met my fearless Camino mentor, Sue Kenney. After a few minutes, we got into what they were there for. They had brought a group of teens. They offered numerous insights into how those teens viewed the Camino. Novel research! Practically wrapped in a bow.
I walked some breathtakingly beautiful terrain. Some of it seemed impossible, but the Camino gives you what you need to finish the trip. And in the end, you walk into Oz (Santiago) and you wake up from your dream. You arrive at the Wizard’s castle (the cathedral) and you look around you. All the faces are familiar. They are all old friends from far away. And you stand in the square and you say, “I had a dream!” And you point and say, “You were in it! And you were in it! And you were there, too!”
✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸
The novel I wrote about in the above article, THE CAMINO CLUB, is now available to read!
THE CAMINO CLUB (Duet Books/Chicago Review Press) – After getting in trouble with the law, six wayward teens are given an ultimatum: serve time in juvenile detention for their crimes, or walk the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route across Spain over the summer holidays with a pair of court-appointed counselor guides. When it becomes clear the long walk isn’t really all that much of an option, they set out on a journey that will either make or break who they are and who they are to become.
I received the ARC of Book of Dreams yesterday! For those who are not familiar with the acronym, an ARC is an Advanced Reader Copy. They print these prior to the final (final) (final) edits and before the finished novel goes to print…to send out copies for advance reviews/praise. Those reading the ARCs for this purpose realize that what they are holding is only a near finished copy. Usually they are told not to quote passages, as there is a possibility the words in the passage could change prior to the printing of the final version of the book.
The ARC is one of the next to last steps in the evolution of the Idea-to-Manuscript-to-Novel journey. It’s very exciting for the author to get to hold one in their hand…a realization of the kernel of idea brought to fruition. The ARC comes after a long arduous journey. By the time I get the ARC in my hands, I’ve probably read my manuscript 50, 60, 70 times. That might be a slight exaggeration(?) but it does not feel like one.
At any rate, it is HERE!
The ARC! Book of Dreams is on its way!
This book has had a long and sometimes treacherous journey! It began as nothing more than a TITLE at the onset of the 2014 Muskoka Novel Marathon(click here to learn more about the marathon). This weekend novel writing marathon, where Book of Dreams was born, was a full 8 years ago! During the 72 hour marathon, I wrote about 30,000 words of Book of Dreams. One attempts to finish an entire first draft at this marathon (and I have done so on occasion), but as I was writing in a new-to-me genre I was taking it slow and easy.
My manuscript received an Honorable Mention in that year’s marathon. I was well on my way! Then I shelved the book for several years while I worked on more pressing ideas. But the kids in this novel kept coming back to me. I had left them in a perilous situation and after a while I thought maybe they deserved to be written out of that corner they were in. So I dove back in. Books have so many different paths. Sometimes they come all at once and your fingers struggle to keep up with the flow of the book that takes place in your mind. And sometimes they die a slow death or ask to be left alone a while as they percolate.
Last year, I knew it was time to pick up Book of Dreams again. Its characters called to me continuously. So I listened. I finished their story.
And here we are. 8 years have passed since I wrote the title at the top of a blank page one. In just over a month the book I started with the ambiguous first sentence, “I’m trapped in my bedroom again, waiting impatiently for the screaming to end.” will be in bookstores and available for all to read. It’s a scary concept! Putting a book into the world, is putting a piece of yourself into the world. And once it’s out there, it is also no longer yours and there’s nothing you can do about it.
2 books, 2 years apart!
On October 6th, 2020, my first book with Duet Books landed into the world. The Camino Club went on to become the Silver Winner of the Independent Book Publishers Association’s Benjamin Franklin Award! It really has been a bit of the little engine that could. It had a nice momentum behind it and I loved seeing it pop up in the world. At the time of The Camino Club‘s release, Duet was the YA imprint of Interlude Press. Interlude has since sold to Chicago Review Press. Both Interlude and Duet are now LGBTQ imprints of CRP. Duet is YA and Interlude is ADULT. Book of Dreams is in extremely good hands! Almost two years apart, my second Duet Books will be out on September 13th, 2022! This date is ALSO my birthday, and I couldn’t think of a nicer birthday gift!
With my ARC in hand, and the final version of the novel already off to the printers, we are all set for the launch!
You can pre-order Book of Dreams wherever books are sold. I’ll leave a few links at the bottom of this post for easy clicking, but you can also order directly from your favourite independent bookstore.
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.
AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER WHEREVER BOOKS ARE SOLD! Also, put Book of Dreams on your Goodreads shelf!
THE CAMINO CLUB (Duet Books/Chicago Review Press) – After getting in trouble with the law, six wayward teens are given an ultimatum: serve time in juvenile detention for their crimes, or walk the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route across Spain over the summer holidays with a pair of court-appointed counselor guides. When it becomes clear the long walk isn’t really all that much of an option, they set out on a journey that will either make or break who they are and who they are to become.
KEVIN CRAIG 