Despite my call from the wild, I’ve had mostly an indoors weekend. I had some projects that had to be done, including the finalization of Ron Melchiore’s Off Grid and Free: My Path to the Wilderness, a truly awesome book that I hope off-gridders everywhere will enjoy. The Kindle version is up at Amazon now, but I am not going to promote it heavily until the print version is also up, which should be in 2-3 weeks. I wrote some new copy for it when I finalized the back cover:
Off Grid and Free follows Ron Melchiore’s path to the wilderness, which led him to building an off-grid, sustainable homestead with his wife Johanna. Here you will find true stories of survival, determination, and adventure. Ron’s years of experience make this book an essential guide for all audiences wanting to learn more about living off grid and surviving in the wilderness. But more than a guide, Off Grid and Free reveals Ron’s candid humor and welcoming style, which will make you feel like you’re right there with him along the way.
The book includes Ron’s hiking of the 2,100 mile Appalachian Trail in winter, bicycling from coast to coast, the terror of being surrounded by a wildfire, surprise encounters with bears, and more. For readers with an outdoor spirit, people with an off grid and self-sufficiency bent, and dreamers who want to take an adventure, Ron hopes to inspire others to “take the road less traveled.”
Published in Backhome Magazine, Small Farmer’s Journal, and Countryside and Small Stock Journal, Ron and his wife also appear in Life Off Grid, a film and book about people living off grid throughout Canada. Life Off Grid is produced by Phillip Vannini and Jonathan Taggard. See http://lifeoffgrid.ca/ for more information. Life Off Grid aired on British Columbia’s Knowledge Network. for more information.
I also finished a new feature at Eco-fiction.com called Green Books – Read Excerpts, which has some nature and environmental book samples already but will have more. I am building a network of author and publisher contacts, so hopefully this will be another volunteer project that can raise awareness of nature writing and eco-fiction.
So that took a lot of time this weekend, and now it is past six and dark, and it’s time for me to soon leave the computer and do something else. I was just thinking that our rainforest is getting lots of rain, and it is great weather for running, but at the same time, man I am dreaming of spring. And then I know I’ll start overheating when running, but it’s a different kind of challenge than freezing my butt off. And in May we have our 10th anniversary, so we’re planning to do a weekend camp as well as a trip to Kamloops to celebrate my husband’s grandma’s 100th birthday. She’s a witty, charming, and a very independent woman who I adore and hope I am like when I get older, though I just don’t see myself living that long. 100! Geesh.
Anyway, after publishing several books in the past two years–way more than I had imagined when opening the press–I realize I need a break. I’m working on a solarpunk project, which may result in another anthology, but probably not until next year. And that’s my next book for now. My press has taken on bigger dimensions than just book publishing, including the eco-fiction project, which is ongoing and probably never-ending. But for now I want to just get offline, write more on my own novel, and get outside and breathe instead of holing up indoors like this (don’t get me wrong; it’s for a very good purpose and I love editing and publishing books), but I am dreaming right now of jumping in a lake or something!