This is the cover for “The Story Of Rose.”  The Random House cover designer went through thousands of photos and blog posts looking for the right shot of Rose and chose this one, which ran with a video in May of 2011. I love the cover. It seems beautiful to me and it also embodies the spirit of Rose, determined, intense, and also sometimes apart. The book is scheduled for publication in mid-August of this year, one month before publication of “Dancing Dogs,” my first short-story collection, and “Lenore Finds A Friend,” my second children’s book. I think this will be an important year for my writing, as well as my photography.

I am excited to be publishing my first E-book original. It is a book in every sense of the word. The material is new, the book is, well over 40,000 words, and it has been lovingly written and carefully edited. It will be inexpensive, well below $5. The enhanced edition will have videos and there will be photos on any platform – IBooks, Amazon, Bn.com, Google Reader, Nook, Ipad. There is one difference. “The Story Of Rose” will not be published in paper form, at least not now.  A number of my readers have written to me in protest of  this. Some have said they have loyally read and purchased all of my books and do not have digital readers and are disappointed that they will not be able to read this book without buying an e-book reader. I am not sure what to tell them.

I understand their concerns, and sympathize. I remember being forced into online banking, among other things, and resenting it. Being forced away from paper books is a much bigger deal.  I still buy almost all of my books in bookstores and in paper form. One day, that may change. Like me, bookstores – and readers – will face choices. Some will adapt, some will not. That, sadly, is the law of our marketplace. It applies to everyone reading this as well as writers and readers. I doubt many of you can afford to say you will not change to meet the radical transformation brought by new technologies. People who complain that E-books are not books make little sense to me. A book is not defined by its form of delivery, but by its content. Books used to be told by shamans, then story-tellers, then written on papyrus and then parchment, and then printed on presses. Readers follow the story, not the machinery.

I  believe e-books will be a significant part of any writer or publisher’s future. More books are being read by more people less expensively and more conveniently than at any time in human history. As a writer, I applaud that, even if it has brought great challenge to my work and  life. It is my intention to survive a writer. We all have choices to make, and  mine is  to understand the new marketplace and participate in it. These devices are now simple to use, and are getting relatively inexpensive.

I am a writer, not a publisher, and I can’t order my publisher to print my book digitally and in paper. That is up to them. I asked for the chance to do an E-Book, and I am grateful for it, and I intend to show that “The Story Of Rose” is a real book, a real  tribute, a work of feeling and joy. I hope you can all come long, and I understand if you can’t. But I am getting on the train either way.