Dalton Publishing

Dalton Publishing owner Deltina Hay will appear in the September edition of the Writers’ League of Texas’ ongoing “Building a Book” series. The series focuses on the evolution of books from conception through publication. Hay and her co-panelists, Colleen Divine Ellis and Gillian Redfearn, will represent and the publishing teams in place once a book comes to market.

The event will take place Thursday, September 17th at 7:30, and will be held at the Writers’ League of Texas Office, 611 S. Congress Ave., Suite 130. More information is available by emailing wlt@writersleague.org or visiting the Writer’s League website.

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Indie filmmaker and author Gary Kent will make a stop on his 2009 book tour for a signing at Burbank’s legendary horror bookstore Dark Delicacies on Saturday, August 29. Kent will speak about Shadows & Light, his autobiographical account of the evolution of indie film, at 7 p.m..

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ArmadilloCon 31, a convention for fans, readers, and writers of literary science fiction, will take place this weekend, August 14 through 16, at the Doubletree Hotel North right here in Austin. The convention is set to feature some incredible award-winning science fiction authors, and includes author Robert Stikmanz in the dealer room.

Stikmanz will be casting oracle dice, signing his books, and ready to discuss all things Nod. He’ll have copies of his latest novel in The Hidden Lands of Nod series, Sleeper Awakes, on hand. For collectors of the series, he’s bringing along stock of the nearly depleted first printing.

Come out to ArmadilloCon 31 to meet the author and get involved in Austin’s sci-fi event of the year!

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Some great information, recreated from IndieBound.org.

Why Shop Indie?

When you shop at an independently owned business, your entire community benefits:

The Economy

• Spend $100 at a local and $68 of that stays in your community. Spend the same $100 at a national chain, and your community only sees $43.
• Local businesses create higher-paying jobs for our neighbors.
• More of your taxes are reinvested in your community–where they belong.

The Environment

• Buying local means less packaging, less transportation, and a smaller carbon footprint.
• Shopping in a local business district means less infrastructure, less maintenance, and more money to beautify your community.

The Community

• Local retailers are your friends and neighbors-support them and they’ll support you.
• Local businesses donate to charities at more than twice the rate of national chains.
• More independents means more choice, more diversity, and a truly unique community.

Now is the time to stand up and join your fellow individuals in the IndieBound mission supporting local businesses and celebrating independents.

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Writers of all genres have found a seriously effective way to get their names and books out, and it doesn’t involve a trip to the bookstore. Online book touring is the easiest way for authors to travel - and it’s more popular than ever. The virtual book tour has been a popular promotional tool for a few years now (just check out this 2006 New York Times article), but if you’re unfamiliar with the process, now is the time to get informed!

Virtual tour stops typically include a series of relevant book blogs where writers submit guest posts, podcasts, video interviews, and hold reader Q&A sessions regarding their recently published work. Some authors even create video “trailers” for their new books to post online as teasers for interested readers.

Authors can contact blog writers personally requesting they host a guest blog post or interview. The tours have become popular enough that bloggers will oftentimes invite authors they love to guest write on their blogs. By making stops at book blogs and other relevant blogs, authors are finding easy access to a new and rapidly growing audience that may not have attended the bookstore signing.

Another way to promote your book through an online book tour is to use an online book tour agency, like Pump Up Your Book, where, for a fee, an agency will guarantee the book’s appearance on a given number of blogs and online radio shows within one to two months. They even provide book tour home pages and press releases for the authors, and include their own book blogging how-to.

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February 17, 2009 East Coast/West Coast Smackdown: Lit Edition: Author Owen Egerton will speak on a panel, “Hollywood vs. New York: Three Writers’ Perspectives,” with 2 fellow screenwriter/novelists. This event is jointly presented by the LBJ Future Forum and the Texas Book Festival. Sarah Bird moderates. Read the entire article here… Share This
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February 17, 2009 Austin, Texas LBJ Future Forum Presents: Austin Authors & Screenwriters (at LBJ Library and Museum) 6:30 p.m. Share This
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October 29, 2008 Egerton delivers laughs, enlightenment: “Enthusiastic writers, future comedians and somber students in need of a pick-me-up now have a home to explore the world of comedy at St. Edward’s University.” Read the entire article here… Share This
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November 17, 2008 Austin, Texas Austin Public Library’s Meet the Author series at the Spicewood Springs branch (8637 Spicewood Springs Rd.) 7-8pm Share This
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November 11, 2008 Austin, Texas Book reading for the Utter Reading Series hosted by BookPeople 7pm Share This
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August 14, 2009 Taylor novelist hosts book-signing Saturday: “For Taylor novelist Joe O’Connell, who will host his first book-signing in town Saturday, writing fiction is the act of creating a story that tells “little truths” about human nature.”

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August 6, 2009 Novelist Joe O’Connell Explores Life and Death: AKGmag.com interviews Joe O’Connell about his novel Evacuation Plan, projects that he has in the works, his inspiration, and the writing process.

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April 28, 2009

“EVACUATION PLAN” WINS NORTH TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL AWARD

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Deltina Hay
512.567.4955
deltina@daltonpublishing.com
www.daltonpublishing.com

Evacuation Plan, a novel-in-stories by Dalton Publishing author Joe M. O’Connell received the 2009 North Texas Book Festival Award in adult fiction on April 17 in Denton, Texas.

Austin, Texas (PRWEB) April 28, 2009 — Dalton Publishing author Joe M. O’Connell was presented the 2009 North Texas Book Festival Book Award for adult fiction for his novel-in-stories Evacuation Plan, a novel from the hospice ($13.95, ISBN 978-0-9740703-8-4) in Denton, Texas on Friday, April 17.

Now in its ninth year, the North Texas Book Festival, a non-profit organization, has awarded more than $25,000 in grants to school and public libraries and literacy groups in North Texas using the proceeds from the annual book festival. Presented first in 2007, the book awards are intended to honor exceptional works from small, independent publishers. “It’s great to be honored by folks who care so much about books and literacy,” O’Connell said. “Sometimes it can be difficult for authors from smaller literary publishers to get the word out, and this sort of recognition helps.” He recalls a bookseller once pointing to all of the books in her store and reminding him of the vast competition present in the publishing industry. “Awards like these help to pull books to the forefront.”

Other 2009 book award winners include From Guns to Gavels: How Justice Grew Up in the Outlaw West by Bill Neal (Texas Tech University Press) for adult nonfiction, and children’s book Birth of the Fifth Sun and Other Mesoamerican Tales by Jo Harper (Texas Tech University Press).

Since its release in July 2007, Evacuation Plan has proven a local best-seller and was recently a finalist for the Violet Crown Book Award presented by the Writers’ League of Texas. The novel is loosely inspired by time O’Connell spent at Hospice Austin’s Christopher House and weaves wondrous tales of the terminally ill and their families, friends, and enemies who share surprising joys and revealing truths as they experience the final transformation of life. Wayne Alan Brenner of The Austin Chronicle calls Evacuation Plan “an excellent, thought-provoking diversion from our own inevitable plummet toward the grave” and “highly recommend[s] it to you, the living.”

Written in the novel-in-stories style of Tim O’Brien’s July July, the characters in Evacuation Plan expose themselves in poignantly unfolding stories: the gambler who played a risky game involving his wife and his ex-con father; the daughter whose dying father had no clue about the night her world spun out of control; and the drunk who magically encountered himself as a boy. One story was adapted into a play titled “The Gambler” and performed during Austin’s Frontera Fest.

Joe O’Connell is a film columnist for The Austin Chronicle and The Dallas Morning News. He also teaches creative writing to graduate students at St. Edward’s University and to undergraduates at Austin Community College. He is currently working on two very different projects: completing the mystery novel that inspired Evacuation Plan and writing a book he calls a “faction” — part fact, part fiction — influenced by the life of his late mother.

MULTIMEDIA:

ADVANCE QUOTES

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BOOK COVER ART

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ABOUT JOE O’CONNELL: Joe M. O’Connell is a film industry columnist for the Dallas Morning News and The Austin Chronicle who has also contributed to Variety and Texas Monthly. O’Connell earned an MFA in creative writing from Southwest Texas State University where he worked long distance with the late short story master Andre Dubus. O’Connell’s stories have appeared in The G.W. Review, Other Voice, Confrontation, Lullwater Review, and many other journals. His stories have taken first prize at both the Deep South Writers Conference and in the Louzelle Rose Barclay Awards.

O’Connell teaches creative writing at graduate students St. Edward’s University and to undergrads at Austin Community College. He lives near Austin with his wife and son Nicholas.

ABOUT DALTON PUBLISHING: Dalton Publishing, an independent press based in Austin, Texas, adheres to the highest editorial and printing standards, while respecting the cutting-edge visions of its world-class stable of authors. Through a model of support, marketing, publicity, and social media, Dalton Publishing provides authors a platform for success in the highly competitive publishing market. Genres for publication include: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Dalton Publishing titles are distributed nationally by Midpoint Trade Books. www.daltonpublishing.com

TECHNORATI

Technorati Tags: Joe O’Connell, Evacuation Plan, Fiction, hospice, death and dying, Austin Texas, fiction

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http://del.icio.us/Dalton.Publishing/evacuationplan

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April 29, 2009 Taylor Daily Press: Local writer wins book award: “Evacuation Plan won the North Texas Book Festival Award, a recognition for exceptional books distributed by independent publishers like Austin-based Dalton Publishing, which distributed O’Connell’s book.”

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