Level Up
Moving Up In The Game
This week, I received my first royalty check from my first major publishing house, Rowman & Littlefield. Of course, that check was for $0.00 because the book isn’t out yet - in fact, the book hasn’t even been finished yet!
Falcon Guides, an imprint of R&L, is publishing “Hiking Fire Lookouts New York: A Guide to the State’s Best Lookout Tower Hikes” with a June 2025 publication date.
So, when the check came, it was all zeroes of course.
“You should frame that,” my wife quipped. As a matter of fact, I think I shall!
Since my first book, “The Adventures of Buffalo and Tough Cookie,” was published in 2013, I’ve had the honor of being published by three wonderful, gourmet publishing houses - Bondcliff Books, Folded Word and Hobblebush Books. I love them all and still publish under Hobblebush.
But this project has been a challenging leveling up - working directly with an editor, outlines, in house graphics and mapping team, deadlines. Ack, the deadlines! I feel so lucky that my career has landed here, and what a run it’s been.
I wanted to take a moment today to mention all this because the next two months are going to be deeply focused on finishing the book, so this little daily tidbit may - may - have to take a back seat once in a while. We’ll see.
Meanwhile, I’d love to hear about any hikes or trips you may have taken to the Adirondacks or Catskills. Do you have a favorite place there? A favorite hike or ice cream shop or museum? Let us know!
Finally, click here to see my bio and a bit about the upcoming book: Check out my book here!
I grew up in a small hamlet in the southern Adirondacks called Warrensburg, which has its very own large hill/small mountain- Hackensack.
It's the sort of hike you would do as a 12 year old after school if you didn't have softball practice.
One of the most popular trails is called Papa Boom's path after a classmate's late father who hiked the mountain over 1700 times.
Warrensburg is also home to Oscar's Smokehouse, where you can can get bacon and cheese 24/7 from a refrigerated vending machine.
There is a really nice swimming spot at the Hudson River Recreation Area north of town on Golf Course Road.
In 2018 Jennifer and I spent a week in an artist's studio near Lake Algonquin: we went on several hikes, including climbing up to the top of Whiteface Mountain (after drivng most of the way up). The best hike was the one we took before we left: we hiked in a the rain near Well, NY on a tr4ail that took us to an old growth forest with some of the oldest trees in the state. Surrounded by huge trees, toads and salamanders, it was a magical feeling, as though we'd stumbled nto a temporary portal to some Tolkeinian land. Now that I think of it, we should really go back there sometime soon.