The Next Step, I Head West (A Short Distance)

Today is Big Announcement Day

As promised, my friends, a big announcement about my next project, you heard it first!

I’m so excited and more than a little terrified to tell you all that I’ve signed on with Falcon Guides, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press, to write a hiking guide to fire towers of New York State! Titled Hiking Fire Lookouts: New York, the book will feature 40 hikes from easy to difficult of lookouts in the Catskills and Adirondacks, and many more across the state.

Mandatory contract signing picture!

I love my little presses and the wonderful editors who have helped me get this far to take this next very big step, and I’ll be continuing with them as well; volume two of the Rocks Series under my primary publisher, Hobblebush, ought to come out sometime this summer and I’ve been working with Bondcliff Books to put out our own fire tower guide here in New Hampshire.

But Falcon Guides is a whole new level of time, commitment, audience and reach for me - not to mention travel. I’ll have a year to do the primary, in-person research for the book and that will mean spending quite a few of my weekends in New York. And don’t worry, my wife and Little Bean are already plotting family trips together. Lake Placid, here we come!

And this seems like a pretty good place to point out that in all the nearly 15 years that I’ve been writing books, none of that could happen if there weren’t folks and readers and friends like you that have been interested in reading them. All this time later, and I’m still genuinely surprised when a reader tells me they are eagerly anticipating the next book. So thank you all for coming along on this ride.

And a well deserved shout out needs to go to Randi and Nic Minetor, the amazing husband and wife travel writer team who initially recommended me for this job. They’ve written dozens of books, and are two of the nicest, most encouraging humans. Check their work out if you can.

Ok, so that’s it. We’ll keep this simple today. I can’t wait to get going, and I’m sure you’ll soon see many of my NY adventures right here on Day By Day as we begin to explore this new horizon. Once again, I appreciate you!

Let’s go!