Saturday, February 17, 2018

River's Child -- a cli-fi fantasy novel by Mark Daniel Seiler / THE BACK STORY TO PUBLICATION

From an older issue of the Island Garden newspaper in Hawaii, some earlier news about Mark Daniel Seiler's new cli-fi novel titled "River's Child."
AMAZON DETAILS HERE:
The back story goes like this: 

A few years ago, Hawaii resident Mark was playing basketball with some friends when a torn anterior cruciate ligament sidelined him.
With nothing to do but rest and heal, the carpenter found the inspiration to write a cli-fi fantasy novel set in the future titled “River’s Child.”
“I had a lot of time on my hands,” Seiler said. “I sent the book to David Rosenberg from the Kauai Writers Conference and he was generous enough to read it. He gave me a lot of comments but ultimately said that with some edits, you could send it off.”
Seiler made those edits and began sending out his manuscript.
“I sent out about 150 query letters and waited over four to six months to hear back,” the Kalaheo resident said. “After getting rejection letters every day and not getting any good news, I had just about given up. I didn’t totally give up on it, but I had run out of options.”
With little hope left, Seiler received one more message about the novel.

This time, it wasn’t a rejection notice!

''I got an email saying that I won the Landmark Literary Award (for fiction),” he said.
Homebound Publications’ 2016 Landmark Prize for Fiction which is run by his publisher Homebound Pulications.The results can be found here.

After giving him the prize notice from her publishing firm, Leslie Browning from Homebound Publishing told Mark she wanted to publish his book. Perfect!
After self-publishing his first novel, “Sighing Woman Tea,” Seiler said he couldn’t believe his second novel would be real-published, mass-published by a major publishing firm. It was. It is. Get ready to read an amazing story concocted inside Mark Daniel Seiler's brain!
“You go a long time where it’s just friends and family that will read your stuff, but I had some good luck with my first book, I had a lot of good reviews. The best thing is hearing from people who get a hold of you to talk about the story. It motivates you to get good feedback,” he said.
“River’s Child” is set to come out in the spring of 2018. 
Writing for Seilier is a little more serious than a hobby, he says. “It’s more like a calling. There’s too much time and effort put into this. I could’ve built several homes in the time it took to write this book. The commitment has to be pretty high.”


Whilst he’s not working on his future novels, Seiler builds homes and canoes. He also plays the violin and does charity volunteer work in Hawaii.
Seiler, who had the idea of becoming an author in the back of his mind and decided to explore his passion for literature, doesn’t understand why everyone who wants to become a writer doesn’t just do it.
“If somebody does want to write a book, they can,” he said. “You can’t do it all by yourself, but it’s within reach for anyone to do it. I’m not an English major. You just have to love it.”

SYNOPSIS

Trapped underground in the Svalbard Seed Vault, Mavin Cedarstrom is rescued by a band of strange women dressed in furs. The Peregrine scout Simone Kita was sent to recover seeds from the top of the world and bring them south to the floating gardens of Kashphera. Conjuring myth and magic, this fun, action-packed novel is a delight. River’s Child is a wild ride into an ancient future. Fasten your seat belt as our spirited heroes ride icebergs from the frozen north, battle wild men, and fall in love while they race to prevent world war.

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