20 November 2023

November is the month of gratitude. Especially fitting as it is also the month of Campbell’s Boy first year anniversary (today in fact!). I have a heap of gratitude that this little book found its way out into the world.

It was a ten years plus mission that, at times, I doubted would happen. (A special nod of thanks to the publishers that took it on, Moonshine Cove Publishing, LLC.)

It’s had a quiet first year overall and hasn’t made too big of a splash. It has made its way onto the shelves of a local bookstore, the fab Rudolph Girls Books, into three county library systems in my home state and was featured at a wonderful book club event. 

Reactions have touched me more than I could have imagined and that’s pure gold.

One reviewer said it brought him to tears.

Another reviewer from the Historical Novel Society refers to it as a touching account.

The president of the Colusi County Historical Society (the town that the story is set in) and I have had ongoing email discussions about many aspects of it, especially the historical details. Those discussions have made me look at it in a whole new light.

Friends who I never expected to read it made a point of telling me they loved it.

It all means so very much to me. But what means the most is that I was able to give the real-life person, Emmet Campbell, a voice. The quote at the start of the novel is this:

“Every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name. In some ways men can be immortal.” Ernest Hemingway

I’m still talking about Emmet and I plan on continuing to do so.