Two Post-Holiday Developments

I had pretty much expected the activity for The Unfinished Gift to die down after the Christmas holidays, since it is a novel set at Christmastime. But we've had two significant developments in the last few weeks.

First, Oasis Audio, the biggest producer of audiobooks in Christian publishing bought the rights to both The Unfinished Gift and the sequel, The Homecoming. They plan to release the first as an audiobook this April (not sure of the release date for the sequel). It's already available for pre-order on Amazon.

The second is...looks like both of these books will be released in South Africa. A book distributor from that country visited my publisher recently. On the plane ride over he read The Unfinished Gift and loved it. He said he definitely felt the book would do well in South Africa. They gave him a galley of the sequel to read on the plane ride home (galley is the finished manuscript but not in book form). Both books will be released in trade paperback size this June. The plan is to release The Unfinished Gift there this fall, in time for Christmas. Then release the sequel next spring (2011).

Now...we just need to pray some movie folks will offer us a deal :)

Dan

A Blog Slowdown for a Good Cause

For those who've noticed, things have gotten pretty slow here on the old blog. That's because I'm busy working on my 4th novel and reworking my 3rd. That's a good thing, because both books are under contract with Revell and have a real deadline.

Hence, the blog slowdown.

The first draft of my 4th novel is due in August. I know, seems like a long way off. But my editor just sent me the 3rd novel, which I thought was finished back in August. She's come up with some great ideas to improve the story but it will involve about 4-5 weeks of rewriting.

If this sounds a little like I'm complaining, then I'm not communicating very well. I think it's a distinct privilege to have these challenges. It's just I'm not used to it and I don't know how much time it's going to take to stay on track.

So...I'm going to be slowing down the blog updates until I know I've got a handle on these book deadlines.

This is a good problem.

New Year, New Look

No, it's not my hair. And it's not my weight (I have lost a couple of pounds but it's probably water weight). Drive by my house and it looks just the same. No...I've spent almost this entire New Year's Day redoing my website, getting it ready for Book Number Two (that would be The Homecoming).

Didn't catch the Tournament of Roses or Mummers parade? Not into the New Year's Day Bowl Games either, eh? Apparently not. My son was sick, my wife and future daughter-in-law spent the whole day cleaning. And I sat on the couch, with Fox News muted in the background.

But my website is, like, awesome.

Go check it out at www.danwalshbooks.com and see what I mean, then come back and leave a compliment, I mean...a comment. Most of the changes are on the homepage and the My Books page. If you're having a hard time wondering how it could have taken a whole day to make the changes you see, let me give you a little help how you can encourage me.

If you're a man, pretend you come home and your wife comes out of the bedroom and says, "So...what do you think?" If you're a woman, pretend your husband has spent the whole day redoing the garage. He calls you out and says, "So...what do you think?"

I'll give you a little more help. I really had two goals in mind: first, to take advantage of all the wonderful reviews I received for The Unfinished Gift. Hopefully, a few stragglers might wander onto the site after the holidays, read some of these, and still want to buy the book even though Christmas is over. The second goal was to begin to bring The Homecoming more to the forefront.

Of course, the problem with that is...it's a sequel. If I talk too much about it, I'll give things away for those who haven't read the first book yet.

But all in all, I like the new look. Like the farmer said in that movie "Babe" a few years ago, "That'll do, pig. That'll do."