Friday, December 28, 2012

Joaquin Murietta, electronically published 34 years later

Time passes and the world changes. In 1979, just after my 30th birthday, I wrote a memoir mixed up with a novella, retelling the story of the legendary outlaw Murietta, who rode around California during the Gold Rush days. Thirty-four years ago, at 13,500 words, the manuscript was too short to pitch as a novel, and too long to qualify as a magazine short story. I put it aside and got on with my life.

Now, with the advent of electronic publishing, it's possible to self-publish works of this length, so here is the result, available for the Kindle reader from Amazon. Later I'll produce an on-demand print edition, illustrated with my own watercolours. 

Memoirs can be a shade embarrassing, and this one was written in my obviously naive voice. But for this release I've preserved 99% of the original text, made some simple corrections, updated the language, toned down my youthful ardor. Electronic publishing is a real adventure, and it will be interesting to see if the story has any traction in today's market. I hope you enjoy its fanciful presentation and the quirky interweaving of the stories. 

http://www.amazon.com/History-Adventures-Joaquin-Murietta-ebook/dp/B00ATYKW3C/ref=la_B00AU510Y0_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356723208&sr=1-1

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