When Something Shows Up In Print It's Always A Surprise To Someone

See my notes below this story that appeared in the Bend Bulletin last week - ML

Book an ode to Crater Lake
By Jim Witty / The Bulletin
Published: June 27. 2007 5:00AM PST

There’s something nefarious going on behind the scenes at Crater Lake National Park.
That’s the gist of Michael LaLumiere’s new novel, “Why is Crater Lake so Blue?” is scheduled for release Sunday.

It’s a novel, but author LaLumiere writes what he knows; he served as a summer maintenance worker at Crater Lake National Park for four years during the 1970s.

“Blue” features Sam Hunter, a student and seasonal worker under Park Service employ. By midsummer, Crater Lake is forced to close to visitors — the first time a national park has ever closed — because of an antiquated sewer system. Greed and secrecy come into play as managers hide and pass the buck.

It’s a complex story, but also an ode to Crater Lake.

“At about 5:30 the sun broke through and shot beams of light down onto the blue lake,” LaLumiere writes. “Crater Lake is seriously blue. I sat on the rock wall, wondering if I’d ever seen such a rich blue in nature. Shasta Lake, across the border in California, had some blue, but mostly it had the emerald green tint that all mountain lakes seem to have. I thought snowmelt caused that color, but Crater Lake obviously got its water from snowmelt. I could see green at the edges of an island close to the side of the lake where I sat. In the middle of the island was a volcanic cone. So the incredible blue must have to do with the extreme depth of the lake.”

LaLumiere is a graduate of the University of Oregon and was a newspaper editor for nearly 20 years. He’s now retired and lives in Arizona with his wife, Gail.

This is the second story that's appeared about the new novel "Why Is Crater Lake So Blue?''
Some interesting things of note for all you self-publishers out there.

First of all, the story ran before any of the local stores had books. When the store manager at the local Barnes & Noble was asked today if he had sold any of the books he said, "No, not very many.'' The reason, he just got them in. People had been asking for them after the story ran but he didn't have them. GREAT!! Trying to get the book released, advertising in, newspapers writing about it, wholesaler distributing the book - ALL AT THE SAME TIME. It's very painful to actually get most of it done correctly except for the most important part - the customer can't buy the damn book.

Right this minute at Powells.com and Amazon.com the book is listed with the book cover photo. It looks great. Can you buy the book? NO! They both had a few, sold them, then it was back ordered. And what makes it worse is the websites don't say that. They make stuff up. Amazon says you can order the book and it takes 4 to 6 weeks to be delivered. BS!!! They'll have books Friday. Nobody knows why their computer insists on putting up that message when they're out of books but damn it!!! And Powells just leaves you an error message saying the book can't be found in their data base despite the listing on their website. They have 10 backordered with Ingram. More Great!!!

How about the excerpt they chose to run. My wife looked at me and said, "Why on Earth did they pick that passage with all the other descriptions that are much better?'' Well the answer is easy. They must have wanted me to look bad.

Turns out that excerpt is taken from the first edition ARC. There is a fact error in there where the origin of the Lake's water came from. A Park Service guy - very early on - corrected me and told me that very little of the lake's water comes from snow melt, blah, blah, etc. So I changed it as I wanted my descriptions to be accurate. So what excerpt did they run. Great!

Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com