See you by the books?

Hello! Thanks to everyone who has read The Storm Next Door and has followed along with this publishing journey. It’s all new to me and, frankly, kind of a trip. I’m getting to the point now where there is enough interest that local bookstores and libraries are willing to host events. That’s what I’m writing about today. I’ll be at a few bookstores and libraries over the course of the next few months, and there are more events in the works. If you’re in the area and interested in stopping by, here’s a link to the events page on my website. 

The first event is at Once Upon A Crime bookstore in Minneapolis. I’m super excited for my first “meet & greet” to take place where so many writers I admire also hold events. So, if you want to check out a really cool bookstore and say hi to me while you’re there, I’d love to see you at Once Upon A Crime on Oct. 17. I’ll be there from 2 - 4 in the afternoon. 

Here’s a rundown of events I have scheduled so far: 

OCTOBER, 2026

Once Upon A Crime
Mystery Bookstore
Saturday, Oct. 17, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

NOVEMBER, 2026

Twin Cities Book Festival
Saturday, Nov. 7, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Skywater Publishing Cooperative booth

Lykke Books, New Ulm, MN
Thursday, Nov. 12, 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

JANUARY, 2027

Gaylord Public Library
Thursday, Jan. 14

FEBRUARY, 2027

Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Minneapolis
Wednesday, Feb. 17, 7 p.m.

I’m really excited for all of these and hope to see folks there. If you know of a bookstore, library, coffee shop, seedy dive bar, or anywhere that may be looking for author guests, please let me know! 

If you’ve read the book and wouldn’t mind leaving a review somewhere like Amazon, Goodreads, StoryGraph, etc., I’d really appreciate it. Reviews make a huge difference in how book sales go these days.

Thanks for reading,

James 

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I made you a playlist

Recently, when @612readandrun shared a review of The Storm Next Door on Instagram, they added a song that I had never heard before, but thought it fit a part of the story perfectly. That got me to thinking about music that matched the book, and over the next few days I started pulling songs from my regular playlists that I thought represented each chapter. 51 chapters, 51 songs.

Click the image below for a link to the playlist if you’re interested in listening on Spotify.

If you’ve read the book and wouldn’t mind leaving a review somewhere like Amazon, Goodreads, StoryGraph, etc., I’d really appreciate it. Early orders and early reviews make a huge difference in how book sales go these days, in particularly on Amazon where early attention greatly affects how a book is presented in the Almighty Algorithm.

And for those who are more interested in supporting their local book store, please go in and ask them to stock the book. It never hurts to ask and that’s a great way to get a book on the shelf.

If you’d rather order online and still support your local economy, please order through the Bookshop.org link on my author page here.

p.s. Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter. If you know someone who would appreciate a book like The Storm Next Door, let them know!

The Storm next door origin story

“What gave you this idea?” 

I’ve heard that question quite a few times now. Usually with an emphasis on this, as in, “What gave you this idea?” 

It started with a news story I read online about tornadoes touching down in a trailer park in Wisconsin. But the story wasn’t really what got me. It was a picture.

Can you help identify the news photographer who took this photo?

I saw this picture and I couldn’t help but wonder about these young people. What were they feeling? How could they could tune out, if even for this moment, the world around them? Can you imagine the tornado (pun intended) of emotions spinning up young love mixed with so much destruction? Maybe one of them has lost everything. Maybe they both have. Maybe they thought they had lost each other.

I’ve long forgotten what news site posted the photo that I printed out and tacked to the bulletin board above my desk. I’ve Google image searched and haven’t come up with anything. I think it may have been either the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel or the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison. I searched again a couple weeks ago because I wanted to let the photographer know what their photo has meant to me. 

Anyway, the more I thought about the people in the photo, the more I was drawn to what might be next in their story. There was no way for me to know, of course, so I had to make it up. As the story took shape I asked myself, what’s the worst that could happen in this situation? What’s worse than an entire community losing everything?

A young girl could be missing. That would be terrible. And someone who is a threat to her could also be unaccounted for. That would be even worse.

What would the town do then? 

If you don’t yet know what the town would do then, you can find out by ordering a book here.

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