Join Tracks Author Eric D. Goodman on Facebook

For a few years now, Tracks author Eric D. Goodman has enjoyed sharing things with his friends on Facebook. Tips from writers, news bits about writers, discussions about literature, information about local literary events, and the latest on his own writing—and the writing of writers he knows and loves. It’s all things books and literature.


Last month, Eric hit a milestone: he reached 5,000 friends on Facebook. His prize was not a gold watch or medal. He is no longer allowed to “friend” people on Facebook because He's reached the allowance for individuals.

So Eric did what any author would do: created an author’s page! You can find it at www.Facebook.com/EricDGoodman.

If you like writing or reading, please “like” Eric's Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/EricDGoodman!  

Friday Night Fiction Podcast

It’s Friday—how about some Friday night fiction? No reading necessary—just sit back and listen to an abridged story from Tracks this podcast from Baltimore’s NPR station, WYPR. It’s called “Mountain of Sand,” and it’s about 15 minutes, set to music.

“Mountain of Sand” was originally broadcast on WYPR’s The Signal the day after Tracks was released by Atticus books. The podcast is available now at the following link.

http://yourlisten.com/channel/content/98472/Mountain_of_Sand

Get your fix of Friday night fiction! Should you listen in the front seat, listen in the back seat, listen on your living room couch—which seat should you take?

http://yourlisten.com/channel/content/98472/Mountain_of_Sand

Today is Tracks Day

Today is the day—Tracks has arrived via Atticus books. Tracks is on the bookshelves of bookstores (brick and mortar as well as online) across the nation.

Want a taste before you order your copy? Tune into Baltimore’s NPR station, WYPR, on the radio or online tomorrow. That’s 88.1 FM and www.wypr.org. I’m reading from Tracks on NPR’s The Signal at 12 noon and again at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 1. The broadcast will air again on Saturday, June 2.

With the release of Tracks, I’m sighing a breath of relief. It’s a big moment for me as a fiction writer—decades in the making. It may have only been five or six years from first draft to agent to bookstore shelf … but prior to writing the first lines of Tracks, I spent decades writing fiction. From the moment in the third grade when I got hooked by a short story assignment, I dreamed of the day I’d have a literary agent and an independent publisher share my novel with the world. All of the prior novel drafts, comments from publishers, agents, and editors, and hard knocks lead me to what has become my debut novel in stories.

As surely as I’m breathing that sigh of relief, I’m also holding my breath. I’m a debut fiction writer with a small indie press facing an army of goliaths. You may have notice I’ve punched up the publicity for Tracks, in recent weeks, and that’s why. It’s hard for a debut book to be heard in the chorus of established bestsellers.

So please consider sharing Tracks. Whether you tweet it, post about it on Facebook, send an email to your list, mention it in your newsletter, suggest it to your book club, share it with a friend, ask about it at a bookstore that doesn’t have it in stock, or just mention one of the stories that may have hit home with you in a conversation—anything you can do to spread the word about Tracks is very much appreciated. Each advocate is an extra arrow to still my quiver, to continue battle with an army of goliaths analogy.

Today has been a whirlwind with all of the activity on Facebook, online, postcards, phone calls, and all of the congratulations. Thanks to all.

It’s been a long and winding line of track. Now it’s time to enjoy the ride.

Learn more about Tracks at www.TracksNovel.com where you can read excerpts (long and short), listen to past NPR radio readings, find out what others are saying about Tracks, get a timetable of readings and events, and order your copy.

Mary Beth Keane--Tracks is a Wonderful Debut

Today’s Tracks blurb comes from a highly-acclaimed author whose own novel debut came in 2009 with The Walking People.

“In Tracks, Goodman manages to capture the complicated push and pull of family, of friends, of history, of life—how it bears down on each of us, pulling us apart while simultaneously pushing us together. His characters are, in turn, compassionate, indifferent, bitter, sympathetic, wistful, and most of all, real. I recognized parts of myself in each one of them, and I imagine this is exactly what Goodman intended. Tracks is a wonderful debut.”

~Mary Beth Keane,
author of The Walking People

Remember, today’s the last day to receive 40 percent off any one item at Borders. Use it to pre-order your copy of Tracks, or to pick up The Walking People. (Get both and you’ll qualify for free shipping!)

Here is a link to the Borders coupon offer.
http://www.bordersmedia.com/coup/20110610sa40.html?cmpid=SA_20110610

And here’s Tracks at Borders.

Read more about Mary Beth Keane at her website.
http://marybethkeane.com/

Harlin and Prewitt, at the Bar on the Train

As many authors will tell you, sometimes a character is just asking to be treated badly. Hurt. Or even killed.

Recently I had this discussion with acclaimed author Rebecca Barry. Rebecca is the author of Later, at the Bar—a collection of linked stories selected as a New York Times Notable Book and praised everywhere from People to Vanity Fair. Reviewers from Bookslut to Chicago Sun Times praised Later, at the Bar.

I mentioned to Rebecca that I really liked one of her recurring characters, Harlin. Things don’t go well for Harlin, but as you read, you understand that it’s the only way they can go for a person like him. Sometimes your characters demand a particular treatment—be it love, loss, death, or redemption. Readers sometimes imagine that authors are engineers when in reality it is oftentimes our characters who are in control of what happens.

After reading Tracks, Rebecca said, “I felt the same way about Prewitt as you did about Harlin.” But no matter how you feel about a character, what must be, must be. “Sometimes it's just what the book demands.”

See what the New York Times had to say about Rebecca’s novel in stories.

www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/books/review/Trussoni.t.html

Find out what happens to Harlin in Later, at the Bar.

http://www.rebeccabarry.net/

Find out what happens to Prewitt in Tracks.

www.TracksNovel.com