Sea of Trees by Robert James Russell

One of the first writers I connected with when I came on the indie scene was Robert James Russell. I interviewed him for “Inside the Author’s Mind” last year, and I’m thrilled to  announce he’s now a published author. Congratulations, Robert!

Find out more about Robert and grab yourself a copy of Sea of Trees.

Swirling mystery permeates Sea of Trees as Bill, an American college student, and his Japanese girlfriend Junko traverse the Aokigahara Forest in Japan—infamous as one of the world’s top suicide destinations—in search of evidence of Junko’s sister Izumi who disappeared there a year previous. As the two follow clues and journey deeper into the woods amid the eerily quiet and hauntingly beautiful landscape—bypassing tokens and remains of the departed, suicide notes tacked to trees and shrines put up by forlorn loved ones—they’ll depend on one another in ways they never had to before, testing the very fabric of their relationship. And, as daylight quickly escapes them and they find themselves lost in the dark veil of night, Bill discovers a truth Junko has hidden deep within her—a truth that will change them both forever.

Buy links on Winter Goose Publishing 

or go directly to Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

 ****

Connect with Robert at all his social networks

Follow Robert on his websites: Robert James Russell and Midwestern Gothic.  You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter.

Robert James Russell lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and has known he wanted to be a writer since he was ten years old. A fan of well-placed stream of consciousness and stories that feature everyday characters and dialogue, Robert has a penchant for stories focusing on relationships in all their many forms. In 2010, he co-founded the literary journal Midwestern Gothic, which aims to catalog the very best fiction of the Midwestern United States—an area he believes is ripe with its own mythologies and tall tales, yet often overlooked.

His work has appeared in Joyland, Thunderclap! Magazine, Red River Review, LITSNACK, Greatest Lakes Review, and The Legendary, among others. 

Sea of Trees is his first novel.

Inside the Author’s Mind – Robert James Russell

Musical Mondays – Book Trailers

Using trailers to sell movies is something we’re all familiar with. At theaters, we endure them before we see the first scene of the film we’ve actually paid for. The trailer’s goal is to provide a synopsis, generate buzz, and if done well, entice viewers with enough of a hook to buy a ticket when the film comes out.

Like a movie trailer, a book trailer is a promotional tool. It’s a recent phenomenon, coming into popularity with sites such as MySpace and Youtube where users can upload their own videos.

What does this have to do with Musical Mondays? I’m getting to that. Unlike film trailers, which contain a montage of some of the funniest or most exciting moments, books don’t carry moving images. Where film may flash scenes with witty dialogue, flashing snippets of text, or a voice-over reading passages from a book is about as exciting as watching paint dry. See the connection now? Like the marriage of songs and video from 1980s’ MTV, music and videos are now selling books.

But can a song capture a book when you don’t know anything about the story? And can it accomplish this in a few minutes to actually sell a book? I found one that did it for me in 31 seconds.

Artiste extraordinaire, Sarah E. Melville made the video featuring a book called Sex Scene – An Anthology edited by another young talent, Robert James Russell. It’s a book about sex, so that interested me immediately, and the song is from the band: Of Montreal. It’s wonderful when serendipity plays a role in connecting things I love—great artwork, excellent writing, and hot music by a band named after a failed romance with a woman “of Montreal,” which, by the way, just happens to be my hometown.

Stay sexy,

Eden