A few months ago I got an email from a young man in the UK asking about a picture that I took and posted on our blog.
It’s a typical vacation picture of Jamie’s footprints on the beach in Cabo.
He’s always several paces ahead of me determined to get to the next location and I’m usually lagging behind easily distracted by shiny things or bits of hazy sea-glass.
The young man, Michael, was asking my permission to use this picture for the cover of a book he was writing. He couldn’t offer any money, like I would take it anyway, only an acknowledgement in the book.
How could I refuse?
Here’s his cropped and edited final cover……..The Diary of Nicholas Oldman by M. G. Atkinson
Y’all can download a copy from Amazon here.
As a self-published writer, his book is currently only available as an E-book. (God how I dread E-books. I need to hold a tome in my hands, use a boarding pass or random receipt as a bookmark, then hoard the finished book on our bookshelves as a trophy.)
This, dear readers, is the first E-book I have ever read.
Setting my fear of electronic-books aside, I was still a little hesitant about reading it. What if it wasn’t any good?
No worries about that, 3 pages in and I was definitely hooked. This book could be the next classic. I enjoyed it that much.
The plot is pretty simple; our main/mostly-only character wakes up one day several million years in the past. Surrounded not only by dinosaurs, but a myriad of undocumented insects, plants and harsh environments……Danger lurking around every corner and that sort of thing. Michael is inspired by all the same adventure/fantasy writers that I was as a young boy; H G Wells, Jules Verne, and Robert Lewis Stevenson; but there are elements of more contemporary writers as well; Michael Crichton, (well, yeah…..of course), and even Peter Benchley. (You’ll recognize the Jaws quote when you reach it) It’s also pretty easy to see a connection to characters like Robinson Caruso. (A man alone with just his thoughts and all)
When I read this part, I knew why he choose my picture.
“When the sun had almost reached the western
horizon, I turned around and looked back, my
footprint’s snaked off into the distance and were
lost from sight. The first footprint’s of man.”
It’s always a good thing to make a new friend, but a new friend who happens to be a talented writer?
That’s even better,
Now Michael hurry up with those two sequels that you promised.
Looks like I have 2 more E-books in my future……
THE CAVENDER DIARY 
Your comment about the tome in your hand sounded like the exact words from my son’s mouth. However, it was an e-reader or time to sell some of his 1000 or so books! He broke down and got the Paperwhite and it is his new best friend, lol! He can have access to so many books wherever he goes. I look forward to telling him about this book. As usual, I love reading every new post from you. Have a happy Sunday.
Tracie…..I have books everywhere. Just built a new bookcase (Post on that to come later) and decided to thin them out a little. Got a box ready for Goodwill in the garage. I sure am going to miss books when they finally disappear altogether……
Pretty cool! Congrats!
It is great to be a small part of it…..
eeeeeck! squeal! How exciting for you! I mean, your pic of Jamie’s footprints on the cover of a book…………………..it’s like, you guys are (almost) famous. 😉
I too love the feel of a book in hand, however I’ve been converted to ebooks for my daily commute – it’s so much easier to load a book into my phone to read on the subway than lugging around a book on top of my regular workday stuff like purse, lunch bag, umbrella, etc.
I LOVE my books – I mean, seriously, I love them. I turned a small room in my house into a totally bookcase lined library (13 Ikea bookcases with the neat lights hanging off the tops – put it all together myself, just about killed me, haha) to hold my few thousand books, and I spend hours in there, sometimes not even really reading, just browsing, pulling books off the shelves at random and reading passages. I love holding them, and moving them around. I have one bookcase in there that is filled with all my daughter’s childhood books, too – she’s grown and newly married, but I just love having them there. It looks really neat at night from outside (I also have one of those cool shelf ladders that everyone seems to love), and last year on Halloween when I opened the door to a group of kids, one of the Dads standing with the parents on the street called out “Could I come in and look at your library?”, lol! The other parents died laughing, but I said sure, and he came in and took pictures, haha. I also set up a Little Free Library in front of my house – the kids in the neighborhood love it! I have a Kindle and a iPad, but only use them to read when I travel – and when I need to read an eBook – like now! Thanks for the recommendation, I already downloaded it; very cool 🙂
Amber, we are cut from the same cloth…….
Dear, dear James and Jamie 🙂
I am, for once, absolutely lost for words. I mean, holy-hell’s-bell’s! What a fantastic review that was… you brought several tears to my eyes… I am so pleased you liked it, and yes, you were right about why I chose your picture, it is spot on I think, captures the loneliness beautifully from those words.. I hope you will let me trawl through your other photos and choose two more for parts 2 and 3 (which are coming along nicely).
I love the way you have referred to me as ‘young man’, I am 49, that Twitter picture was taken 2 years ago… still, I have almost convinced myself I am immortal, so maybe that’s it 🙂
I must also take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to the lady above, Amber, for downloading it, I hope you enjoy it, dear lady 🙂 I would love to hear your opinion.
Thank you again, guys, your kind words and breath-taking review mean the world to me, a fuel for the inspiration to carry on.
Michael
Michael, I really loved it. I’m so glad to be a small part of it….if only I have 2 more pictures that would work for you. Hurry up with the next 2.
Best,
James
(If your 49…you must drink plenty of water and use suncreen)