Author: Scott William Carter

New Book Published: The Gray and Guilty Sea

I’m  pleased to announce the release of The Gray and Guilty Sea under my mystery and suspense pen name, Jack Nolte.  You can read more about the book on Jack Nolte’s website. Hope you check it out.  The e-book has been available for several months and has been selling extremely well, with lots of nice reader reviews showing up lately.  The trade paperback is a handsome book and I’m quite proud of it.  The cover flat is pictured above.

Here’s the book’s blurb:

A curmudgeon. An iconoclast. A loner. That’s how people describe Garrison Gage, and that’s when they’re being charitable.

After his wife’s brutal murder in New York, and Gage himself is beaten nearly to death, the crippled private investigator retreats three thousand miles to the quaint coastal town of Barnacle Bluffs, Oregon. He spends the next five years in a convalescent stupor, content to bide his time filling out crossword puzzles and trying to forget that his wife’s death is his fault. But all that changes when he discovers the body of a young woman washed up on the beach, and his conscience draws him back into his old occupation – forcing him to confront the demons of his own guilt before he can hope to solve the girl’s murder.

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Read the Opening Chapters

Speaking at Willamette Writers, February 10

Just a quick note to any of you in the Willamette Valley here in Oregon:  I’ve been invited to speak to the Willamette Writers group on February 10 at 7 p.m. in Salem, Oregon.  My topic is, “10 Reasons There’s Never Been a Better Time to Be a Fiction Writer.”  I’ve given variations of this talk before and it usually blows a lot of people’s minds.   More details on their site, if you’re interested, including directions.

Local Publicity, Plus Bonus Picture of Author in His Home Office

The local newspaper, The Statesman Journal, ran an article on three of the local finalists for the Oregon Book Awards.  If you’ve ever wondered what I look like in my home office, well, there you go.  I know, I know, try to contain your excitement.  A picture of me typing would have been even more riveting. Though I have to say, usually I’m not quite that smiley.  I just smiled because the photographer promised me a cookie.

And I have to add that the picture was taken back in August when the newspaper ran a feature on me and The Last Great Getaway of the Water Balloon Boys, just in case you were getting the impression that I’m some sort of attention-starved, publicity-seeking, reality star wannabe.  Really, I’m not.  I promise.

*Yes, those are real glow-in-the-dark alien key chains hanging on my bookshelves.  Doesn’t every writer have them?

Oregon Book Award Finalist

Well, this is neat news.  My book, The Last Great Getaway of the Water Balloon Boys, which was published by Simon and Schuster in 2010, is a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. 

It’s one of five finalists in the YA category, or specifically the Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature.  The winners in all categories will be announced at a ceremony on April 25 at the Gerding Theater at the Armory in Portland, Oregon.  Even to be a finalist is a neat honor and I’m very stoked.  You can read more about the Oregon Book Awards and Oregon Literary Arts on their website, as well as on the Paper Fort blog. Some great books on that list, which certainly puts me in rarefied company. 

One other thing:  This year, they’ve created a new category.  The finalist out of all the categories with the most votes will be awarded the Oregonian’s Reader Choice Award, which is a nice additional honor as well as a few extra dollars in the writer’s pocket. 

If you’ve read the book, and would like to vote, all you need to do is go here. 

They just ask for your name and email to verify that you’re a real person.  One or two clicks and you’re done.  I’d love your help!  You might also think about writing a brief customer review at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.  Even if you’ve bought the book elsewhere, you can write a review; they just require that you have an account with them.  In the modern bookselling world, with an ever increasing share of books bought online, these customer reviews really do help writers — especially when you consider that only a tiny fraction of readers do them.

And of course you can read more about The Last Great Getaway of the Water Balloon Boys on my site, as well as purchase it from Amazon, B&N, or a local independent like Powell’s Bookstore in Portland. 

Thanks for your support!