Sea Goddess Released

Sea Goddess Mockup Cropped.jpg

I’m pleased to announce that after fourteen months of intensive authoring, my first novel of about 56,600 words is released as a Kindle eBook. The paperback version is being formatted. It will be added when the formatting is completed.

Sea Goddess is an uncommon novel with a fresh theme that fits more than one genre. This series of vivid experiences is a tale of ocean adventure, saltwater fishing, desire, pursuit, and love fulfilled. It's outdoorsy, contemporary, nautically authentic, and even partly a seafood cookbook. It's memoir-like, a buddy novel, and shot through with a golden vein of tenderness.

Set in Southern California and the coastal Pacific, the period is mid-1980s to the early 1990s. The main characters are a couple in their mid-thirties; married, and childless by choice. Jess and Evan both love to fish in the ocean. They also love seafood. They enjoy cooking together and cruising the watery expanse with all of the sea's moods and surprises.

Jess and Evan would sit beside a marina near their home to enjoy shared dream-time while longing to own a boat and go fishing together. When Jess found a beautiful, restored, wooden trawler yacht for sale, they bought her, re-named her Tin Hau and took her fishing on their days off. At first, they made mistakes that led to adventures like being caught in fog; dealing with all the work the engine needed; and even the threats of running aground and being lost at sea. But the fishing exceeded the happy couple’s dreams. They weaved-in romance afloat as they cruised to surrounding islands to anchor overnight and fish on distant reefs.

The angling couple's relationship included preparing and enjoying seafood they caught. They teamed up in the kitchen to prepare a few favorite recipes; easy, yet healthful and delicious, seafood feasts.

Jess and Evan caught so much fish that they gave away more than they ate. Eventually, they ventured far offshore to find the most plentiful catches. Some of their sport fishing was notable enough to make the news.

Sea Goddess is the story of a couple who bonded as fishing buddies through their shared interest, skill-building, seamanship, perilous escapes, teamwork, and star-crossed, mutual attraction. Read the story to find out how it all went and if, in the end, their adventures paid off their investment of time, cash, effort, and all of the risks they faced.

Please access the book preview HERE and if you like this first bit, I predict you’ll enjoy the whole book. There’s a link to the Amazon sales page in the upper left corner of this preview’s first page.

The Amazon Details page is found HERE:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KVMYKJ5/

Another option: why not sign up for the free “Nonlinear Notions” newsletter in the footer of this website (scroll down) and gain access to some of my stories, also free, for a limited time only? Go to the bottom of this page and sign up. You’ll get access to some stories immediately, during the signup process.

Enjoy Your Reading,

Joseph Riden

Care to Comment?

After about a year of composition, self-editing, beta reading, edits and rewrites, the Sea Goddess release is forthcoming soon. The image above is what I believe to be the final design for the ebook cover. The paperback cover will of course wrap around with a spine and back with all of the trimmings. But this post is about the art.

Ebook cover for the forthcoming novel. Print cover will be based on this.

Ebook cover for the forthcoming novel. Print cover will be based on this.

How does this look to you?

Please comment with your honest and tactful responses, especially about emotional tone. Does this cover give you an itch to pick up the physical book or to open the book’s preview and see if you’d want to read it? If not, why not?

The genre is literary and mainstream. The story is taken from life with my former wife who became a lifelong friend. Nancy was the inspiration for the character Jess in this book. It could have been a memoir except for that irresistible urge that drove me to enhance it slightly to create the most irresistible story I could tell.

Please use the comment function at the bottom of this blog post to offer any observations or suggestions about the cover. The icon is small so look carefully, on the left below the signature line.

Your constructive help is greatly appreciated. Does this cover pique your curiosity enough to give the book a chance?

Thanks in advance,

Joseph