Book Launch is Here!

Celadon
Celadon, by Raymond Avery Bartlett

Just a quickie for all of you subscribed who want to come to Celadon‘s book launch this weekend, Dec 4th or 6th:

Dec 4 (Friday evening, 8pm, EST): https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87504557237?pwd=SXlVUFFiVUltNGVFN0VzVWFCREswUT09

Meeting ID: 875 0455 7237 Passcode: 128424

Dec 6 (Sunday, 10 in the morning, EST): https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88687970649?pwd=amRTUEMwdm9oK2xHbm5nbnFFc29xUT09

Meeting ID: 886 8797 0649 Passcode: 672476

If you miss the meeting and still want a signed copy, I’ve got them right here: https://kaisora.square.site

Hope to see you all! :-)

Join me on Zoom December 4th or 6th!

Celadon
Celadon, by Raymond Avery Bartlett

Finally, Celadon is out and it’s time to party like it’s 2019…when there were book launches at bookstores or coffeeshops and you could say “hi” to people in person.

Alas, we’re not there yet, but in lieu of an in-person book party, I’m throwing the biggest, baddest, funnest Zoom book launch the world has ever known. (You all know I’m prone to hyperbole…)

Regardless of the grandeur, what is true is it will be incredibly special to have you join me on one of these two dates:

Friday, December 4th, at 8pm (Best for USA folks)
Sunday, December 6th, at 10am (Best for Europe and Asia folks)

(If you don’t have Facebook, sign up for my e-newsletter to get the Zoom link!)

I will have a reading, a Q&A session, sell and sign books, and there will even be prizes and free gifts and other fun stuff. The only down side is that it will have to be DYOB: Drink Your Own Beverage. I’m not Santa — I can’t be in everyone’s living room at the same time. So bring something tasty to sip as we ring in my second novel. Invite friends, family, co-workers, random folks off the street.

If you already have a copy of Celadon or Sunsets of Tulum, please BRING IT WITH YOU. I would love to have a “group selfie” of people holding their copies. If you don’t already have one and want to join the fun, here’s the link:

https://kaisora.square.site

And thank you in advance for the love, support, friendship, and book purchases — this is a crazy year and hopefully we can say goodbye to 2020 by having a bit of fun and enjoying good literature.

See you all on Dec 4th. (Or 6th!)

Hugs, and stay healthy!

Celadon is here!

The cover of Celadon…it’s waiting for you!

I’m thrilled to say that after nearly five years, Celadon is here and available anywhere great books are sold. I’d love for you to grab a signed copy from me, but I understand that sometimes your online retailer or local bookshop might be your preferred option — go for it, I’m just happy to think the book is getting into your hands and keeping you interested for a few days this fall.

If you do want the book signed, grab it from me directly and I’ll get it out to you asap. Thrilled.

If you’ve wondered what people are thinking about it, here’s a very nice review that was published in the BookLife section of Publisher’s Weekly:

Bartlett’s stunning novel is a poignant, elegiac mid-20th-century tragedy of wanderlust, loss, obsession, art, and redemption. Neil Chase has been caring for his blind father since he was a teenager, while longing to travel to distant shores. In 1964, 20-something Neil falls in love with both Marinne, a kind French girl, and Japanese ceramics. Marinne, knowing Neil is still compelled to travel, offers to care for his father while he embarks on a yearlong voyage to Japan. A chain of unlikely events lead Neil to the hidden pottery town of Moon Island, where he feels a soul-deep connection to the landscape, the spectacular local celadon-glazed pottery, and the angry, beautiful Miyū, who makes the ceramics along with her father. As Neil learns their craft, he is drawn into their family’s tragic story, in which one act will irreversibly alter all their lives. Will Neil go back to what he was before?

Bartlett answers these looming questions with lyrical prose and an elegiac sensibility. He treats characters’ desires and griefs with delicacy; their sometimes dark impulses animate the pages with yearning, desolation, and fleeting moments of warmth. Neil Chase is a flawed, believable protagonist with a wry sense of humor and a passion for transcendent beauty.

Bartlett’s unhurried account of an imperfect world and its complex inhabitants will grip readers. This deeply affecting and well-constructed novel, with its memorable characters and evocative brilliance, will leave readers with a lingering sense of mournful beauty after they’ve turned the last page.

It’s a great book, especially if you’ve any interest in Japan or ceramics, and the dark love story is one I hope will resonate with readers the way it did with Sunsets of Tulum.

With that, I’ll wish you all a wonderful remainder of the fall. 2020 has sure been a crazy year. And again, thank you in advance for supporting me. Each sale counts, especially this year, when the travel industry (usually my main source of income) has so spectacularly vaporized. I really appreciate each and every sale, and am so grateful to all of you for your enthusiasm, comments, and insightful readings.

Very best, and stay healthy.

–Ray

Celadon is here, and there’s going to be a party!

At long last, nearly 5 years to the day after Sunsets of Tulum debuted, my new novel, Celadon is hitting bookstores everywhere October 15th, 2020. It’s a lush, exciting, gripping novel that will suck you in and keep you wondering what’s going to happen next, all while exploring the mistakes that hubris can cause.

What’s almost as exciting as getting this novel out is the chance to celebrate (by Zoom, in a socially distant way!) with you. I would love to have you join me to ring in this new novel. I’d like to have the first (of many!) book launch parties in October. So stay tuned. The best way to keep in the loop is through my e-newsletter, which you can sign up for here: https://bit.ly/2Fvwr7T

In the meantime, please pre-order the e-book at your online retailer of choice, or grab a copy from me here. Every pre-order counts towards those rankings that can add up to a book hitting a best-seller list. So please feel free to place orders online or at your local bookstore for this title. Once Covid calms down, I’ll be touring in person and would love to sign it for you.

And yes, of course, you can purchase paper copies directly from me once I have some to sell. Again, I will be announcing this by my e-newsletter, so please take those few seconds to sign up: https://bit.ly/2Fvwr7T (I don’t spam, and I don’t send very many letters, either! You won’t feel deluged, I promise!)

That’s it for now. I’m so excited to share this book with you all. Thanks so much for your support, friendship, help, suggestions, and for just being out there in whatever way — big or small — you’ve been. Please come join me for the book party, and stay healthy.

Announcing a new book!

I couldn’t be more excited to share this new book with all of you, many of whom are writers yourself and might find it useful…especially now, when so many of us are staying at home. A Writer’s Roadmap is a collection of all the tips, tricks, insights, anecdotes, and tools that have made me into the productive writer I am today.

So much of writing is what’s not covered in a creative writing course or a writing workshop. Yes, craft is vital (in fact that’s the first topic the book discusses!), but to become a writer or to make yourself stick with a manuscript until it becomes a book requires way more than just being good at writing.

So are you one of those millions of people out there with a book inside you that’s yearning to be free? Are you working on a great American novel? Have a memoir that’s been burning inside you? A book for children you want to write someday? Or know someone who is?

Get this book. It’s what I wish I had when I was starting out. A way to plot the future, see what I needed to work on not just right today, but two or three or ten years down the road. A roadmap for my writing career.

There’s no better time than today — and this pocket-sized, easy-to-read book covers all the things you won’t find in other places. How to stay on track even if you’ve got other jobs or obligations, when to send your work to an agent, what a mentor is and how to find one. How to meet those long-term goals.

I hope you’ll grab a copy, if not for you then for the writer in your life. It is available for presale now, and each copy sold before the official release date counts towards the rankings. So please buy it now. Even if you’ll wait until the holidays to give it to that special someone.

Best of all? It’s cheap: just $9.99 (plus shipping). So grab a copy now, and if you read it and love it, please consider taking a moment or two to write an Amazon review. They make such a difference.

These are crazy times. Getting a novel written or that memoir penned will be a fantastic way to make good use of this time.

Thank you all, and stay healthy.

New RayGoesTo video on YouTube!

So most of you know me as a writer of best-selling guidebooks and great fiction, but I am also dabbling in video creation/production as well. My RayGoesTo channel on YouTube is a great way to see visually some of the cool stuff I’m doing or where I’m going. I’m sharing a recent visit to Rio Bec, a Maya ruin buried deep in the jungle of the Calakmul Reserva. If you like it, please take a moment to hit Subscribe — and share it with your friends!

Subscribe to RayGoesTo on YouTube for fun travel, quirky finds, and more!

Back to writing for a moment:

So those of you who are chomping at the bit for the new novel, my deep apologies. It’s on the way, but there’ve been some edits, revisions, and changes — all of them for the better. The book is titled Celadon, now, not The Vasemaker’s Daughter, and it’s due out in June, 2020. Time is ticking!

Thank you all so much for the enthusiasm, interest, and support. Hope to see you at a reading this summer!

Fun at the Hyannis Public Library

Copies of Ray Bartlett's Sunsets of Tulum waiting to be signed.

A great time reading with Mary Hart, author of Some Horrific Evening, at the Hyannis Public Library last week.  Great to see so many enthusiastic readers and old friends.

Ray Bartlett co-reads at the Hyannis Public Library
Ray Bartlett co-reads at the Hyannis Public Library

Mary Hart and Ray Bartlett sign copies after the reading.
Mary Hart and Ray Bartlett sign copies after the reading.

A good turnout at the Hyannis Public Library for the Mary Hart and Ray Bartlett book signing.
A good turnout at the Hyannis Public Library for the Mary Hart and Ray Bartlett book signing.

Copies of <i>Sunsets of Tulum</i> waiting to be signed.
Copies of Sunsets of Tulum waiting to be signed.

Thank you, Mashpee Book Club Girls!

Sunsets of Tulum book club
Another great book club event in Mashpee, MA

It’s hard to say enough good things about book club invitations, and as cliché as it sounds, they are always a win-win:  I get the chance to interact with readers directly, hear their thoughts about the book, and the readers get to meet the author and — usually — enjoy not only my answers to their questions, but some tasty beverages as well.  Jennifer was a lovely host and we all had fun.  I also read the first chapter of the new novel, The Vasemaker’s Daughter, as a teaser for when it comes out next year.

If you are in a book club, think of how much fun it is to have the real author join you…and make drinks!  :-)  Invite me!  I promise we’ll all have a great time.

Indonesia is amazing!

Perhaps the most stunning view on the planet: Padar Island, Indonesia.

Things have been hot lately with my travel writing side, with six new guidebooks last year (Japan, Pennsylvania USA, Tanzania, Yucatan, New York City, and New Orleans) even as I finished a solid draft of The Vasemaker’s Daughter.  But a sudden trip to Indonesia came up too, and I leave Monday for Guatemala, where I’ll be (among other things!) helicoptering into the deep jungle to see the ruin called El Mirador.  Can’t wait.

I made a separate blog for my Indonesia trip and hope you’ll check it out here.  Enjoy!

Some writing tips for author wannabes…

In July I gave a fun workshop on writing at San Diego Writers, Ink.  (Love the name!)  It was a great group with a variety of mixed backgrounds, all of whom came to see different ways they could move forward with their travel writing.  As the workshop went on, I realized that not only do the writing goals I offered them apply to writers everywhere, of all stripes and colors, but even more broadly, to “How to Achieve Your Dreams.”  Creative types everywhere might be able to tweak these and make them work for them.

1)  Realize that deeply and fundamentally, only YOU are going to make yourself a writer.  There’s a mistaken idea out there that somehow someone will “notice” you and then poof, overnight your amazing unrecognized work will go viral.  Perhaps that even happens sometimes, but for the vast majority of us, writing will be about YOU making time to write or YOU putting it off for tomorrow.

So take ownership of this path.  You’re the one who will make it happen and if you don’t get there, you’re the one to blame.

2)  Set short-, medium-, and long-term goals.  I can’t stress this enough, especially when you’re in that awful doldrum of not knowing if your work is worthy, is good, is worth your time, let alone anyone else’s.  Set those goals.

The Short-term goals have to be definite, concrete, achievable steps that move you forward.  Not esoteric leaps.  Good:  “Complete Chapter X by the end of the ____.”  (And the blank isn’t filled in with the word “decade.”  Week.  Month, tops.  If you’re in the middle of December, you can say “year.”  But not longer.  These are 3-6 month (tops!) goals that you will work towards starting TODAY.

The Medium-term goals are 1-2 years out, and need to be the result of your succession of short term goals.  Get the novel finished.  Get your portfolio together.  Get the first 20 pages out to agents X, Y, and Z.

Long-term goals are where you dream big:  Mine was (and still is!) to “Win the Nobel Prize in Literature.”  Though it’s looking ever more like that may have to be a posthumous honor, I’ve still got that in mind, simmering…and have for much of my life.

3)  Now, the beauty of 1 and 2 is that it makes 3 easy:  When you’re given a choice of A or B option, choose the one that brings you closer to those goals.  That may sound easy, but it may mean some hard decisions.  Either way, the answer of “A or B?” comes down to one thing:  which will bring you closer?  If you have the short-term goals, and those are moving you closer to the mid-range goal, and that’s on the road to that dream out there…probably you know which is going to be a step forward and which will move you away.

Far too often people move away from writing (or their creative path) without realizing it because the goals haven’t been defined.  You want to “be a writer” (or an artist, or a musician, or a…) without ever concretely knowing what that is.  So when other opportunities arise (and they are opportunities, often ones with immediate value (like having a girlfriend/boyfriend, or getting a comfortable, decent-paying job) appear, you choose them thinking you’ll get back to the writing.  That it will be a stepping stone.

Instead, stone by stone, you leap further away from writing as a career, as your primary means of income, or your primary form of self-entertainment.  A decade or two slips by with that novel you’ve “been writing” always there in the back of your mind, but as far from done as it was when you had the initial muse-whisper.  Because you can always “put some time aside and get it done” you find that other things always take priority.

This is where those short-term goals help get you back on track.  Achieve one, make another.  Achieve that, make another, like going up a flight of stairs…and you’re back on track to make your mid- and long-range dreams a reality.

Well, maybe not winning the Nobel Prize.  But at least making your creativity a big part of your life again.