Friday the 13th Ottawa Launch of Town & Train

Photo credit: Anita Dolman, 2015.

The Friday, March 13 launch for my debut horror novel, Town & Train, published by Lethe Press, was a huge success. 

I owe a thank you to Steve and Vaughn of Black Squirrel Books for giving me a launch pad. What a fine space and a fine store. Of course, I always thank my publisher, Steve Berman, for making a struggling writer’s dream a reality. Thanks, also to Anita Dolman (Next book's for her.). 

Many friends attended, including fab fellow first-time novelist Robin Riopelle, as well as ChiSeries organizer Matt Moore. A groundswell of folks who do not use social media also appeared, in an astonishing show of support. While I only sold a few books, I was more than happy in the knowledge that most of those in attendance had already purchased a copy. How flattering is that? 

Photo credit: Jackie Stanford, 2015.

Photo credit: Anita Dolman, 2015.

Ottawa Book Launch for Town & Train Today!

I am re-posting the official listing for my book launch in Ottawa. It's happening today - Friday the 13th!

A train is coming today.  Please join Ottawa’s James K. Moran as he launches his debut horror novel, Town & Train (Lethe Press, 2014), at Black Squirrel Books. 

About Town & Train

Seventeen-year-old John Daniel wakes by the railroad tracks with no recollection of how he got there. Soon, he and police officer David Forester suspect a pervasive and menacing collusion in their small Ontario border town when an antique steam train arrives late in the night. 

Event Details

Friday, March 13. Doors already open at 7 p.m. Reading at around 7:30 p.m. 
Wine and socializing to follow. 
Black Squirrel Books, 1073 Bank Street, Ottawa. 
For info.: 613-600-3405. 

What they’re saying about Town & Train

“A ticket to ride an antique train, mysterious dream visions and vanishing towns—these are the things that will set your heart racing in James K Moran's very welcome addition to small-town horror stories. Wondrously weird and eerily compelling, it is a knockout.”

—Jeffrey Round, Lambda Award-winning author of Lake on the Mountain and The Honey Locust

“Moran does an excellent job of conveying the desperation that drives people to seek salvation in the supernatural...”

—Publishers Weekly

Getting your library to purchase Town & Train

Quick update -if someone requests that their library purchase my book, and this someone already has my book, and this someone is the first to respond - I will send them a electronic chapbook of not one, not two, but three of my short stories.

I am finalizing the details on a e-chapbook that will feature three previously published stories.

Request Town & Train at your local library

Just a quick call-out to writerly and readerly folk. If it's not too much trouble, please request that your local library order my first horror novel, Town & Train, wherever you are in Canada, (and outside Canada, for that matter). Why, you ask?

Well, I just applied for the Public Lending Right Program (PLR). Through the PLR, the Canada Council for the Arts distributes annual payments to Canadian authors as compensation for the free public access to their books in Canadian public libraries. As Town & Train was published through Lethe Press, a small but renowned U.S. publisher, my book does not automatically get distributed to Canadian libraries. However, the more Canadian libraries the book is in, the better the chances of the Canuck author getting compensation.

So, thank you if you request my book at your local library. If you do, lemme know, true believer. If you are the first to respond, saying they asked their library to order my book, guess what? I will send you a free signed copy to get in your hot hands, wherever you are in Canada.

Getting Town & Train

Behind the scenes, I am still working on a number of public appearances and events. Stay tuned - more to come! 

In the meantime, if you like a good story, interesting characters and some good scares, all wrapped in a heatwave summer in 1990, please order Town & Train, my first horror novel, at amazon.ca or amazon.com. 

In Ottawa, Town & Train is available at After Stonewall, Perfect Books and Black Squirrel Books. However, if you don't see my book at your local bookstore, either in Ottawa or elsewhere, please feel free to ask the store to order it for you. 

But, if you cannot buy the book right now, please request Town & Train at your local library. I appreciate the support in either fashion! And, of course, there is no greater honour than to find your own book on a library shelf.

Town & Train reviewed again

A review from the biggayhorrofan blog about Town & Train:

"Taking place in a small, financially strapped Canadian town in the early 90s, Moran captures the wanderlust of both his teen and adult characters while simultaneously adding elements of Peter Straub and Stephen King into the mix."

Ottawa Book launch for Town & Train on March 13

Here is the official listing for my book launch in Ottawa.

A train is coming Friday, March 13^th!  Please join Ottawa’s James K. Moran as he launches his debut horror novel, Town & Train (Lethe Press, 2014), at Black Squirrel Books.

About Town & Train

Seventeen-year-old John Daniel wakes by the railroad tracks with no recollection of how he got there. Soon, he and police officer David Forester suspect a pervasive and menacing collusion in their small Ontario border town when an antique steam train arrives late in the night.

Event Details

Friday, March 13. Doors already open at 7 p.m. Reading at 7:30 p.m.
Wine and socializing to follow.
Black Squirrel Books,1073 Bank Street, Ottawa.
For info.: 613-600-3405.

What they’re saying about Town & Train

“A ticket to ride an antique train, mysterious dream visions and vanishing towns—these are the things that will set your heart racing in James K Moran's very welcome addition to small-town horror stories. Wondrously weird and eerily compelling, it is a knockout.”

—Jeffrey Round, Lambda Award-winning author of Lake on the Mountain and The Honey Locust

“Moran does an excellent job of conveying the desperation that drives people to seek salvation in the supernatural...”

—Publishers Weekly

About James K. Moran

Ottawa writer James K. Moran’s fiction and poetry have appeared in various Canadian, American and British publications, including Bywords, Glitterwolf: Halloween, Empty Mirror Magazine. Icarus, On Spec, Postscripts to Darkness 3, The Peter F. Yacht Club and The Rolling Darkness Revue. A longtime Daily Xtra contributor, Moran’s articles have also appeared via CBC Radio and Rue Morgue. He blogs at jameskmoran.blogspot.ca. Town & Train is his first novel.