Out Front the Following Sea

“Rich in deeply researched detail, and peopled by complex characters, Out Front the Following Sea is a fascinating story that is bound to entrance readers of historical fiction.”
—Kathleen Grissom, author of The Kitchen House and Glory Over Everything

“Lapidary in its research and lively in its voice, Out Front the Following Sea by Leah Angstman is a rollicking story, racing along with wind in its sails. Though her tale unfolds hundreds of years in America’s past, Ruth Miner is the kind of high-spirited heroine whose high adventures haul you in and hold you fast.”
—Kathleen Rooney, author of Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk and Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey

“From the squalor, prejudice, and violence of 17th-century America, Leah Angstman has summoned to life the most extraordinary young woman. Ruth Miner insists on surviving, building a life, and being true to her odd independent self, despite the whole world seeing her as worthless filth. Angstman creates a hypnotically real and brutal world and then manages to infuse it with humor and beauty and a moving tale of love. The reader will follow Ruth Miner anywhere, and be the richer for it.”
—Heather O’Neill, author of The Lonely Hearts Hotel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, and Daydreams of Angels

“With Out Front the Following Sea, Leah Angstman reveals herself as a brave new voice in historical fiction. With staggering authenticity, Angstman gives us a story of America before it was America—an era rife with witch hunts and colonial intrigue and New World battles all but forgotten in our history books and popular culture. This is historical fiction that speaks to the present, recalling the bold spirits and cultural upheavals of a nation yet to be born.”
—Taylor Brown, author of Pride of Eden, Gods of Howl Mountain, The River of Kings, Fallen Land, and In the Season of Blood & Gold

“Steeped in lush prose, authentic period detail, and edge-of-your-seat action, Out Front the Following Sea is a rollicking good read. Leah Angstman keeps the story moving at a breathtaking pace, and she knows more 17th century seafaring language and items of everyday use than you can shake a stick at. The result is a compelling work of romance, adventure, and historical illumination that pulls the reader straight in.”
—Rilla Askew, author of Fire in Beulah and The Mercy Seat

“Leah Angstman has written the historical novel that I didn’t know I needed to read. Out Front the Following Sea is set in an oft-forgotten time in the brutal wilds of pre-America that is so vividly and authentically drawn, with characters that are so alive and relevant, and a narrative so masterfully paced and plotted, that Angstman has performed the miracle of layering the tumultuous past over our troubled present to gift us a sparkling new reality.”
—Kevin Catalano, author of Where the Sun Shines Out and Deleted Scenes and Other Stories

“Out Front the Following Sea is a fascinating book, the kind of historical novel that evokes its time and place so vividly that the effect is just shy of hallucinogenic. I enjoyed it immensely.”
—Scott Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest, The Walkaway, Cottonwood, Hop Alley, The Adjustment, and Rake

“Out Front the Following Sea is a meticulously researched novel that mixes history, love story, and suspense. Watching Angstman’s willful protagonist, Ruth Miner, openly challenge the brutal world of 17th-Century New England, with its limiting ideas about gender, race, and science, was a delight.”
—Aline Ohanesian, author of Orhan’s Inheritance

“Leah Angstman is a gifted storyteller with a poet’s sense of both beauty and darkness, and her stunning historical novel, Out Front the Following Sea, establishes her as one of the most exciting young novelists in the country. Angstman plunges the reader into a brilliantly realized historical milieu peopled by characters real enough to touch. And in Ruth Miner, we are introduced to one of the most compelling protagonists in contemporary literature, a penetratingly intelligent, headstrong woman who is trying to survive on her wits alone in a Colonial America that you won’t find in the history books. A compulsive, vivid read that will change the way you look at the origins of our country, Leah Angstman’s Out Front the Following Sea announces the arrival of a preternatural talent.”
—Ashley Shelby, author of Muri, South Pole Station, and Red River Rising

“Rich, lyrical, and atmospheric, with a poet’s hand and a historian’s attention to detail. In Out Front the Following Sea, Leah Angstman creates an immersive world for readers to get lost in and a fascinating story to propel them through it. A thoroughly engaging and compelling tale.”
—Steph Post, author of Holding Smoke, Miraculum, Walk in the Fire, Lightwood, and A Tree Born Crooked

“It’s a rare story that makes you thankful for having read and experienced it. It’s rarer still for a story to evoke so wholly, so powerfully, another place and time as to make you thankful for the gifts that exist around you, which you take for granted. Out Front the Following Sea is a book rich with misery, yet its characters are indefatigable; they yearn, despite their troubles, for victories personal and societal. Leah Angstman’s eye is keen, and her ability to transport you into America’s beginnings is powerful. With the raw ingredients of history, she creates a story both dashing and pensive, robust yet believable. From an unforgiving time, Angstman draws out a tale of all things inhuman, but one that reminds us of that which is best in all of us.”
—Eric Shonkwiler, author of Above All Men, 8th Street Power & Light, and Moon Up, Past Full

The author has purchased NewPages - the full package of mailing list addresses and email addresses for all of the U.S. bookstores, Canadian bookstores, academic university libraries, public libraries, and top dailies and weeklies for the largest U.S. cities that are attached in the following document.

Packets will be mailed to each that includes:
Cover letter
Press release
Full advance praise and review pull quotes, updated as of the packet sending date
Comparison titles and authors (for libraries and bookstores)
Bookstore/library selling points
Bookclub selling points (for libraries and bookstores)
A QR code that leads to the book on Edelweiss+ (for libraries and bookstores)
A QR code that leads to the book on NetGalley
A reminder (for U.S. bookstores) to nominate the book for an Indie Next Pick by the deadline (end of October/beginning of November for a January release)
A reminder (for U.S. public libraries) to nominate the book for LibraryReads
A bookmark
Business card

Interviews:
July 27th, 2021: An interview will be published at Grab the Lapels.
Sept. 18, 2021: table at the Kansas Book Festival.
October 1-2, 2021: table at the South Dakota Festival of Books.
November 13th, 2021: An interview will be published at Apparel for Authors.
December ___, 2021: An interview will be published at Mugshot Writers.
January 3-February 4, 2022: 28-stop book-blog tour, featuring reviews, interviews, excerpts, and guest posts, hosted by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours.
January 9th, 2022: 2-Hour Facebook Launch Party (free, public, virtual), hosted by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours.
February 10, 2022: Virtual reading at Readings on the Pike.
March 24-26, 2022: table and exhibitor's pass at AWP Writers Conference bookfair.

The novel is a Chaucer Award winner.
The author has hired publicist, Lori Hettler, of The Next Best Book Club Publicity.