Harder Ground

Praise for Joseph Heywood's previous collection of short stories, Hard Ground

“Heywood displays uncommon storytelling versatility in this brilliant collection of 27 tales about the game wardens who patrol Michigan’s Upper Peninsula…. This volume should be read for pleasure, but would do equally well as an instruction manual for aspiring writers.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Joseph Heywood knows his poachers, deer-baiters, and road-beer-drinking yahoos, as well as his cross-dressing informants and Elvis impersonators, but his most compelling characters are the hardworking and embattled conservation officers, the quietly heroic men and women who enforce the law evenhandedly against a well-armed slice of citizenry. Heywood is at his finest and funniest in these short stories from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where cold kills and night can be as ‘black as the inside of a cow.’ These detective stories are a great contribution to the rural American literary tradition, with nods to Mark Twain, Robert Travers, Jim Harrison, Cully Gage, and Dashiell Hammett.”
—Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of Once Upon a River and American Salvage, a National Book Award finalist

“Joseph Heywood has a great ear for the vernacular of some of America’s more colorful backwoods ‘citizens,’ the cast for this wild set of tales. Even more incredible is his ability to see into the wild hearts of a wide range of wonderfully flawed human beings and the cops and conservation officers who try to keep them under control. This is full throttle writing, the kind of stuff you can’t put down to pick up the remote. Heywood is a compelling writer who has obviously done his time in the woods and lived to come back to tell us what it’s really like out there.”
—Michael Delp, author of As If We Were Prey and The Last Good Water

·Book giveaway in Goodreads First Reads program to generate early consumer reviews
·Community outreach to author's fan base for new release books and series
·Email marketing campaigns to historical fiction audience
·Robust social media marketing plan
·Blog Tour
·National media outreach to fiction editors and appropriate outlets