Below is a first draft of a press release for Heart's Revenge. Comments welcomed -- it's a rough first draft, written at 4:45 a.m. on a Saturday... Just testing the waters here... It's always good for me to see something like this in a different format (and I'm trying to make it clear this book is written under a pseudonym, which can get clunky).


WAKE FOREST RESIDENT DEBUTS
NOVEL OF MYSTERY AND ROMANCE
SET ON NORTH CAROLINA'S COAST

WAKE FOREST, NC—Wake Forest resident Michael Jasper announces the upcoming publication of Heart's Revenge, a paranormal mystery/romance that takes place on Ocracoke Island, off the North Carolina coast. Michael's pen name for this book is Julia C. Porter.

To be published by Five Star Books on May 15, 2006, Heart's Revenge by Julia C. Porter tells the story of a young Maritime History professor in search of Blackbeard's missing ship, rumored to be hidden under the waters next to Ocracoke Island. The professor, Ella Simon, teams up with Ocracoke native Mitch Thompson to dive the wreck, and sparks fly between them as they attempt to solve the mysteries surrounding the shipwreck while avoiding the ghosts of long-dead pirates, wild ponies, and even surly elderly tourists. The novel incorporates various legends and ghost stories about the small island off the Outer Banks of North Carolina, including tall tales about Blackbeard, whose headless ghost comes back from its watering resting place to visit Ella and Mitch.

Michael, a graduate of the 1996 Clarion Workshop for Writers and the North Carolina State Master of Arts writing program, resides in Wake Forest with his wife, Elizabeth, and their son Drew. In January of 2005, Michael's short story collection Gunning for the Buddha came out from Prime Books, and garnered positive reviews from Publishers Weekly, Locus, SF Site, and other fine publications. He works as a technical writer during the day, and steals time to work on his fiction early in the mornings, where you can find him working on a new novel and plotting out a sequel to Heart's Revenge. You can follow his writing process at his Web site: www.michaeljasper.net.

For more information on Heart's Revenge, please contact the author at ***-***-**** or mjasper@gmail.com, and to place an order, call 800-877-4253, ext. 1255. Advanced reading copies of the novel are available for review, and Michael is available for author signings, readings, and discussions. Discounts for copies of Heart's Revenge by Julia C. Porter are available from Five Star Books in conjunction with scheduled author signings.

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