This year, my first literary child, Iron Lake, turns twenty years old. I’ve been penning my Cork O’Connor series for two decades. What a joy it’s been to see Cork and his family and Henry Meloux grow across all these years. If you’d asked me back in the fall of 1998 if I could imagine sixteen additional novels in the series floating out there somewhere on the horizon, I would have called you crazy.
I’m so very thankful to all of you who’ve been with me from the beginning, and so grateful to those of you who joined me along the way.
My publisher is pretty happy with all this, too. To help celebrate the anniversary, Atria Books has arranged a special ebook offering through June 24. This edition of Iron Lake contains a tantalizing excerpt from Desolation Mountain, #17 in the series, which will be released August 21.
You can order this edition directly from Simon and Schuster, or from any online bookseller.
I discovered Iron Lake a month ago and I have been steadily reading each book after it. It has been meaniful to me because I was married in 1966 and we no money for a honeymoon. I was the camper, and I suggested we go camping in the Boundary Waters. Armed with Duluth Packs we ventured forth out of Ely to Moose Lake where we were unceremoniously dumped into the water with our canoe and packs. We soon had to go over a beaver dam. It was a great adventure. We went back for many years with improved equipment and frequently flew into the Quetico. We loved the loons, the slap of the beaver tails in the water, the eagles, moose, and bear. We loved the solitude and hated the black flies. Weather can make or break and trip. Usually we were lucky, but more than once I wore empty bread bags over my socks after days of rain. We were always greatful when we found a campsite where the boy scouts had preceded us. They left cut wood, kindling, and many times a counter of brances made between two trees. What fun. Eventually we attacked the Appalachian Trail and crossed the Knife Edge on Mt. Katahdin. It was all great fun!