Linda J. Spielman’s A Field Guide to Tracking Mammals in the Northeast is a wonderful reference tool for the backyard enthusiast or the back-to-the-woods survivalist. Countryman Press published her book on July 4 and her distributor W.W. Norton sent a copy I donated to a Little Free Library here in Appleton, Wisconsin. Little Free Libraries began in Wisconsin and grew into a global movement based on a simple premise: take a book, leave a book. Now a nonprofit organization, Little Free Libraries, inspires a love of reading, build community, and spark creativity by fostering neighborhood book exchanges. Here in Appleton there are hundreds of Little Free Libraries scattered across many neighborhoods. There is a new one on Winona Way where I used to live. Across from City Park, there’s one that looks exactly like the house it sits in front of in the historic district. Most elementary schools have one on the playground or near the main entrance. They’re everywhere. Recently I stopped at the Little Free Library on Pacific Street to leave a new copy of Linda Spielman’s new field guide and took an old paperback edition of Barbara Pym’s Excellent Women. First published in 1952, this comedy of manners is a favorite of mine. The book details the everyday life of a “spinster” in her thirties in 1950s England and her witty spoof on gender relations in a self-deprecating voice with the sharpest wit is something to reread. There is a certain irony in that Linda Spielman reminds me…

Does an author really need to blog? Not necessarily. If you are writing fiction or a children’s storybook, probably not. If you’re writing nonfiction or memoir, probably so. To answer the question, you must ask yourself whether you can reach the audience who will buy your book with a blog. Children rarely make consumer choices about books, but their parents do. Tina L. Peterson wrote a middle-grade novel, Oscar and the Amazing Gravity Repellent. She has a Ph.D. in mass media and communications and is an activist for media literacy. In Media Parentis is where she blogs about smartphones and sleep deprivation, Superbowl Advertising Bingo, and why we need diverse children’s literature. If you have a way to speak to those who buy books like yours, then a blog may be a tool to pull customers to your writing. If you are writing for wildlife naturalists who spend the majority of their time in the field in remote locations like Linda J. Spielman, then you likely don’t need to blog because your customers aren’t likely to be searching online for A Field Guide to Tracking Mammals in the Northeast. But if your book is about a nonfiction subject on which people use search engines to seek out new information, then blogging can be an important instrument in your author’s bag toolkit. Blogging serves two purposes. One, it helps search engines keep your site at the top of the list of hits when someone types in your keywords. Every time you post…

Linda J. Spielman gave a presentation at the Nevins Center in the Cornell University Botanic Garden on July 16 at an event which celebrated the launch of her new book, A Field Guide to Tracking Mammals in the Northeast (Countryman Press/W.W. Norton). This wasn’t like any other book launch I’ve ever been to and I mean that in a good way. Cornell University provided eight rows of ten chairs and an overhead projection system. The large room backlit by panoramic views of the botanical gardens had been set up like a lecture hall. People of all ages filled every seat, and an overflow of dear friends at the back of the room made for a spectacular turnout. After Linda’s lecture, the line for book signing went on for an hour. But it was Linda J. Spielman whom they had come to see as a teacher and tracker. And now I know why. Her presentation packed a punch. Tracking wildlife is a lot like doing scientific research of any kind. And Linda is a naturalist who looks and listens from the depth and breadth of multiple scientific disciplines. She began by describing her fascination as a child with what evidence she saw in the woods back behind their house. Evidence that made her wonder who had been there and what happened when she wasn’t there. It’s the puzzle of figuring things out. What critter left that imprint in the mud? Who galloped across the field in the snow? The tracks, or evidence, tell a…