I have always been one to tell stories. From a young age I used to love keeping the other kids enthralled as I told stories that would somehow go on for days. Then, when I grew older, I began reading Robert B. Parker, then Mickey Spillane, then John D. McDonald, Ernest Hemingway, Tony Hillerman and, more recently, Craig Johnson of Longmire fame. After taking a two week trip into the American West, I realized I had found my home. I drove from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Glacier National Park, Montana, traveling through the beautiful and iconic scenery that was to become the majestic backdrop for my first novel, Path of the Dead which I am proud to report was published August 14th, 2018!
When I first set foot in the Four Corners area of the United Sates, I was 12 years old. I fell in love with the land and its beauty, and knew I had to create a world of characters that would one day inhabit it. My first goal for my first novel, Path of the Dead, was to gain representation. When that became a reality, my second goal was to become a published author; that goal was realized by signing a contract with Blackstone publishing. My third goal will be to move to the southwest and immerse myself in the land and the Navajo people and their culture so I can gain a deeper understanding and a more spiritual connection.
To those of you who followed me, and for those wish to follow my incredible journey, please sign up for my publishing updates so you can be sure to keep up on the latest information and order autographed copies when they are available. I am astounded by the amount of people who have visited this website in the last 14 months. In the last 4 1/2 months my visitors have eclipsed the total for last year entirely and the number of subscriptions have increased dramatically! I thank my many subscribers who have helped turn my dream into a reality!
I have a total of 9 novels in the works, so far, that will become the Arthur Nakai Mystery Series. Here is just a peek at the future of Arthur Nakai: My world is inhabited by extraordinary people. People like Arthur Nakai, an ex-marine and retired member of the Shadow Wolves, an ICE tactical unit made up of fifteen trackers from several Native American tribes recruited by Homeland Security to hunt human traffickers and drug smugglers on the U.S/Mexico border. His wife, Sharon Keonie Nakai, is a KZRV-TV field reporter and weekend news anchor battling her own demons from the loss of their only child; Jake Bilagody, a Navajo Nation police Captain, now doing double duty by acting as police chief due to the result of a sudden vacancy, and Abraham Fasthorse, a Blackfoot from the mountains of Montana and also Arthur's old friend from his Shadow Wolf days. Together, on occasion, they find themselves wading through the swamp of racial discrimination, oil and gas fracking on sacred land, missing children, selfish politics, pornography, organ harvesting, art theft, uranium mining, and trying to connect two murders that took place thirty years apart . . . all while trying to make a difference in the constant struggles facing the Native American people today in the beautiful, but harsh landscape of the American Southwest.
I am very pleased to announce that the Audiobook is now moving forward! I was given four people to chose from, all with samples of them reading passages from Path of the Dead, and I have made my choice. The actor is now aware and will begin recording the book. I am proud and extremely pleased to say the Bronson Pinchot will be the narrator for the first Arthur Nakai novel, Path of the Dead! You may all know him from TV's Perfect Strangers or of the feature film First Wives Club, but he has also worked extensively as an audiobook narrator for Blackstone Publishing, with over 100 recordings to his credit. AudioFile magazine even recognized him as the Best Voice in Fiction & Classics for his 2010 renderings. We are all pleased to confirm that he will be bringing Arthur Nakai, and the other rich characters that inhabit his world, to life.
