As an author in this economy, you have to come up with creative ways to market a self-published book. While book tours are a great way to connect with your readers, they aren’t the most affordable method of promotion. However, technology has made it possible for an alternative. Take note from self-publishing Outskirts Press author, Oscar Patton, who is taking his latest book, Riding the Fantastics, on tour – a virtual book tour, that is. He will be featured on several blogs over the weeks and months ahead so keep your eyes peeled to learn more about him and his book.
Luckily for us, Oscar was kind enough to answer a few questions as the tour was getting started so that we can give you a sneak peek into the mind of the creator of Riding the Fantastics. 
OP: Tell us a little bit about Riding the Fantastics. What is it about?
Oscar: It is an action/adventure novel about the murder of the last Cracker king, a fabulously wealthy cattle ranger and lover boy whose death in 1899 marked the end of south Georgia’s old herding culture, an astonishing way of life developed in the last half of the nineteenth century under the longleaf yellow pines. Who killed Boy Man Hardin? A jealous husband? An angry black adversary? A greedy neighbor? What precipitated the end of an age? Greed? The sawmills? The railroad? Time itself?
OP: Why did you decide to write this story?
Oscar: It is based very loosely on the life and times of my great-grandfather, a legendary cattleman and land owner who loved too many women. He, for me, has always represented the nineteenth century man of action, the two-fisted cowboy who lived free, unencumbered by society or government. He was the great-grandfather of all of us.
OP: What types of readers would be interested in this story?
Oscar: My novel will appeal to readers who like literary fiction (fiction that gives universal, timeless significance to local, particular stories), history lovers, murder mystery readers, readers who like humor, irony, and satire. My first book, When the Bough Breaks, is unabashedly a woman’s book. Riding the Fantastics should appeal to both genders, but especially men (war, fighting, hunting and fishing, sexual exploits).
Anyone who loves the land in its natural state will like this book, particularly southerners.
OP: What is special about your book? What differentiates it from other books in the same category?
Oscar: It presents the old South as it was, not as it is too often depicted in literature and movies, even Gone with the Wind. Nineteenth-century south Georgia, for example, was not a land of plantation mansions, rich planters, and slaves. And it was not all ignorance, racism, and poverty either, though there was certainly too much of all that. As a novelist, I see point of view as the greatest shaping influence. Riding the Fantastics is told by characters in the story in present tense; hence some dialect and even idiolect is used but not overdone so as to slow down the reader (as in Lamb in His Bosom) or to create southern caricatures.
OP: Have you published any other books? Do you plan to publish more?
Oscar: Yes and yes, as explained above. I am going to write my region until I die and find as much timeless, universal truth and meaning in it as I can.
OP: Thanks for your time, Oscar! We look forward to learning more about you as you visit other bloggers!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Author of When the Bough Breaks, Oscar Patton, Ph.D., has a farm near Ambrose, Georgia. He uses south Georgia history and culture to create novels with universal, timeless themes. “Drawing upon memory and imagination,” Patton says, “I try to bring the past back to life. The people in this place and time endured. They deserve to be remembered.”
For more information or to contact the author, visit www.outskirtspress.com/ridingthefantastics This author purchased the Virtual Book Tour marketing option, which allows self-publishing authors to connect with bloggers and harness the power of the blogosphere by taking their book on the “virtual road”. Learn more about this service by visiting your Publishing Center and reviewing the available marketing options.
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