River3 Digital Press is a book service to assist authors create print ready books in paper and digital formats.
We have à la carte options to assist authors who wish to pursue Print On Demand with Amazon and KDP Select, as well as help with book files for Ingram, the largest book distributor in the nation. This is a paid service, we do not collect, hold or distribute royalties.
We process all aspects of the book. Hardcover, soft cover paper books and eBooks. We can show you how to publish POD with Paperback/hardback books to be distributed and made available to brick and mortar bookstore outlets and online. Or we can do it for you.
Book covers are created as well as the interior book design for paper publishing. Our eBooks are all hand design coded. We do not aggregate PDF files or Word doc files with software. We have found over time that these types of methods can bring unpredictable results. All books are coded in XHTML 1.1 and pass the Epubcheck v4 validator prior to distribution.
ISBN are provided as well graphic placement. We can take care of copyrighting, Library of Congress and Writers Guild registration for fiction/non-fiction writers. All material is turned into a paper and digital formats. The product looks the same all through the process.
A book video is helpful as well. We create a video for your book that shows your own introduction and highlights. Your video can go on Facebook as well as your book website. Today’s web visitor wants to see and hear your message rather than just read it. According to the Online Publishers Association, 80% of your visitors will watch a video and 52% of those visitors will take the call to action.
“Streaming video delivers nearly three times higher brand awareness and message association, and more than 100% higher purchase intent and online ad awareness than non-rich media ads.” – Dynamic Logic MarketNorms Report –
River3 Digital Press does a lot of book covers for other publishers. We handle the graphics for the front and back, the placement of your photo, and ISBN barcodes. We design for hardcover sleeves, paperback and digital eBooks. We can make you bookmarks to distribute as well with QR codes that go to your site. We can do paper or digital book covers ala carte just drop us a line. Or pick-up on our book package.
Click to listen to the Prologue:
Chasing the Dragon
Parker, Deborah's spiritual advisor, came in with a group of his followers, shadowed by a half-cocked security guard. He wore a long, loose caftan of un-dyed linen, Parker appeared to be all of a single non-descript color. Neither white nor blonde, his hair was a shade somewhere in between and cut so short it was almost shaved. His skin -- the color of sand. And his pale eyes -- not quite green, blue, or gray. It seemed that in the mystic void created by his presence, color simply drained away.”
Banquet of Choices (Book I) & Feast of Consequences (Book II)
So what do;
- A mother
- A Father
- A Viet Nam veteran, partially paralyzed by a drug overdose,
- His impetuous 18 year old girlfriend and her promiscuous friend,
- A pair of stoner college professors,
- A former bombshell starlet, and her cowboy husband,
- A notorious epileptic Italian actor/director and his young wife bought from a Serbian Gypsy,
- An enigmatic cult leader who is rumored to be a murderer,
- A Native American Pentecostal preacher,
- The Chinese Underground,
- A goat doctor, and a human-flesh eating dog have in common?
They all come to life, in a Far Strange Country!
This two-book series takes place in San Francisco, Berkeley, Napa, Los Angeles, Big Sur and the Sierra Nevada foothills of California. Hippies, ranchers and film stars illustrate the central theme: choices can have consequences, and you reap what you sow.
A Far Strange Country by Arielle Hunter is set against the backdrop of social unrest, the rise of the drug culture, psychedelia, political upheaval and assassinations. Like postcards from the past, cinematic descriptions, up-close narration and crisp dialog bring elements of 1968 California to life in this tightly-written novel. Five couples of different origins, ages, lifestyles and purpose, interweave their personal choices together in a world of changing attitudes and ideals that affected a whole generation.
Our Cast of Characters:
Thrown into the mix are Buck and Pauline Harper a staid couple who are trying to ride out 1968 on their ranch in the Sierra Nevada foothills. A telegram arrives, telling them that their son Steven Harper is in a San Francisco hospital following a heroin drug overdose. They find him in the hospital half paralyzed and barely conscious, and discover that they are grandparents to a three year-old boy whose mother is Steven’s 18 year old girlfriend Shara. Steven and Shara are both struggling to find a place in the sun with or without each other and pulling their little boy Donovan to the edge of despair.
At the same time in Los Angeles, Donatello Dragghi, an epileptic, is lying low to stay out of the line of fire from an organized crime family after messing with the wrong man’s mistress. He is forced to leave Italy where he was a big movie star and director to hide out in America. At the same time he’s slowly going broke and looking for an infusion of cash. The person who takes the brunt of his neglect and abuse is his young wife Slovika who was bought from a Serbian Gypsy in a forced marriage.
We have Parker, the pop-culture guru, author and director of the Orion Institute who is suspected of murdering a follower to acquire a property in Big Sur, and wears the diamond ring of the man presumed missing or dead. His disciple and personal assistant named Gregg, tries to balance his own mundane life with Parker’s personal cosmic brilliance.
And then there’s Deborah Donaldson, a 30 year old buxom blond and former beach movie starlet who is now a daytime TV host and her estranged cowboy husband – Bob Morant, a drummer in a popular 60s band. Deborah’s spiritual advisor is Parker, and Bob finds Parker’s mystic ways and means dubious at best, and insists on doing whatever he can to undermine him.
Each of our characters has a dream to fight for, and each of them has their debts to pay. They all have their individual stories and as they come together they create a story that’s new and most unexpected.
What Readers Are Saying About A FAR STRANGE COUNTRY
Amazon.com -
“All her characters are vivid, showing the differences that tore the country apart during the anti-Vietnam war era. I love the way the author paints such vivid word-pictures that the events come alive. I’m glad I ordered both volumes.”
“She depicts the lifestyle and the drugs prevalent during that time. The characters do not escape the outcomes of their choices. Areille did her research into a very turbulent time. I look forward to the journey in book 2.”
“What a wonderful and well written book. With so many interesting characters who each have their own story line to follow. While the lives of each individual varies greatly, the author begins weaving the web throughout their lives that ultimately brings them all to their ‘six degrees of separation’ before you come to the end of Volume 1.”
“I enjoyed the book from start to finish, only put it down because I had to go to work. Everything ties together and is very fast paced. Like watching an interactive movie!”
“… the words are written so beautifully, they flow like silk over the pages! I would definitely recommend reading this book. Ive just started the 2nd book in the series and cant wait to see where the characters take me!”
Goodreads -
“The author is a trained artist but what struck me most about ‘A Far Strange Country’ was the author’s ability to evoke atmosphere with a light and confident touch and using the senses to bring about character development.”
“She [Arielle Hunter] used such beautiful words to describe the 60s. Can’t wait for the second book. Please hurry I’m dying here.”
“The author does not lack vocabulary and knows how to turn a sentence quite poetically . . . this story could provide the basis for an interesting movie.”
“I read the book. I swear I squealed like a school girl with a crush. I love, love, love this book.”
“I felt as if I was reading a good movie that had been made in the 1960s about the 1960s. . .”
Readers' Favorite -
“It’s beautifully written, with lyrical touches . . .”
“This trip to ‘A Far Strange Country’ was a wild and emotional one, but totally worth the price of admission!”
“What a finish. Ms. Hunter knows how to write, that’s for sure, and she knows how to draw a reader in. Excellent work, bring on book 2!”
“Beneath the backdrop of the excitement and danger of the time’s social and cultural changes, we also unravel the author’s amazing creative writing style. ‘A Far Strange Country’ is one novel that is absolutely worth picking up.”
“I would certainly recommend A Far Strange Country: Volume II to fans of the first book, and the series in general for readers seeking a unique ensemble cast with plenty of ups and downs.”
“. . .every storyline offers a deep commitment to character development by the author, along with up-close narration and telling dialogue that gives us some insight into polarized and very unusual lives at the time.”
“Author Arielle Hunter has crafted a truly epic tale that showcases the changing attitudes and ideas of a whole generation in this sweeping masterpiece of recent historical fiction.”
LIFE UNDER A CLOUD
Author: Joseph M. Bowers
Beginning life with a normal and happy childhood, at age 17 Joe Bowers had his first psychotic episode resulting in hospitalization in the Middletown State Mental Institution. Diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, he then began his lifelong journey through treatments and drug therapies as beliefs within the psychiatric community and societal attitudes changed…………
MILLIONAIRE SHOES
Author: Lee Arnold
YOU CAN NEVER judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes. But what if that mile included a million dollars or even more? The journey now sounds a little more intriguing, doesn’t it? Is it possible? Of course it is! If you follow the principles outlined in this book, a million dollars, a successful future, and a secure personal life will be yours…………
CRUEL & UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT
Author: Paul Lecoq
Are Aaron’s enhanced interrogation techniques in the Teflon room cruel or unusual? Torture? The Constitution protects criminals from Cruel and Unusual Punishment, but the criminal, himself, determines the limits. If the punishment isn’t worse than what the criminal did to his victims, it is neither cruel nor unusual…………
WHAT I LEARNED FROM GOD WHILE QUILTING
Authors: Ruth McHaney Danner & Cristine Bolly
Each of the fifty-plus chapters includes a true story on a quilt-related theme, followed by “The Quilting Frame” (a spiritual application), “God’s Template” (a relevant Scripture), “The Binding Stitch” (a brief prayer), and the “Scrap Bag” (a practical quilting tip)…………
NO LONGER BOUND
Authors: Joel & Linda Budd
As 1985 turned to 1986, the lives of Pastors Joel and Linda Budd turned into a nightmare. When everyone else was celebrating the New Year, the unthinkable happened.they learned that their precious four-year-old daughter Joelle had been brutally raped. But that was just the beginning of the trauma. Pastors Joel and Linda take you with…………
FILL ME OR KILL ME
Authors: Joel & Linda Budd
Maybe you are crying out like Pastor Joel Budd did when he said, “Fill me or kill me, but don’t leave me this way!” Or maybe you are ready to throw in the towel, as Pastor Linda Budd was, unless God moves in your life. One thing is certain.you are on the right track because nothing much happens without a hunger and thirst for God! That’s why Pastors Joel and Linda have written their story…………