Today (Tuesday, October 4th, 2022), I’ll be giving a Presentation from 5 to 6 pm. Alaska Time in Homer, Alaska as part of my Alaska Reads Tour.
You can also see this presentation live via zoom. I’ll be talking about my books, how I became a writer, the writing process, doing a bit of reading, and taking questions.
To join via zoom, please email Cinda for the link: cnofziger@ci.homer.ak.us
Paul Greci is the author of The Wild Lands (Macmillan 2019), an Alaska Battle of the Books Selection, Surviving Bear Island (Move Books 2015), the 2022 Alaska Reads Book, a 2015 Junior Library Guild Selection and a 2016 Scholastic Reading Club Selection, Hostile Territory (Macmillan 2020), an Anchorage Daily News Best Book of 2020, and Follow the River (Move Books 2021), a 2021 Junior Library Guild Selection. You can order all of Paul’s books here.
A great review of Follow The River came out in both the Anchorage Daily News and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Below are a couple of snippets from the review. You can read the full review here:
–Greci has the skills to show young readers that, despite our conflicts, we all have shared humanity. It’s a much needed message.–David James, Anchorage Daily News
–Young readers are who Greci is targeting. As an educator, he’s aware of the fact that many boys in upper primary grades tend to quit reading altogether….Greci accomplishes this task by keeping the action moving swiftly. Chapters are brief, and most end in cliffhangers that will keep young readers turning pages. Fortunately, with Alaska, Greci has a landscape that can kill people in any number of ways. And from one cliffhanger to the next, Greci manages to rope in quite a few of them. His ability to find unique new dangers with each book is impressive–David James, Anchorage Daily News
The four novels I’ve published in my writing career thus far are all written with the intention of engaging reluctant readers. That said, I sincerely hope that avid readers will enjoy them too. I strive to write page-turners that have depth and complexity, and while the external survival plots move forward, my hope is that the internal journeys of the characters are just as compelling.
Paul Greci is the author of The Wild Lands (Macmillan 2019) and Surviving Bear Island (Move Books 2015), a 2015 Junior Library Guild Selection and a 2016 Scholastic Reading Club Selection, Hostile Territory (Macmillan 2020), an Anchorage Daily News Best Book of 2020, and Follow the River (Move Books 2021), a 2021 Junior Library Guild Selection. You can order all of Paul’s books here.
We’ve just returned from a week in Denali National Park where we were surrounded by immense beauty. I feel fortunate to live just a couple hours away from a jewel of a National Park.
Denali, the highest peak in North America at 20,310 feet was visible for part of our trip.
We also got to watch—from a safe distance—a grizzly bear nurse her cubs.
Then, we arrived home to surprise. Author copies of Follow the River—my follow-up novel to Surviving Bear Island. It’s an adventure/survival story with the same main character (Tom Parker) from Surviving Bear Island, but can be read as a stand-alone novel, and is a Junior Library Guild Selection.
I’ll be spending my writing time the next several months working on Book 3 of the Surviving Bear Island Series. In a few weeks when school starts and I’m back in the classroom, I’ll be back to more of an early morning, write-a-chapter-before-work schedule which I hope to sustain four mornings per week and then let the writing spill into other time slots as well.
Thanks for reading.
Paul Greci is the author of The Wild Lands (Macmillan 2019) and Surviving Bear Island (Move Books 2015), a 2015 Junior Library Guild Selection and a 2016 Scholastic Reading Club Selection and Hostile Territory (Macmillan Jan. 28, 2020), an Anchorage Daily News Best Book of 2020. Forthcoming is Follow the River (Move Books August 20, 2021) . You can order all of Paul’s books here.
After a few pandemic-related delays, I’m thrilled to announce that my newest middle grade adventure novel, Follow the River, is a Junior Library Guild Selection for 2021. Follow the River hits the shelves on August 20th but you can preorder it now.
From the Jacket Flap: When Billy and his dad are injured, Tom summons the courage to get back on the water to save them. This time, he must travel in a rickety old homemade canoe through the Alaska wilderness to get help. But it’s not just the canoe and the terrain he has to worry about—he’s surrounded by adversaries. Are his skills enough to fight them off or will his journey be cut short and Billy and his father left stranded?
Paul Greci is the author of The Wild Lands (Macmillan 2019) and Surviving Bear Island (Move Books 2015), a 2015 Junior Library Guild Selection and a 2016 Scholastic Reading Club Selection and Hostile Territory (Macmillan Jan. 28, 2020), an Anchorage Daily News Best Book of 2020. Forthcoming is Follow the River (Move Books 2021) . You can order all of Paul’s books here.
In a year of mostly cancelled book events and shuttered brick & mortar bookstores, I got a little bit of good news regarding my book, Hostile Territory, in the Anchorage Newspaper. It was chosen as a favorite book for 2020.
Below is the text of the article regarding Hostile Territory:
Food is on the minds of the four teenagers who find themselves thrust into a survival situation after an earthquake wipes out the leadership camp they’re attending in Paul Greci’s latest novel “Hostile Territory.” What begins as a survival tale, with the kids trying to reach safety from a remote Alaska location, morphs into a political thriller, as they learn there’s a lot more going on than just a natural disaster. Greci is emerging as the state’s best author of young adult fiction. An educator who targets kids in the age range when many quit reading, he keeps them engrossed with a fast-moving plot and plenty of cliffhangers. It’s a formula that will keep adults turning pages as well.
It has been my life’s work as an educator and a writer to get reluctant readers to open a book and keep turning the pages. My first book, Surviving Bear Island, was a Junior Library Guild Selection in the category that’s guaranteed to engage even the most reluctant of readers.
While I hope that my stories will engage avid as well as reluctant readers, when I write I keep that population of struggling and reluctant teen readers I worked with for much of my teaching career front and center. Here’s a link to a post on my thoughts about engaging struggling and reluctant readers.
Paul Greci is the author of The Wild Lands (Macmillan 2019) and Surviving Bear Island (Move Books 2015), a 2015 Junior Library Guild Selection and a 2016 Scholastic Reading Club Selection and Hostile Territory (Macmillan Jan. 28, 2020), an Anchorage Daily News Best Book of 2020. Forthcoming is Follow the River (Move Books 2021) . You can order all of Paul’s books here.
My debut novel, Surviving Bear Island (Move 2015), is a Junior Library Guild Selection and a Scholastic Reading Club Pick. Its sequel, Follow The River (Move 2021) also a Junior Library Guild Selection is my most recent work. I'm also the author of The Wild Lands (Macmillan 2019), and Hostile Territory (Macmillan 2020). When I'm not writing I spend lots of time exploring the roadless areas of Alaska on foot and by kayak. I also teach reading and writing. I am represented by Amy Tipton of Signature Literary Agency.
You can contact me at paulgreci(at)yahoo(dot)com
Northwriter 