Inside Northern Nevada June 2023 Edition

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After 20 rejections from different publishers, local author Gail Hertzog decided she would take the fate of her book, Crossing the Ford, into her own hands and start her own publishing company, Long Legged Something Press.

“This [book] is kind of my baby. I wrote it four times to get it to where it is. I took some writing classes and I really studied around and tried to refine it into a good book,” she explained.

According to Hertzog, around 200,000 books used to be published each year, but now, there’s around two million books published every year, with more and more authors, even big name authors, going self-published.

“After getting published, the next big step is to market your book. And that’s the process I’m in right now and it’s really hard…I tried [to market] a lot of ways— I’m still trying— but I decided to join these writing contests, or book award contests.”

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Her book has now earned eight different awards including First Place Goethe for Historical Fiction, and First Place Laramie for Americana Fiction from the Chanticleer International Book Awards and First Place Romance, First Place Western, Second Place Interior Design, and Honorable Mention in Illustrations (done by local artist Teddy Swecker) from the Royal Dragonfly Awards out of thousands of entries from around the world.

According to Hertzog, she has rewritten her book many times over the past 20 years, wanting to make sure it was just right. The story takes place in post Civil War Winnemucca with characters inspired by some of her ancestors and her friends and family, including her main character, Ruby Holt, who was inspired by her father, a quirky-colloquialism using cowboy. The heart of her book beats for Nevada though.

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Continued Inside

Writer Kisa Murrin has been mulling the idea over in her head for years: What happens when a woman in an abusive marriage takes back her power from her controlling, formidable husband? The storyline for the 4-part Fist of Rage series began to take shape, inspired by a poem Murrin wrote in the mid-1990s. As the characters and story developed in the back of her mind over the following decades, Murrin built and raised a family with her husband of 22 years, Ken.

However, in 2016, after her mother passed away, Murrin had an awakening.

“I realized how short life really is and I knew I had to seek out my passion,” she said. “I needed to find myself outside of my husband and children.”

That nagging thought — the story of Olivia — began taking more shape over the next several years. Then, in early 2021, Murrin celebrated the publishing of the first book in the series, Escaped from Rage: Fist of Rage. The reader is introduced to Olivia, a woman intent on escaping her abusive marriage to Greg, a powerful man with unlimited resources. Through the next two books — Returned to Rage, and Released from Rage — the reader is alongside Olivia as she must make devastating decisions and deal with the consequences. The fourth book and latest in the series, Redeemed Through Rage, was published earlier this month and follows the story of Angus as he navigates the complicated space between ghosts of the past and current redemption.

All four books in the series are available on Amazon, or you can purchase hard copies by contacting Murrin at kisa.murrin@gmail.com.

Murrin will be signing copies of her new book on Aug. 12 at Walk the Line in Winnemucca. Those who attend will also have the opportunity to paint a replica of the cover of the fourth book as part of a painting class.

Murrin is the mother to four grown children — Aubree, Britnee, Journey and Jesse — and makes her home in Winnemucca, Nev., with her husband, Ken.

“So the other thing about the book that’s really cool is that it’s a Nevada project. It’s a Nevada author and Nevada story. I had a Nevada book designer. I had a Nevada editor, a Nevada illustrator. The only thing that’s from out of state is the painting that I used for the cover. But when I first tried to self publish, I was using people from Albania and they kept messing up and so I thought, What am I doing? This is a Nevada story. So I just said ‘I’m only using Nevada people,’ and I started searching for them and I found the best people.”

Hertzog is also developing herself into a “book coach,” helping other Nevada writers to get published. Her decades of experience teaching at local schools, coaching other educators, and her passion for writing has inspired her to host a special workshop for writers in Nevada, called the Nevada Writers Project.

“A really fun part of my company’s goal is to work with other authors. I have this thing called the Nevada Writers Project and I’m on my fifth author. I’m developing myself into a book coach…And so [I work] with writers that have a book almost done or they’re in the process, or they get stuck, or they just don’t know where to go next, if they want to self publish or not, so I just help and I don’t charge for it,” explained Hertzog.

She is also working on a project with friends to publish a compilation of works put together over the course of local writing retreats through Long Legged Something Press. Local writers will spend a weekend writing and inspiring and Hertzog and local artist Teddy Swecker will put together, illustrate and publish something unique.

“We’ll have that experience of writing together and sharing our work and see what happens. It’s gonna be something really cool and I’m very excited about that,” said Hertzog.

Her next book is already in the works as well, inspired by more local history and scenery and will take place amongst a family with a home in Winnemucca and a ranch in McDermitt “and the Spanish flu is coming”.

“It’s going to have a little bit of overlap of characters and it’s two generations after The Ford,” explained Hertzog.

Coming back from the rejections from publishers, two of whom were in person, was a hard journey for Hertzog that took time, but making it here has built so much more than just a book.

“It’s really hard to present your work, but you have to be brave and you just have to keep trying and don’t give up. And if the way you choose to get your work out there doesn’t work, choose a different way—don’t give up. And also, everybody’s not going to like your book. Everything you write isn’t for everyone. So if someone doesn’t like your work, okay, fine, but someone else will and everyone won’t understand your work but someone will. You just have to keep trying,” said Hertzog.

Great Basin Sun, June 7, 2023 - 35

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