Soquel Campmeeting

I've been invited to attend the Sunday Book Sale at Soquel Campmeeting (July 16, 2006, 4 p.m.) to give a five-minute pitch of Rainbow Over Hell. This Seventh-day Adventist campmeeting in Central California is attended by some 15,000 people each summer.

Not surprisingly, the two-hour Book Sale at campmeeting is apparently the event at which to sell books published by Pacific Press. The Adventist Book Centers make a good portion of their total annual sales at these Book Sales, and the books chosen to be highlighted almost always sell very well, or so I hear.

My publisher tells me that Rainbow Over Hell will be heavily promoted at several other campmeetings as well. I intend to focus on promoting Rainbow Over Hell through campmeeting season, which ends in late July.

Bridge of Healing

Thus far, I've sent out about 80 press releases and 40 emails announcing the publication of Rainbow Over Hell. As a result, several book reviews are in the works. In addition, I've received a handful of thoughtful emails from WWII veterans/family members of WWII veterans for whom the Pacific War carries emotional significance.

My wish is that Rainbow Over Hell will become a bridge of healing for those who carry heavy memories from battles fought and that it will also inspire readers from all walks of life to embrace compassion and forgiveness, as Saburo Arakaki did.

Bill Gordon has kindly left a wonderful and very thorough comment/mini-book review for us, calling Rainbow Over Hell "a remarkable story of love and forgiveness." Thank you, Bill. Read it here.
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In other news, references to Rainbow Over Hell appear in a couple of places on the web:
-An announcement on Chamorro.com (Interestingly enough, this is currently the first entry that pops up in a Google search for "Rainbow Over Hell.")
-An announcement on the Mountain View Japanese SDA Church

Upcoming Events

I will be participating in several exciting promotional opportunities in April:

April 1: Interview at Roseville Seventh-day Adventist Church.

April 12: Radio interview on Capital Public Radio's "Insight" program (2-3 p.m.). Capital Public Radio is the Sacramento region's affiliate of National Public Radio, and "Insight" is hosted by Jeffrey Callison. I've admired Jeffrey Callison ever since I heard him interview writer Maxine Hong Kingston for California Lectures. My interview will be about 20 minutes long, and it will air live. Wish me luck!

April 21: Guest at pre-vespers program for English majors at Pacific Union College

Stay tuned--I hope to have more good news to share.

Welcome!

Welcome to the official blog of Rainbow Over Hell.

For those of you who may not know, Rainbow Over Hell tells the true story of Saburo Arakaki's transformation from World War II assassin to preacher for God. Several years have passed since I first began working on translating this incredible book by award-winning Japanese author, Tsuneyuki Mohri, and I'm happy to announce that Rainbow Over Hell is now available for the first time in English. Pacific Press published Rainbow Over Hell in early March 2006, and it is slowly finding its way into bookstores across the U.S. (Ordering information can be found here.)

In this blog, we will report on news and promotional events related to the book. We also hope to hear back from readers. The original Japanese edition of the book (地獄の虹）resulted in a series of incredible stories that unfolded in the lives of readers, and we hope that the English edition will be no different. We welcome your stories and comments on this blog and through email.