Sunday, August 08, 2010

Virtual Tales Acquires Historical Fiction Novel Desert Angels from Author Patrick Simpson

Virtual Tales, a privately held publisher of general and genre fiction in print and e-formats, announced the acquisition of the worldwide print and electronic publishing rights for the historical fiction novel Desert Angels by Raleigh, North Carolina author Patrick Simpson. Desert Angels is Mr. Simpson's first fiction novel; his non-fiction novels include Wheelchair Around the World, Wheelchair Down Under, and Whither Thou Goest, winner of the 2004 Nonfiction Book of the Year award from JADA Press.

This gripping tale was inspired by actual events during the Bannock Indian War of 1878, and Sarah Winnemucca, the Paiute princess who helped end it. Her life-sized statue was recently unveiled in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda -- only the second Native American woman to be granted that honor (Sacagawea was the first). When young Eva Beardsley wanders lost in the hot eastern Oregon desert looking for her cavalry boyfriend and is discovered by Paiute princess Sarah Winnemucca, their destinies change forever in the last great Indian war.

Desert Angels has been assigned to Virtual Tales staff editor Jake George of Cocoa Beach, Florida, who is himself a Native American. Publication in both print and eBook formats is anticipated for the second half of 2011. Interested readers can sign up to preview the first four chapters of Desert Angels for free by visiting the Virtual Tales website, or by sending an empty email request to desert-angels(a)virtualtales.com.