Words from Justine:

I have conducted research since 2000 with fieldwork taking place every other summer and started this volume years ago.

"The Maya of the Cochuah Region" is the first edited volume that focuses exclusively on our research in the Cochuah region of west-central Quintana Roo, Mexico.  Although this region is full of sites, they have received very little attention and the area is commonly a “blank spot” on maps of the Maya region even though in our study area alone, we have registered ~87 sites.  

The archaeologists contributing chapters to the volume are all long-term project members from the U.S., Mexico, and Sweden, while the ethnographer (who started as an archaeologist on the project) now does her own independent research in one of the communities in our study area.  Epigraphers/ art historians who have studied the inscriptions from our largest site also contributed another chapter.  The final chapter is written by a colleague of mine who works on another project in the northern part of the state.   

The volume is somewhat unique in that it examines the region from such varied perspectives and covers topics ranging over the area’s roughly 2,500-year occupational history, rather than the more narrow foci of our prior publications.

Words from Jennifer:

I loved to write since I learned to read but hid my writings from the world, fearful of judgement. What would people think of me?

I didn’t start to write Black Five until about four years ago, after I had children. If you would have asked me if I wanted to publish this book, I would have starred at you, bug-eyed, and hid in a corner, thumb in mouth.

Not really, but close.

It wasn’t until I started working with Dave Holper in the spring of 2012 that I began thinking: maybe. Maybe I’ll do something with this book.

As I wrote, it became clear to me that I needed to get this book out to teens, specifically. Such an awkward age, and to add life on top of that, holy hormones! How did I survive?

I struggled as a pre-teen and teen:  bullying, pimples, short hair, bad perms, freckles, and awkwardly thin. Some struggle with difficult home lives. I did.

I wanted to write a book that gave teens hope and empowerment.  I wanted them to ponder this: at what price are you willing to pay to live in fear?

So, I pitched the Black Five to Poorhouse Publishing in January 2015. They accepted Black Five and the three books that follow. The series is called The Black Blood Chronicles and Black Five is the first book in the series.

Today, the ebook copy of Black Five just went live on Amazon, Barnes and Noble—and wherever else they sell ebooks. The hard copy will be out on January 4^th, 2016.

Recently, I received some feedback from a young reader. She said: you gave me hope.

I cried.

Because at the end of the day, that’s all I want out of Black Five.