Our thanks to Doug Walsh for sponsoring The Seattle Review of Books this week. Seattle author Walsh has released not one but two books this year: The Walkthrough: Insider Tales from a Life in Strategy Guides, and Tailwinds Past Florence, a time-travelogue that's really a love story that's really a thriller.

We're intrigued by Walsh's work. He's noted that writing these memoir-ish books came after the last major publisher of strategy guides closed, presumably leaving him free to tell stories he might not've otherwise. It's fascinating to think about how you might construct a story as you walk through a video game — which is itself a story — and how what you learn might translate to an original tale.

Tailwinds Past Florence promises to be a compelling and twisty piece of work. It's built on the bones of reality (Walsh's own globe-trotting bike trip), and the couple at the center of it were Walsh's companions from the Pyrenees to the Indian Ocean. But they're distinctly different from Walsh and his wife — not least because one of them is a time-traveler.

Check out chapter 1 on our sponsor feature page this week only. Then pick up a copy here.

Did you notice the long line of cars leaving town? It's almost August, Seattle's favorite season for campaign, beach-ing, and road-tripping. It's the perfect time to put your book in front of this city of avid readers. Grab one of the last sponsorships of the season and make sure you're in every duffel, backpack, or beach bag in the state.