***Note - My blog has just been added to my Author Central page at Amazon. To acquaint readers there with my work, I'm posting some prior entries.\u00a0 Also, it's the holidays, people.\u00a0 All that peace\u00a0on earth stuff\u00a0is stressful and don't get me started on the goodwill\u00a0part.\u00a0 ****<\/p>\n
(Originally posted May 31, 2009)<\/p>\n
Drum roll, please!\u00a0I\u00a0got an actual\u00a0customer review on Amazon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0A reader gave a brief review of A Faerie\u00a0Fated Forever<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0She gave it 3 out of 5 stars, which ain\u2019t bad.\u00a0 Yeah, 5 out of 5 would\u2019ve been nice but heck, I\u2019m\u00a0pretty darned new at this whole publication business.\u00a0 Besides, what has me doing cartwheels isn\u2019t the 3 stars.\u00a0 It\u2019s what she said about the book.<\/p>\n The reader\u00a0titled her\u00a0review Good Read Overall<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0She said she started reading and didn\u2019t put it down until the end, but thought there was a bit of over kill when he (Nial) finally decided he was in love.\u00a0\u00a0First and foremost, I write to entertain.\u00a0 When I pick up a book by one of my long time faves or by a new writer, I know it\u2019s a success if I have trouble putting it down.\u00a0 If I pick up one and read it straight through \u2013 well, that\u2019s a home run.\u00a0 Faerie<\/a><\/em> entertained the reviewer.\u00a0 That puts a big ole smile on my face.<\/p>\n The reviewer also said she thought there was a bit of \u201cover kill\u201d when Nial acknowledged that he\u2019d fallen in love.\u00a0 That comment only proves how smart this reviewer must be.\u00a0 In Faerie<\/a> <\/em>as in ALL<\/a> of my books, I write the love story over the top.\u00a0 There\u2019s a fair amount of\u00a0tongue in cheek involved in this and it\u2019s certainly not intended to reflect reality.\u00a0 Anyone who has read this blog knows that I want my readers to escape reality.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re going to escape this reality, why not write one\u00a0that women would like\u00a0to\u00a0inhabit?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>My heroes are generally pretty spoiled guys.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s in the contemporaries or the historicals, my heroes are rakes and rogues.\u00a0 They\u2019ve had too much their own way for too long and they\u2019ve devoted a fair amount of energy to pleasure and self indulgence.\u00a0When love strikes, it hits them hard but they won\u2019t admit it.\u00a0 They\u2019re\u00a0too stubborn, too certain that this is just another woman in a long train of women.\u00a0 By the time they realize this one means much more, that this one matters, they\u2019ve generally screwed up pretty badly.\u00a0 Then they have to get her back, HAVE TO HAVE HER BACK, can\u2019t live without her.\u00a0 The race to redeem themselves and\u00a0win her back is frantic and manic and yeah \u2013 totally over the top.\u00a0 Over kill\u00a0is a lot of fun to write and, judging from this review, it can be a lot of fun to read.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also some justice that I believe women would like to see more of in the whole process.\u00a0 Perhaps there\u2019s even an element of Mother Nature\u2019s karma -\u00a0\u00a0You\u2019ve had it way too easy, buddy.\u00a0 You want this one?\u00a0 You require this one?\u00a0 You can\u2019t exist without this one?\u00a0Well good.\u00a0 That\u2019s as it should be.\u00a0 But unlike the rest of your life up to this moment, it won\u2019t be easy.\u00a0 You\u2019ll have to work to get her and you\u2019ll have to struggle to keep her.\u00a0 I can hear Mother Nature in my ear as I write, cheering on the heroine - You Go Girl<\/em>.<\/p>\n I write over the top.\u00a0 I write \u201cover kill.\u201d\u00a0 I write\u00a0stories where a great\u00a0female\u00a0karma <\/em>shifts power to the ladies.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n So if you want to read a \u201cslice of life\u201d story that reflects the world we live in and work in and struggle to pay the bills in, well, my stories may not be your cup of latte.\u00a0 <\/em>But if you want to read about a place where men fall head over wonder worm in love, then pick up one of my books.\u00a0 Heck, pick up all of my books<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Amazon reviewer said she started reading Faerie<\/a> <\/em>and did not put it down until the end.\u00a0 So the review essentially said\u00a0that Faerie<\/a> <\/em>was an over the top love story that she couldn\u2019t put down.\u00a0 I like that.\u00a0 I like it very, very much.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reader reviews and reaction are important to me.\u00a0 Yeah, I\u2019d like to be picked up by a big publishing house and have my books in stores around the globe.\u00a0 Yeah, I\u2019d love to have Shonda Rhimes, Ron Howard, Penny Marshall,\u00a0Oprah Winfrey or the like call and say - Darling, I must buy the movie rights to your book<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 One sale of movie rights would buy me a writer\u2019s life.\u00a0 Writing full time is the brass ring\u00a0so many of us\u00a0dream of reaching.<\/p>\n Most of us will never get the brass ring and it\u2019s not why we write.\u00a0 We write to intrigue, inform, enlighten or entertain.\u00a0 For all of us, I\u00a0couldn\u2019t put it down<\/em> is the ultimate reader\u2019s compliment.\u00a0 It\u2019s why we turn on our computers and type Chapter One.\u00a0 <\/em>Having this reader say she didn\u2019t put it down until the end means she enjoyed the book.\u00a0 Having her call Nial\u2019s reaction to falling in love \u201cover kill\u201d means she found it over the top.\u00a0<\/p>\n To me, the review means I succeeded at least once, with one reader.\u00a0 Yeah, 5 out of 5 stars would have been nice.\u00a0 But if I have a choice, I\u2019ll take\u00a0 \u201cdid not put it down until the end\u201d over all the stars in the Amazon universe.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tracy Stuber<\/a>, thanks for taking the time to comment<\/a> on the book.\u00a0 It meant a lot to me.\u00a0 Guess what I\u2019m trying to say is \u2013 Tracy Stuber<\/a>, you rock!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ***Note - My blog has just been added to my Author Central page at Amazon. To acquaint readers there with my work, I'm posting some prior entries.\u00a0 Also, it's the holidays, people.\u00a0 All that peace\u00a0on earth stuff\u00a0is stressful and don't get me started on the goodwill\u00a0part.\u00a0 **** (Originally posted May 31, 2009) Drum roll, please!\u00a0I\u00a0got ...continue reading \"3 Out Of 5 Ain’t Bad\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":793,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions\/793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}