Saturday, April 13, 2013

Two Lovely Bronze Reviews . . .

. . . and a very flattering picture.

Ruth over at Reading...Dreaming, a book review blog in Uruguay (how cool is that?) did me the honor of requesting a book to review a few months ago. Unfortunately the first book went missing and I've imagined all kinds of interesting stories of where it might have gone and in whose hands it ended up! But she finally received the second book, liked it (yay!), and posted this lovely review.

One of the things I love most about being a writer is the connections I make to those people who like my book, write the reviews, and let me know who they are. I now have friends in Canada, Australia, and Uruguay, as well as several dotted around the United States. The thought of doing a real, physical book tour makes me shudder, except that I would love to get to meet these people. (I do plan on doing a virtual book tour when the e-book of Bronze is released and again when the second book is released, but this will not require airplanes, scratchy hotel sheets, or crowds!)

Then she posted this picture of the bookmark of another author's novel:

Kiss Me @KimberlyKinrade on Twitpic

It took me a moment to recognize my own book right behind the bookmark (you can just see the "n" and "z" of Bronze). Totally made my day! Though I'm not sure what that author thinks of it--it looks like she's kissing MY book! I will have to somehow return the favor!

Thursday (two days ago) I received e-mail notification that ForeWord Reviews had reviewed the copy of Bronze I had sent. This is huge for me. There are not many widely (editorially) accepted book review entities that review indie books. I have received a couple of other media reviews, but nothing on the scale of ForeWord. So I was, as the song says, noivous.

Yeah . . . you heard me. Bo Diddly.

Now, I've lived long enough to know myself pretty well. I had a rehearsal that night so I didn't want to have anything else on my mind. I also knew that one way or the other the results of the review might (and probably would) keep me awake, so I didn't look at the review until I got home after work on Friday (yesterday). I figured if it was negative and snarky at least I didn't have to get up early in the morning and act like a normal person.

Apart from a couple of comments about certain information the main character, Allison, didn't give soon enough (which, if you understand the concept of the book, was for a reason) and subjective opinion about formatting (if we had formatted over more pages the book would have been HUGE and cost more too!), the reviewer seemed to really like it and basically "got" it, as much as anybody can at this point anyway (bearing in mind, again, the concept of assumptions and how much information is still to be revealed!) The full review can be read here: ForeWord Review--The Glister Journals: Bronze

More music? Of course!!! I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I wake up with music playing in my head. Every. Single. Day. The really weird thing is that I don't wake up and the song then starts; I wake up and the song is in the middle somewhere. That's seems odd, but maybe everbody does that. It's usually something different every day, but this past week this song has been there several mornings. I love the trumpet part most, but after watching the video (just now) I love it even more and realize how appropriate it is for this post. This is what these lovely, confirming things make me feel like. (The dancing, the dancing! Not blowing things up! LOL)



Note: All original text and materials by or commissioned by B. B. Shepherd (including music reviews) are copyright 2012-2013 to China Blue Publishing.

Reviews for The Glister Journals: Bronze

More Glister Journals info and chapters at the book's website here: theglisterjournals.com

The Glister Journals: Bronze can be purchased through any bookseller, or purchase now at Amazon.com