A Writer Sees Stars

As writers go, I have a skin of average thickness. I am pleased by a good review, disappointed by a bad. None of it penetrates far enough to influence the thing I write next. (Rachel Cusk)

Book reviews have been around as long as writers have been writing books. I'm guessing that even before books were printed, storytellers around the fire pits got reviews, and they probably weren't any happier with listeners spitting in their fire to show they didn't like a story than writers today are with bad reviews. Even famous writers don't like bad reviews.  Danielle Steele says, "A bad review is like baking a cake with all the best ingredients and having someone sit on it."

I've gotten bad reviews and I try to be like Rachel Cusk and let them slide off me. As much as I want to, I can't write a book every reader is going to love. But that sure would be nice. When I first began writing, any review a book received was a printed review in a magazine or newspaper. The average book didn't get many reviews. Now the internet has changed all that. Reviews are everywhere and anybody can write a review. Amazon and Barnes & Noble e-mail you and ask you to write reviews of the books you buy or download. And of everything else you buy too! A reader can join up with Goodreads and review every book she or he has ever read. On there you don't have to say anything. You can just click on a few stars and either make a writer jubilant with five stars or be in despair over the one star slams. 

All this to say that my free book, Scent of Lilacs, has been getting a lot of new reviews on Amazon. (By the way, it's still free if you haven't downloaded it yet or know an e-reading friend who might enjoy the story.) The reviews have all been surprisingly positive which is great. Sometimes with free books, the readers can slam the book because it isn't the type of story they would normally buy. I had one reviewer say about one of my Shaker books when it was offered free a while back that "free was too much to pay for this book." The very fact I remember that points out the problem with reading reviews. I can get a dozen glowing reviews and not remember a word of any of them, except maybe those lovely works "I couldn't put it down." But let me read one of those one star reviews and the words flash like a neon sign inside my head. 

But tonight, I'm going to share bits of some of the 5-star remarks about Scent of Lilacs with you. 

"A beautiful heartwarming story. I loved it. It is so human and full of love. Some beautiful lessons about God's love for all of us." (E Carlson)

"I loved the voice of Jocie, the thirteen year old pastor's daughter who tells most of the story."  (Breiann)

"Loved, loved, loved this book! I laughed and cried. I'm so glad I read it." (Cindy)

"It is clean, funny and good. I enjoyed it so much I bought the next book..." (Dianne)

(I love those that say my story made them smile or laugh. I've always wanted to be funny. Always!)

"...a moving mystery of life including narrative arcs for each of the characters." (IJ Palmer)

"Lots of unusual, imperfect characters add to the great story line." (Book Addict)

I could pull out lots more excerpts. To date, Amazon has 185 reviews for the title, including the one where the reader said she "tried and tried" to read the story but just couldn't it was so dull. Had to throw that bad one in to balance the  others. But most of the reviews have been kind, even enthusiastic and lighting up all five stars to make this writer happy to see stars.    

 

A good, sympathetic review is always a wonderful surprise. (Joyce Carol Oates)

It's enormously cheering to get a good review by someone who seems to understand your work. (Kenneth Koch)

I am glad to get good reviews, but I try not to dwell on those any more than on the ones that aren't so good. I just have to try to write the next book better. 

If you wrote one of the reviews on my books, thank you. Reviews matter. On the internet a review is sort of like word of mouth and everybody knows that having a friend recommend a book is the very best advertising a writer can get. 

Have you ever written a review online? Or told a friend about a book you've read?

Inviting You to Hollyhill

It won't be very many more weeks until Scent of Lilacs, my first inspirational fiction book will be available again for readers. The book has been out of print for several years, but in March it will hit the store shelves with a brand new cover. Some of you have already read my Hollyhill books and I thank you for that. There are three of them. Scent of Lilacs, Orchard of Hope and Summer of Joy. 

 I appreciate the many kind comments I've gotten about the stories. Scent of Lilacs got a starred review in Booklist with this review. Thirteen-year-old Jocie Brooke prays God will send her a dog and wishes her senile aunt would stop quoting scripture. The setting is semi-rural Kentucky. The story revolves around Jocie's dad, David, a newspaper editor and the "interim" pastor of a little Baptist church. Where is Jocie's mom? She left seven years ago, taking Jocie's older sister with her. David's strange marital status explains why he's always "interim" and also why he's so sad. Jocie gets her mutt, the onslaught of Bible verses is ameliorated, and real drama emerges as Jocie explores her family's secrets in this universal tale of growing up. 

I call my Hollyhill books Small Town, America stories because I  pulled so much of the background for the books from the little town here in Kentucky where I grew up. All the characters are completely made up - and none of you hometown friends are going to convince me differently. Well, maybe there were a few minor characters I might have pulled a bit of this or that from someone I remember from years ago. Maybe. The thing is, all my characters in all my books probably pull a little of this or that from people I've met or read about or imagined over the years. That's where characters spring from - that mysterious well of experience and imagination in a writer's head. 

I did enjoy writing about Jocie Brooke and her family and friends in Hollyhill. I especially liked it when Jocie and Wes, who was a grandfatherly figure to Jocie, got to talking. In Scent of Lilacs, I have them thinking about writing a book called The Hollyhill Book of the Strange. 

So guess what? Jocie and Wes are writing it now to celebrate the re-issue of the Heart of Hollyhill series. Once a week I'll be visiting Hollyhill and let Jocie or Wes or who knows who in Hollyhill tell us what's going on there. I started to just substitute the Hollyhill posts for my regular Wednesday night posts here on One Writer's Journal, but a name like "The Hollyhill Book of the Strange" simply cried out for its own space. So here's the Hollyhill link if you'd like to go over and see how Jocie is introducing her new venture. With a little help from Wes, of course. 

If you grew up in a small town or community, I'd be glad to hear the "strange" things you might remember about your towns. Who knows? Jocie might suddenly remember something along the same lines that might have strangely happened in Hollyhill. :) Small towns are great places to grow up, but they are also hot beds of interesting and unique characters who give rise to some entertaining if odd stories.  Maybe even a little strange.

Let me know what you think. Either here or on the new blog. Leave a comment here or there before March 1 for a chance to win an autographed copy of Scent of Lilacs. I'll give away three copies and your name will go in my hat twice if you comment both places. Thanks for giving Jocie's new venture a try. Happy reading!
 

The Heart of Hollyhill

Sweet aromas - do you have a favorite flower scent? We all know many roses smell delightful. And lilacs are heavenly. But what about locust tree blooms?

In Kentucky in the spring we usually have several cold snaps before spring finally comes to stay. So we call them winters. Redbud winter. Dogwood winter. Locust winter. Blackberry winter. The names come from what's blooming when the chilly air sweeps back into the area the way it did last week. We skipped redbud winter this year - it stayed warm, unseasonably warm all the time they were blooming. But the frosts came back last week while the dogwoods and locusts were in full and glorious bloom. Dogwood blooms don't have an odor, but ah, locusts. So sweet. 

The house where I grew up was surrounded by locust trees and in the spring we could breathe in the fragrance through our open windows. We also stepped on the thorns when we were running around barefoot and some think the trees draw lightning, but you have to take the bad with the good sometimes. As to the trees drawing lightning, I don't know if that's true or not, but I do know they got hit by lightning frequently. 

I liked the fragrance of the blooms so well that I used it in my novel, The Scent of Lilacs. Now you're frowning and saying, wasn't she talking about locust blooms? And I was. But lilacs are wonderfully fragrant too. So I used that in my book too. The locust bloom fragrance was Jocie's father's favorite scent and what he smelled when he received his unusual call to preach while in a submarine during World War II. Then later in the book, Jocie has her own unusual experience with the lilac fragrance. 

All this to get around to the exciting news I got this week that the Hollyhill books are going to be re-released. First Scent of Lilacs will make a re-appearance early in 2013 with Orchard of Hope and Summer of Joy to follow later in 2013 and 2014. The series title will be "The Heart of Hollyhill." What great timing - to get this great news while the locusts are blooming! I love the characters in these books and I'm looking forward to sharing their stories with new readers.

Have you read any of the Hollyhill books? If you have, which characters did you like?

Thanks for reading. I always enjoy your comments and appreciate you coming to visit here.