Another Reader Review

As I've mentioned before, I'm a member of Goodreads.com, which is a social network for readers. I love it. I was messing about recently, and found a reader's review of my novel EARLY MOURNING.

The reviewer's name is, Nicolas Avenell. He's a British web developer. You should check out his site, at aquarionics.com. (I particularly like his "geek code".)

Here is his review.

A low fantasy tale which reminded me of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, while it lacks some of the velvet and polished craft, it's a promising debut from an interesting brain whose carrier's career is worth watching.

Friends have written some kind words about my book, (here and here, for example) and I truly, deeply appreciate it, but when a stranger does it--a stranger who in this case lives all the way in England--it means so much more to me. It means that I reached a person I've never met with a work of love that took up over 2 years of my life to complete, and another 10 before that to ferment in my mind.

I've never had a professional reviewer write about EARLY MOURNING, and I'm kind of glad for that. I come from a music background, which fostered in me a deep love for doing things myself. My band, DIADS, has released 2 full-length albums, and we didn't do it with the help of a major record label. When it came time for me to release my novel into the world, I only wanted to do it independently. So I did. And that's why I think it makes sense for non-professional reviewers to review my work.

Thank you, Nicolas. Thank you everyone who's read my work and written a few words about what they thought.