Manhattan Book Review gave my novel Blood Rain five stars!  I still can't believe it.  The reviewer isn't a fan of science fiction or fantasy, but she loved the book anyway.  I feel that's probably the best compliment I've had on my work.  If someone who doesn't enjoy the genre still likes the book, it means that I've accomplished my goal.  I wanted the characters to win over a wider audience.  I'm starting to think this series has that potential. One of the things she said was she loved my flawed, dynamic characters.  I love them too, despite the fact I torture them so much. 

Here's a link to the actual review.

Manhattan Book Review Blood Rain

I really don't know how to react to that kind of praise, but it does give me encouragement to keep writing and I'm very humbled.  I never even imagined that two professional literary journals would enjoy my stories so much.  Now, I just hope that more people start to read it.

Recently, I sent my manuscript, Blood Rain, to Portland Book Review to see if it was well received.  And it seems that they really liked it.  They gave the book four stars and were honest about its shortcomings along with the things that they liked about the story.  I've very pleased with the review.  They talk a great deal about the themes of the story and seemed impressed with the world that I created even though the young adult market tends to be saturated with fantasy.

Anyway, the review is out, and I'd really appreciate it if you would have a look at it. You can find it HERE.  If you like what you hear and haven't read Blood Rain, please go to amazon and pick up a copy of the e-book. 

Hopefully I'll be selling print-on-demand copies soon.  My goal is to have my edits complete by the end of December, and I'll be selling the print copies then.  As I mentioned on my previous blog, there are some travelling discrepancies with my world and some overlooked grammatical mistakes, but nothing that will take me too long to adjust. 

For those with e-book copies, you should be able to update to the newer version for free.  From what I understand these small mistakes don't detract from the story too terribly much, but I want to give my readers the best experience that I can.  So, read the story now, enjoy it, and update your e-book when I have finished with my edits for a  more polished version.

In other news, I mentioned in my last blog that I intended to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this time around.  While I was involved with NaNo this time, to be honest, I didn't actively pursue it very much.  One reason was that real life got in the way.  This has been a rough couple of months for me personally from unemployment to illness.  Things could be better.  It makes it difficult to focus when there is a lot on my mind. 

Also, when I got started, my goal was to finish Blood God by the end of the month.  I think I owe it to my readers to try to write the best novel I can, especially since Blood God is the final novel of this series.  So, even though NaNoWriMo had spurred me on to work on it again, I'm not going to rush it. 

In the meantime, between writing, reading, and real life, I'm also editing Blood Moon. I hope to be done with those edits by the end of December as well.  So, if you're interested in this series, Blood Moon is the second book and will be available very soon.  It picks up almost exactly where you left off at the end of Blood Rain.  I hope you like it.