Review

I mentioned in the last post about the pay-for-play review I submitted. I can happily report that my obsessive email refreshing has come to an end. It is, by all accounts, an excellent review, and I am chuffed, to say the least. It will be included in an insert in the next print edition of Publishers Weekly, and I have hopes that that might boost library and bookstore interest.

I also submitted for consideration to Publishers Weekly regular magazine, which is admittedly a long shot, and I entered their non-fiction book contest. I expect to get the first round critics report on that very soon, so I lied about being done with email refreshing. There will be multiple rounds on the way to the finals and grand prize, and while I don't expect to get all the way to the end, I hope that I'll have more positive review-type language to pull from for marketing, assuming I figure out what that looks like.

It's hard to know what the best road is. Every one of them comes with extensive tolls, and there are a lot of folks coming out of the woodwork to convince me to part with more money. Some investment is obviously necessary, but I'm being very careful and perhaps lagging a little behind. I'm typically both frugal and suspicious. But I didn't write a book so that no one would find it. I'm just forging the path in my usual choosy way.

Up next is another review, this time with Kirkus (due no later than mid-March). I will be submitting to the Writer's Digest book prize as soon as I receive my new pile of hard copies, since they require one, and there are one or two other contests I'm researching for submissions in February.

More tangibly, I will be performing my one-person show on April 18 in Oakland. I friend is on the board of a nonprofit there, and this will be a fundraising effort in support of their 10th anniversary. It's called Chapter 510, and I encourage you to check out their amazing work. I'll post more about tickets as we get closer for any locals interested in supporting. I will be busy revising over the next 6-8 weeks, but I really look forward to doing the show again.

Hard to believe that January is almost over. It has been a sad and weighty one, for sure. I hope you and your loved ones are safe.