One Star

I never search the Internet for reviews of my books. I do read some of them on Amazon, mostly because my mother tells me to.I think I've talked about this before. Anyway, I turned in a book Wednesday so I'm playing hooky until I start the new one on Monday. How do I spend my free time? I'm making a Minecraft cake for my niece (I'll post a picture) and . . . I was checking out Amazon and changing my author bio. Mostly because I didn't have the title right on my next book.  AS CLOSE AS SISTERS will be a November 2014 release. While checking the site, I noticed that JUST LIKE OTHER DAUGHTERS had quite a few new reviews, so I read through them. 

I've received my first one star, out of 5, review. When I read it, I smiled to myself. I suppose I should be upset-- someone didn't like my book. No, they hated my book. Which translates, for most writers, to mean that someone hates me. Worse yet, hates my baby. My darling. Fortunately, I don't look at reviews that way. I have a story to tell that I tell. Some readers will like the story, some won't. I think the important thing to me is, did it touch the reader in some way? Was there something about the book that made them think about it later? Or mention it to a friend? 

As a reader, I like books that touch me emotionally, negatively or positively. I like books that make me think, even if it's to think I don't agree with that character's thoughts or actions or I don't agree with how the author saw that issue. 

It also occurred to me that getting a one star review on Amazon once in a while is probably good. Otherwise, wouldn't readers be suspicious? I'm suspicious of a book that EVERYONE adores.

So, I'm not upset about the one star, but I am going to call my mother, who's also a writer, and tell her someone doesn't like me. She has to like me; she's my mother.

A Review!!

As a writer, reviews are a fact of life.  Most writers I know definitely have a love/hate relationship with reviews.  I have writer friends who read and reread their reviews, obsessing over them. Particularly the bad ones. I'll be honest, I don't always read my reviews. (I'll have to get into the psychology of that another day.) It's not that I totally ignore them.  My mom (also a writer) reads them for me.  She chooses tidbits (positives and negatives) to share with me.  Today she found one by Avid Reader at Rabid Read Reviews and insisted I read it. I reluctantly agreed and was glad I did. I was thrilled, not just because it was a positive review, but because I realized that I had managed to touch my reader's heart in the way that my story of Alicia and Chloe touched my own heart in Just Like Other Daughters. 

As I work on my new book, Closer than Sisters, I keep thinking to myself, how can I touch my readers, again?

A except from Rabid Read Reviews: Avid Reader  . . . "Readers will think of the novel’s description that they’ve read this story before. You have not. Faulkner’s approach is fresh and new. She takes chances from which a less experienced writer might shy away. Whatever happens in the course of the story, the reader is left with the sense that this is a mother who truly loves her daughter and truly wants the best for her. Sentimentality isn’t usually my chosen genre, but I could not put Just Like Other Daughters down. The course seemed obvious but as the tale progressed I simply had to know what would happen next."

Read the Entire Review