MIXED REVIEWS
After seeing the many reviews I’ve received from readers of
my paranormal fiction, The Apothecary, I decided it was time to offer some
author feedback to the many questions surrounding the romance aspect of this
book…
While most have said the romance between Ben and Claire was
refreshing and exciting, a few select others have labeled it as hasty and a bit
unbelievable. To that I say, what’s not to believe?
There are still people today that have arranged marriages
where the couple doesn’t even get to meet each other until the moment they are
getting married! And since the majority of folks these days have sex within a
few days of knowing each other (sometimes even on a first date), I thought it
would be refreshing if my couple was married within a few days of meeting and
didn’t have sex until after they were
married…a lot of my readers found that very romantic.
First of all, let’s remember that this book is fiction, and the
romance in it is no more unbelievable than a woman falling for a hot, steamy
vampire or a sexy ghost, which seems to be the popular subject in books at the
moment. Let’s not forget that Claire does see ghosts, so that alone sets the
stage for her character.
Secondly, when I write, I like to color outside the lines to
bring my stories something that not every other book has. I have to believe
that readers are tired of reading the same story over and over where everyone
follows the rules, just with a different set of characters and written by a
different author. I don't know about you, but I get bored reading the same basic story all the time!
In my Amish romance, Little Wild Flower, I bring a teenage
hippie-chick from the 1970’s together with a seventeen-year-old Amish boy,
which has probably never happened in real life, but it made for an interesting storyline
nonetheless. So you can see that each of my books will offer something out of
the ordinary, and I will continue to bring the unusual and unexpected to my
readers so that my books will always stand out in the crowd.
In conclusion, I’d like to point out that not every writer
can please all of the people all of the time, no matter how popular he or she
is. Reading is a matter of preference for a certain subject matter, and that is
why I write several different genres, so I can offer something of interest for
the majority of readers, with the hope of pleasing most of the people most of
the time.
4 comments:
wow, it's really ok to have both good and not so good comments, how else can we improve and provide "our" readers with a reason to read our books? they buy our books. It's a love of the word and a job. Do you know anyone else that loves everything about their job? Happy writing and happy reading.
veltara(at)yahoo(dot)com
I have The Apothecary in my cue and look forward to reading it. You are so right. Reading and enjoyment of a book is so subjective and while I know reviews are important to authors - it is the authors gift that is shared with us readers and I for one am very appreciative. I have found that I will not like everything I read, even from authors I have followed for a very long time. So take heart, enjoy the praise,take critique with a grain of salt, and definitely ignore the nasty :) Thank you for sharing today you are appreciated.
Thanks Denise and Aurora for the helpful comments. :-))
I loved reading your post! I just said almost the same thing to a writer who said he was down because of some bad reviews mixed in with some good ones. I know it can be devastating to read that someone doesn't like what you wrote. You are correct in pointing out you cannot please everyone every time. I think every book has value. Yes some may need editing. Some may need to be tweaked a bit. However someone put their heart out there to write it and so it has value. And if a writer has never written a "bad" book how did they learn to write a "good" book? I read/review all genres of books. I appreciate that you write in different genres. I have the Little Wild Flower Series. Now I am getting The Apothecary. The book sounds awesome. As for believable, if I want reality every time I read I will only read nonfiction. I am happy to read you will continue to write the way you do. You can't please everyone every time but every time you can please someone.
Do you visit blogs? I would love to have you guest on mine.
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