Friday, July 11, 2014

Readers Rock - The Rest of the Writing Story



Conventional wisdom says don't read reviews. But what if they're emailed to you and are nice?

The Annie's books are discussed on The Cozy Mystery List Blog and the readers are very interactive with the writers.

I got this today and so appreciated it:

Good Afternoon Liz!

Just wanted to take a moment to post about “Deadly Garland”. I completely enjoyed every moment of your book. I’ve posted earlier that I just never got the emotional attachment to Shannon as I did with Annie and her friends. “Deadly Garland” finally got me really liking Shannon. It seemed like she was drawn in similar to how Annie was and so she didn’t come across as being nosy. Also adding a dog into the equation made her much more likeable. In retrospect, I think that the authors writing about Tartan and Boots helped to ground Annie and Ian, making them appear much more “normal”. But I’m an animal lover so finding that trait in a character in a book immediately makes me like that facet of the character and, I’m sure, helps to start forming that relationship between the reader and the character.

So, at long last I found myself liking Shannon. Loved the ending, much as I hoped things would go for quite some time now. Look forward to reading your contributions to the “Unraveled” series!

Virginia

Virginia is referring to the long-running Annie's Attic series, which I did not write for.

So a shout-out to wonderful readers! Thank you for taking the time to tell us you enjoy our work. It keeps us going when we're struggling in the middle of the WIP or waiting for answers to submissions. All the less fun parts of the writing journey, LOL.