There’s been a glut of reviews (I do believe that official classification) for my books of late.
Quiet Fury
Will Kill For A Story
Carol Taylor Reviews
Debbie Davis
Ebook Friendly
Kings River Life
Between The Lines
Elastamom’s
SHEmazing!
The Big Thrill (interview)
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Christmas is just around the corner and it’s a time for giving, but there are some things I don’t want—bad reviews to be exact. I was thinking about reviews the other day. Well, not exactly thinking, more like obsessing. Despite my rough, gritty exterior that you’ve come to know and mildly like, I’m quite squidgy inside, so the idea of getting a bad review is likely to make me cry or hide under the duvet until someone compliments me. So I started to think about what would be a nightmare review. Here’s what I hope never to see written about my books this Christmas or at any time:
“A great bathroom read—very absorbent.”
“It’s one hell of doorstop.”
“Out of all the books I’ve read this year, this was one.”
“Once read, never remembered.”
“This book made me switch on the TV.”
“It was grate!”
“This book is very put-downable—a policy that should be applied to the author.”
“An author to track down—and do bad things to.”
“It made me hate my ability to read.”
“This was a real page burner.”
So those are some of my nightmare reviews. What are yours or what ones do you wish you could have written for other people’s books? (No names or titles, please).
Yours hoping for everything I deserve this Christmas,
Simon
Categories: shelf life
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“Simon Wood is an up and coming mystery writer who writes like some mobster is standing over him with a cleaver, telling him to make a good story or else. He writes like his life depends on it.”
The reason for this outlook is because nothing is guaranteed in publishing. Several of my writing friends with books behind them now possess a certain expectation that everything they write will be published. I wish I shared their confidence. Despite numerous publishing credits, Magazines still reject my short stories and publishers have passed on manuscripts. Publishers and magazines have folded. Editors have changed their minds. There have been months with an R in them. The list of reasons/calamities is endless, but the result is the same—manuscripts I’ve been very passionate about have not made it to the bookshelf.
Currently, I’m very lucky to find myself in the fortunate position of having contracts with books still on them. However, that could all come to end when I turn those manuscripts in. Then what? Sure, I’ll do my best to find a new publisher or a magazine interested in my stories, but it still doesn’t mean they’ll get published. That means I can’t just write a good manuscript. I have to write the very best manuscript I possibly can and not just once, but every time, again and again. Those works still might not see publication, but I’ve given them best shot I can possibly give them.
Telling stories is my passion and my job. So yeah, I write like my life depends on it, because it does. Shouldn’t every writer think this way? 🙂
Categories: shelf life
“Simon Wood is an up and coming mystery writer who writes like some mobster is standing over him with a cleaver, telling him to make a good story or else. He writes like his life depends on it.”
The reason for this outlook is because nothing is guaranteed in publishing. Several of my writing friends with books behind them now possess a certain expectation that everything they write will be published. I wish I shared their confidence. Despite numerous publishing credits, Magazines still reject my short stories and publishers have passed on manuscripts. Publishers and magazines have folded. Editors have changed their minds. There have been months with an R in them. The list of reasons/calamities is endless, but the result is the same—manuscripts I’ve been very passionate about have not made it to the bookshelf.
Currently, I’m very lucky to find myself in the fortunate position of having contracts with books still on them. However, that could all come to end when I turn those manuscripts in. Then what? Sure, I’ll do my best to find a new publisher or a magazine interested in my stories, but it still doesn’t mean they’ll get published. That means I can’t just write a good manuscript. I have to write the very best manuscript I possibly can and not just once, but every time, again and again. Those works still might not see publication, but I’ve given them best shot I can possibly give them.
Telling stories is my passion and my job. So yeah, I write like my life depends on it, because it does. Shouldn’t every writer think this way? 🙂
Categories: shelf life
People seem to have a thing about THE SCRUBS today. It’s book of the day over at Pixel of Ink and Bibrary gave the book a really nice review. I hope you’ll check out the links.
Categories: Uncategorized
DID NOT FINISH has scored big with Kirkus, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. Here’s what they said:
Kirkus:
“A killer who strikes in the middle of an event makes England’s car-racing circuit even more dangerous than usual.
“Aidy Westlake was orphaned by a car crash—his father and mother drove into a fatal accident on the way home from a race—but that hasn’t kept him from taking the wheel of a Formula Ford. A rookie driver in the middle of a crowded field, Aidy naturally looks up to Alex Fanning, whose performance so far favors him to win the Clark Paints Formula Ford Championship, and can’t imagine why Alex would be prepared to quit the circuit for his fiancée Alison Baker. The race that follows proves to be Alex’s last in more ways than one. Moments after the Ford driven by Derek Deacon, a brutish veteran competitor who’d already threatened to do whatever it took to win, nudged Alex’s car, it crashed and killed him. The other racers, close-knit to a fault, refuse to believe that Deacon bumped Alex on purpose. And the evidence supports them, because video footage of the crash has mysteriously disappeared from all the places most likely to have it, and Det. Len Brennan, of the Wiltshire Police, is obviously protecting Deacon. Aidy is determined to prove Deacon’s guilt, but when he and his only allies, his grandfather Steve and his mechanic Dylan, are threatened, beaten and arrested along with him, his detective work looks like a losing bet.
“Wood (Terminated, 2010, etc.) kicks off this new series with a streamlined narrative, a spot of believable romance and some deftly introduced tidbits about the British racing circuit. Think of Dick Francis’ early thrillers, especially Nerve, but with a lot more horsepower.”
Library Journal:
“A third-generation racecar driver, Aidy Westlake might still be a rookie on the course, but his instincts for crime are right on track. He knows bully Derek Deacon threatened rival Alex Fanning the night before the race. Now Alex is dead, and Derek’s car was part of the fatal accident. Aidy is convinced it’s a homicide, and he goes to considerable lengths to avenge Alex’s untimely death, despite rebuffs from the police, race sponsors, and fellow drivers. With his best friend, Dylan, and grandfather Steve on his team, amateur detective Aidy keeps on digging until he manages to endanger those he loves. A breathtaking finale will linger long in readers’ minds. VERDICT Prepare to accelerate with Wood’s (Terminated) new series. His first-person narrative brings you close to the action and ratchets up the personal intensity.”
Publishers Weekly:
“At the start of this agreeable first in a new car-racing series from Wood (Terminated), thuggish champion driver Derek Deacon threatens to kill a rival, Alex Fanning. When Fanning dies after Deacon collides with him during a race in a West Country regional championship, the police fail to interview vital witnesses, and authorities rush to label the crash an accident. In addition, someone orders the destruction of the official tape of the fatal race. Outraged, rookie driver Aidy Westlake begins his own investigation. Inexperienced but persistent, he turns up evidence of a criminal conspiracy that puts him and his friends in danger. Wood convincingly portrays Aidy’s awkward efforts at amateur detection as well as his gentle, tentative romance with the dead man’s fiancée, while entertainingly imparting information about the perils and exhilaration of single-seat Formula Ford racing. Dick Francis fans will find a lot to like.”
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ROAD RASH picked up a nice little review from Red Adept Reviews. I do have a soft spot for this story, so I’m glad the reviewer liked it.
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THE SCRUBS picked up a nice review over at CHEAP THRILLS. Note sure if I like to think of myself as cheap, although Julie disagrees…
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