Somebody Is Reading My Book!

I don’t know about you, but nothing turns on my OCD more than releasing a new book. A Wizard’s Forge won’t be released until September (although you can preorder it now), but my publishing partner (Wise Ink Creative Publishing)  posted an advance review copy on NetGalley, a site where book reviewers and bloggers can download free Ebooks. AWF has been posted for about a week and it seems to be doing well. The cover has garnered several dozen thumbs-up signs, and there have been roughly twice as many review copy requests. That should make me happy.

I’m a wreck.

Grace Kelly—or her modern day incarnation, Eva Green—would file this information away and let the chips fall over the next several weeks and months. Neither would betray the slightest concern at that

Oh my God somebody in the world is reading my book!

I adore both actresses because I aspire to their consummate cool (I also desperately wish I was as lovely—something as a feminist I’m not supposed to admit, but which I still feel). Rear Window is my favorite Hitchcock film because of Grace and her overnight bag (when those slippers pop out of all that chiffon, be still my heart!), and Eva…well, if I ever met her, I’d probably lose more than my cool, kinda like this lady meeting the late great Heath Ledger.

I’ve certainly lost my cool now, because

Oh my God somebody in the world is reading my book!

and it’s interfering with my life. I can’t help thinking, what passage is this stranger reading? Has she reached the part where Vic escapes from Lornk? Chapter 7, “Asylum,” may be my favorite in the book. What does he think of the chapter where Ashel decides to join the war effort? That chapter is such a turning point for Ashel, where he becomes a deep thinker full of conflicting emotions. Has anyone posted a progress report on Goodreads or, good heavens, a review yet? (A couple speedy readers have already posted reviews on Goodreads: 4 and 5 stars!)  I have a jam-packed week at the day job and a big trip coming up. I’m supposed to be contacting other authors and book bloggers to set up a blog tour. My new website requires attention as Jennifer and Mike at RockdotVoss finish its fine-tuning. And oh, yeah, I have a sequel to rework, which is turning out to be a bigger job than I anticipated. But I can’t stop checking on the status!

Confident authors are supposed to release their books on the world and never read reviews or, indeed, look back. I can’t do that (after all, I rewrote the damn series). The bottom line is, as much as I wish I were Grace Kelly or Eva Green, I’m really Sally Field. I write first for me, and I write what I like, but I sooo want you to like it too. My fingers are crossed that you will.

A Wizard’s Forge will be released to the general reading public September 19, 2016. You can preorder your copy now on Amazon.