Facebook Party. Eat Chocolate.

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It’s definitely chocolate time in my house tonight!

I’m super excited to share my news. A few months ago, I entered my romance novel, Waiting For You in the New England Readers’ Choice contest. Because there are so many entries in the contest, including entries from big publishers, I didn’t expect Waiting For You to get much attention. But I figured it was a way to get my writing in front of more readers.

I certainly didn’t expect the email I received from the New England Chapter of Romance Writers of America on Monday.

Waiting For You is a finalist in the long contemporary category and I am over the moon.

One of the challenges of writing is doing so in a bubble. There is a lot of private drafting, redrafting, polishing and critical review before the book ever comes before anyone’s eyes but mine. In that way, it’s a lot like music performance. What you see on stage, or in this case, within a paperback cover is just the tip of a very large iceberg.

But that means, for an author, there is a particular intensity when the first readers come back with comments. Because I can be happy with a story, but if a reader isn’t drawn in and hooked, I haven’t done my job.

When I sang for a living, the best part, the part I waited for and prized the most, was a certain kind of silence. When I heard that, felt it really, I knew my listeners were completely focused. I appreciated that focus for the gift it was.

I feel the same sense of gratitude and awe when I see a reader caught up in my stories.

But most readers read privately, and I rarely get to see them experiencing that sort of focus. That’s why finaling in the Readers’ Choice contest is so significant. And why I am pumped to get the book two launched and book three finished.

This process is addictive. Like chocolate.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. Wednesday is generally book review day. Unless it isn’t. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Waiting For You, Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

Best Day Ever

Best Day Ever Leads the Thriller Pack

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I rarely enjoy unreliable narrator stories, but I had no trouble engaging with Kaira Rounda’s thriller, Best Day Ever. Primarily because the book has an exceptionally slow build. So by the time I realized what Rouda was doing, I was already hooked.

Here are some things she did which I thought were exceptional.

No information the narrator gave was unnecessary. As a reader, I like to feel my reading attention and time is important to an author. I understand the purpose of red herrings and ultimately of fooling a reader, but I appreciate an author who doesn’t find it necessary to use them. That buys my loyalty.

First person is hard to write. It seems as though it would be the easiest form. After all, we all think in the first person, right? But an all seeing narrator is incredibly convenient. There is no difficulty describing the main character’s expressions, thoughts, reactions. First person narratives often rely on the, “I looked in the mirror and noticed my eyes were unusually blue that day” cheat.

Rouda manages first person narration in Best Day Ever so adeptly, I found myself stopping to admire her skill.

Her pacing is also remarkable. Unreliable though the narrator may be, when it comes to how he tells his story, he is utterly trustworthy. As a reader, I was certain whatever he had to say next would be relevant, perhaps critical. The tension was unrelenting. Not what you want in real life, but in a book? Yes, please.

Most of all, though, I appreciated Rouda’s solid and consistent portrayal of sociopathy from the inside. I’ve had more experience than I would like interfacing with less violent versions of people like Paul Strom and I can vouch for the accuracy of her depiction. She makes no excuses for his behavior, nor does she imply it is all due to his admittedly miserable childhood. She just observes him from within.

Read Best Day Ever. It’s both chilling and believable.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. Wednesday is generally book review day. Unless it isn’t. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Waiting For You, Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.