First Professional Book Review is in!

I have dreaded this day from the moment I began writing Wings At Dawn. It is one thing to pour your heart and soul into a project and hold the final results in your hands, and another to sit back and wait for the public and critics to pass judgement. The encouragement of friends and family who stood by me throughout the ordeal gave me the much needed confidence whenever it faltered. The next boost came from the team at Dorrance Publishing Company, who would never have accepted the manuscript if they didn’t believe in it.

It is truly a blessing to be surrounded by discerning bookworms and literary elite who have standards one can only dream of satisfying. This was my goal – to weave a palatable tale around a subject almost impossible to digest but one that needs to be voiced. For all intents and purposes, child trafficking will never be easy to talk about, but there are thousands of children out there who need to be rescued.

Satisfying the academic and literary standards of people you know is only the first step of many fears that have to be faced. When the book was released, I knew that the next level up would be to submit the book to the professional critics, and this is where my courage wavered. I can’t even begin to tell you about all the sleepless nights I lay awake expecting the worse, dreading to read the reviews that shred the novel apart and spell the immediate demise of Marie Balustrade.

I was in the middle of something at work when the familiar ping of my email rang out. I glanced over and saw the banner for BookViral.com. My heart plummeted and it took all my strength to keep calm and maintain a poker face while finishing what I had to do. Truth be told, I was delaying the moment a little longer, digging deep within me for whatever reserves of courage I could muster. Then I read the email and the review of Wings At Dawn. See for yourself…

My gratitude to John Reese and the book review team at BookViral.com for the glowing review. The first review is always the hardest, wherein I worried about whether I was able to transcend the literary, social and cultural barriers, but the review team understood the soul of the book to perfection and the brought to light the issue of child trafficking that I have skirted around in the promotional material.

The whole process of writing a book, submitting it to a publisher and then for reviews is pretty much like giving birth and applying for different schools. Deep down you hope to get into the best, and have no idea how you will handle rejection or criticism. Ah but what sweet triumph it is to receive a publishing contract, or to read a positive review! It makes the next literary pregnancy so much easier!

My lesson for the day: trust in the process.