I had a couple of glowing reviews for One Undead Step come in on Amazon and Goodreads. If the reviewers were just your everyday, average readers, that would have been fantastic. I always appreciate when people take the time to read and review my work, whether the reviews glow or not. What made these particular reviews so great, however, was the fact that they were both from authors who I respect and admire greatly. Within about a day of each other, both Chris Philbrook and Michael W. Garza had left five-star reviews for my second novel. Many thanks to both of you! Not for liking the book, although I’m very glad you did, but for picking it up in the first place.
The day after the second review came out, one of the writers from Possessions: A Collection of Short Stories About the Abject Horror of Ordinary Objects, which is an anthology from Burnt Offerings Books that I was lucky enough to be a part of, told me that one of his Instagram followers was impressed that he was in a book with me. I asked him if maybe he’d mistaken me for Ian McKellen, because I get that a lot. Surprisingly, the answer was no. Sure enough, the person was talking about yours truly. How cool is that?
But wait, there’s more! I also got a Twitter follow from a huge author who writes in my genre. Then, one more five-star review on Amazon from Jeff Clare. Jeff isn’t an author, but he is a great guy who is very active and well-known in the zombie community. To top it all off, someone nominated One Undead Step for the May book of the month read in the Zombies group on Goodreads. It’s a large and active group, and it is very cool to be nominated even if the early polls only have me at one vote out of twenty-four (thank you nice lady with the basset hound profile picture!) In the lead- Chris Philbrook’s Dark Recollections.
Of course, there is a downside to all of this awesomeness. After Jeff’s review posted, I went into my living room and grabbed my favorite hat. Putting it on, I realized that it no longer fit. My head had gotten too big. It’s okay, though. I’m pretty sure the folks at Swank Magazine will send me another hat when I renew my subscription.