Thursday, March 10, 2016

Book review



The handful of reviews my previous books garnered on Amazon were written mostly by friends and family. (Fortunately not by family members with the last name of Dodd!) While I appreciate that support, it is always nice when someone I do not know says good things about the books.

I noticed a review of Except for His Wing has already appeared. The name (or, more likely, pseudonym) of the reviewer is not familiar to me. So this review may also fall into the friends-and-family category. 

Nonetheless, I will share it:
Michael Dodd tells this story of limited, often dysfunctional persons with great accuracy and with great love. He maintains a clear sense of reality, while enabling the reader to accept the possibility of a greater, more compassionate dimension which is reachable. This is a whopping good story told exceedingly well.
The reviewer then adds a comment to his/her own post:  "Ooops, the title should read: On a Five Star Scale, I Rate This Story with Seven Stars!"

So, friend or family or stranger, thank you for your kind words. You made my day! 

PS -- Many well-known writers say not to pay much attention to reviews. They are not written for the author anyway. 

PPS -- My favorite thing along this line is from Neil Gaiman: “If you make art, people will talk about it. Some of the things they say will be nice, some won’t. You’ll already have made that art, and when they’re talking about the last thing you did, you should already be making the next thing."

Hint noted, Neil. 

PPPS -- My other favorite is from Lisa Cron: “And while in the olden days, disgruntled readers suffered pretty much in silence, now there's Amazon. The last thing you want are myriad scathing reviews that potential readers 'find helpful.'"
 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is a French saying: "Les chiens aboient la caravane passe" - "The dogs bark, the caravan continues on". Move on to the next project.

And what did the Prior have for breakfast, today? Perhaps, what are you going to have for lunch? would be more appropriate in view of the above saying.

W. F.

Michael Dodd said...

I had a flatbread breakfast sandwich with egg white, roasted tomato and kale and goat cheese. Meh. I'm sure it was terribly healthy and maybe not too terrible altogether.

As for lunch, I don't know yet. I am at the library at the moment, working on Wacky in WhoVille, and I happen to be at a scene in which Damien is eating dinner, meatloaf in his case. Tom wants me to pick up a take-and-bake pizza on the way home for dinner tonight.

Sunny said...

I was just going to write a review for Except For His Wings and decided to pop over here first.
I literally JUST turned the last page. I'm in tears. It has been a long time since I was this moved by a story, Michael. I can't say enough about it. It was REAL. It grabbed my interest and held me the entire time. I couldn't read it all in one sitting over the weekend as I had hoped(my 80 year old mom's in the hospital and my focus was mostly on her), and was having to nickle and dime it til tonight since I was so busy, but the second half of the book I finished after work, and the story was AMAZING. By far the best one yet- and I LOVED your other books.

I'm rambling here, but that's just me after a good read...I'm still in Book land in that world and altho I have plenty of time tonight to get started on another book in my "to read" stack- I'm not going to. I want to stay right where I am feeling just the way I do right now. Believing in Boys with Wings and Happily-ever-afters. I'm so ordering this in REAL BOOK version to stay on my bookshelf. I have a shelf of favorites that I read over and over and over and this one is defo going on it.