Professional review for “The Shaman”
New review: I just got my Kirkus review for “The Shaman” published and they like it! Yeah! Kirkus Reviews is a major source for reviews and is used a great deal by indie authors. They are legitimate book reviewers and have a lot of credibility. You can read the review at Kirkus Reviews. I’ve posted excerpts of the review on “The Shaman” book page.
Regarding thrillers, I’ve learned two basic bits of wisdom about the genre (thankfully before getting too far into my series): action and high stakes. These are words to write by for any thriller author. Sometimes the light bulb in my brain takes a while to turn on. Thankfully I managed to incorporate these elements into my first two thrillers more by instinct than design. I’ll take it.
New novel: I’m 68k words into “The Captive Girl”, my working title for the 3rdDan Stone novel and following the above principles. The story still has tender and thoughtful moments in it (I guess I’m a romantic at heart). I’ve written the beginning of the story three times now. I decided that I had to introduce the girl (she is in the title after all) and a major antagonist up front. Each will get a short chapter. The antagonist had a bit part early in “Payback” and will appear in subsequent novels. He’s a Saudi funder of terror groups and Dan will have to confront him at some point down the road. The stakes just got higher for Dan.
New narrator: In other news I have a narrator for “The Shaman”. His name is Bill Burrows. He’s done a bunch of books. In listening to audition tapes I was surprised at how difficult it is to get a Mexican accent correct. The attempts can quickly sink into a caricature or start sounding like a bad mobster accent. One narrator sounded like the cheesy caricatures in “A Fistful of Dollars” or “For a Few Dollars More”. It needs a light touch to get it right. Bill nailed the audition sample I created. Check out his website here, http://www.billburrowsaudio.com/
Reviews: If you’ve read “The Shaman”, please write a review on Amazon. Reviews are one of the most helpful ways for a book to gain credibility. Thanks! And if you haven’t read some of my books, you can find all my titles here on Amazon.
