Oh, Happy Day! My first review! Gulp! I wrestled with wanting to know what a book reviewer wrote about my book. It’s exciting, thrilling, and very scary.   Do I want to know what they thought?  Will I have this crazy need to crawl into a cave and never come outI bring myself to push the keys on the laptop. And scroll down the screen. There it is. The beautiful cover of my book. And then…the review.

An excerpt from LASR’s Book Review: 

“C. C. Wiley enchants with admirable imagery and a compelling writing style. All the characters of significance are satisfactorily accounted for before the story ends. Even though traumatic times have been endured along the way, the promise of living happily-ever-after looks bright…This is a wonderful 15th century romance with a touch of history and imagery that thrills the senses…”  Camellia  awards FOUR BOOKS

Four Books out of Five! Not to bad for a new author! Not to bad at all! The the thoughts come in. Why didn’t it get the top score? My mind spins. Next time, I want my stories to get the Five Books Award. I need to get cracking on learning all I can about my craft. I almost forget to enjoy the moment. Almost. I take a deep breath and realize that for right now, this very minute, I’m going to enjoy the glow of the first review of my first novel.

Can you see the smile on my face? I’m grinning from ear-to-ear and looking like the cat who drank a whole bowl of cream. I think I’m going to plaster my office walls with all the great reviews. When I’m down or fighting to pull a single word out of my head, I’ll read those kind words and all doubt will wash away.

How do you conquer the doubt that sneaks its ugly mug into your thoughts? What do you do to keep yourself motivated? For me, I’m going to keep smiling and take another peak at that review.

If you want, you can read the whole review by following this link. http://longandshortreviews.blogspot.com/2009/10/knight-dreams-by-c-c-wiley.html