Book review winner... and Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on November 26, 2009 (Subscribe to Blog)

Throughout September and October I offered a free copy of Labyrinth of Fire to whoever submitted the most substantive review of the first book, Island of Fog. It was only fair that I included all those who had reviewed earlier in the year as well. But I had a heck of a job deciding on the winner.

In fact it was so difficult -- a toss up between four -- that in the end I let a "panel of experts" decide. Well, when I say a panel of experts, I mean a few people I know. I basically said, "Okay, take a look through these reviews and vote on the one you feel sells the book to you the most." And I left it with them.

A winner emerged: it was Ming from Bangladesh, who wrote back on June 17th, 2009. So congratulations, Ming, you'll be receiving a copy of the new book in the next week or so. :-) But THANK YOU also to all those others who submitted reviews, either in the past or during the competition. Not all are shown on this website (yet), and some are shown only in part on the book page. But ALL reviews, long or short, are valuable to me.

Meanwhile, Laura Canning posted a review of Island of Fog on Amazon.com, which made my day. You can read that one here (scroll down the page).

I'll be at The Book Nook in Dalton, GA, on Saturday 28th November from 10am to 2pm if anyone is in the area. This is part of a "young adult" author signing event. See you there.

And... to those folks in the USA, Happy Thanksgiving!

Comment by HOPE189 on Friday, November 27, 2009...

Congrats, Ming. Enjoy reading 'Labyrinth of Fire'.

Comment by NIGEL ROWE on Friday, November 27, 2009...

Congratulations, Ming; a great review - we would expect (and get) nothing less than near-perfection from this young woman. A great review of a great book! :-)

Comment by STEPHEN ISABIRYE on Saturday, November 28, 2009...

Congrats Keith, upon the publication of "Labyrinth of Fire." Publishing two novels within a year is a very astounding achievement. Your developments on "Island of Fog" and "Labyrinth of Fire" have been very great inspirations for me. I have been trying to get my book, The Famous Five: A Personal Anecdotage (www.bbotw.com) through the local and wider communities. My former university's Presidential (the equivalence of Vice-Chancellor in the British system) office was just too happy to receive the book and add it to their Presidential library. I felt very honored to think that my book may be read by those hiher-ups in the university echelons. This is the letter I received on November 3, 2009 from their office:

Dear Dr. isabirye,

Congratulations on the publication of your book "The Famous Five." This is a great resource for practitioners and students, and its publication is a fine reflection on you and the University. Thank you for celebrating your success with us.

All the best
Liz Grobsmith
Provost

Then this afternoon, my landlady purchased a copy of the book. to my astonishment, it seems she knows Enid Blyton, thanks to her stay in Wales in the 1950s. I was surprised at how she could remember some of Enid Blyton's books by uttering them out at the top of her hat i.e. The Castle of Adventure, The Island of Adventure, etc, yet it had been barely three decades in my instance and I had almost forgotten the name Enid Blyton and most of her books. This was amazing. A new housemate/apartmentmatee is also impressed with some of Enid Blyton's books i have lent her to read and she wants more. She came to know about these books through another apartmentmate who had told her about my book. In addition, a couple weeks ago at a church a parishoner had told me that a British friend had told her about A.A, Milne and that he definiely was sure he had mentioned Enid Blyton. So it seems, there are many pockets of people that know or are willing to learn more about Enid Blyton and her books in America. That is very encouraging. Those that may want to self-publish their books, I would encourage them to subscribe to self-publishing@yahoo.com that is a group that is equivalent to our own Blyton yahoo group. There is a lot of great constructive advice, information in this group on the subject of self-publishing.

Comment by MING on Monday, November 30, 2009...

Thank you, Keith (and your panel of experts!). Looking forward to reading Labyrinth of Fire. :-)

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