Yesterday didn’t start particularly auspiciously. First I fumbled my secret password trying to turn off the security system at my dayjob and the alarm went off, making my heart jump about three feet sideways. Then I heard from a fellow Debut2009 member that Fortune’s Folly was in the most recent Kirkus Reviews and experienced a second jolt of fight-or-flight adrenaline. Kirkus is one of the several “big name” reviewers that you see referenced on Amazon pages and book jackets and so on. I had been very nervous for a long time about what they might think of my book. So I was enormously relieved to discover that the review was positive.

From Kirkus Reviews:
Young Fortunata’s father, a shoemaker, has lost his elves. When the forlorn father-daughter pair is forced to find work outside their town of Valenzia, they fall in with a rough lot, and Fortunata is coerced by their malevolent captors into learning the wily tricks of a fortune teller. Their tortuous journey, described in Fortunata’s grimly pragmatic, dryly comical first-person voice, leads them to the queen of Sirenze, who requires a soothsayer’s advice to help her son-the shy, stuttering Prince Leonato-find a princess. Fortunata fakes an amusingly elaborate prophecy, soon realizing that she must make her prediction come true to save her father’s life. As fate would have it, the prince is charming, and finding someone who loves him proves all too easy. (She does.) Fortunata is a likable heroine with real guts and only becomes a romantic sap toward the end. Readers will relish the clever allusions to stories from “Rapunzel” to “Cinderella,” rendering the first line of this winning debut novel that much more terrific: “Life would have been much easier if I believed in fairy tales.” (Fantasy. 10 & up)

In other fun “hey, maybe I am kind of a real author” news, I had a delightful meeting with two ladies from the youth services department of my local library in Augusta. They were very sweet and very enthusiastic about books and reading. They each run reading groups for kids (two different age groups) through the library that sound wonderful. The most exciting part for me was that they are going to use Fortune’s Folly as the May selection for the reading group. And then I get to go to the meeting and talk to the kids who have read the book. Whee!

Then in June, when I am a seasoned veteran author of two months (heh) I will be speaking at a more general, open-to-the-public type of affair. For those of you in the area, it will be Wednesday, June 17th at 6:30PM at Lithgow Public Library in Augusta.

Exciting stuff! Well, for me at least.

Tags: events, fortune's folly, reviews