Seeing - Book Review By Erik (thiskidreviewsbooks.com)

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm forever grateful for the glowing adult reviews for SEEING. I was quite ecstatic, too, when I received news just recently that a young reader, user name Alyssakb99, from LitPick.com, also very much enjoyed my book.

But the one review I've been waiting for (and keeping my fingers crossed for) finally published this morning, and I am very excited to share it with you, my dear readers.

The review comes from Erik, the boy reader from www.thiskidreviewsbooks.com. I've included portions of Erik's text below.

You can check out Erik's full review of SEEING on his website.

Book Review - SEEING by Joseph Falank

Summary – 13 year-old Jake Sheppard has always been mocked in his class. After his father walked out on his mother and him, and his best friend became his tormentor, his life has been even harder. The fact that his grandfather, who has recently lost his wife, has come to live with them helps. His mom dating another guy doesn’t. Not in Jake’s mind.

What I Thought – This book is amazing. I like how Mr. Falank’s writing style shows the depth of the bond between Jake and his grandfather. Mr. Falank writes realistically. Even though this isn’t the typical action/adventure book I usually go crazy over, the book really left an impression on me. The story kept me reading. I finished it in one day. The story, even though is one of loss, is also one of hope. It is motivating, in a way.

For anyone who says small press publishers don’t produce good books – check out Seeing. It will change your mind in many ways.

I give “Seeing” five out of five bookworms!

How I Plan To Spend #NaNoWriMo 2014

With October coming to a close that can mean only one thing to writers: we're on the doorstep to National Novel Writing Month (affectionately known as NaNoWriMo).

I won't spend a lot of time describing the event that takes place throughout the month of November except to say, for those unaware, that the 30 day challenge is meant to encourage writers to put down as many words as they can (about 1,666 words per day to meet the assigned goal) - hopefully ending with at least 50,000 words toward the first draft of a novel.

Now every year I have the intention of participating in NaNoWriMo, but for the last few years at this time I've been in different stages of editing a novel I've already written earlier in the year. I suppose I shouldn't beat myself up too much considering I've already checked off the most important, and arguably hardest step - writing the first draft. Unfortunately I'm not the type of writer who can bench a big project for a whole month and start a new one from scratch (I do envy those that can) so I plan to spend the 30 days of November finishing the latest draft of the next novel that should be out roughly a year from now.

(And because I'm pretty comfortable with the current status of the next novel, I thought I'd share a little bit about it.)

Currently titled PICTURES, the next book tells the story of a widowed former artist who begins to see unusual changes in his life after meeting a mysterious woman.

The idea that sparked the novel is one I've had for a long time (one of the first I ever documented in my "idea journal"), and the decision to make it the next book came about a year ago when my wife and I were on a flight to Aruba. During the four-hour plane ride my wife devoured a pretty lengthy novel (David Baldacci's ONE SUMMER). I've never read the book but did check out a summary. My wife is drawn to the family drama/romance novels akin to authors like Baldacci and, one of her favorites, Jodi Picoult. Seeing how quickly she got through the book, I wanted to try my hand at telling such a story.

While it could be argued that SEEING is very much a family drama, I associate SEEING more with a coming-of-age tale, considering the progress of, and the lessons learned by, the young protagonist Jake Sheppard. PICTURES, my first "adult-themed" book, will very much play out in the family drama realm, with a bit more of the love story element at play.

Of course, right now, I'm still in the throes of editing (killing darlings), so it's impossible to predict just what categories PICTURES will fall into until it is finished.

I can also say that when I write, I write about things that terrify me. When writing PICTURES I tackled the subject of becoming - or perhaps never becoming - a dad.

Stay tuned.

And to all you writers preparing for NaNoWriMo -

Good luck!

Some New Reviews, A Giveaway, And A Baby!

A few weeks ago I participated in Six Minutes with an Author - an interview through the website www.LitPick.com. Today I am happy to share that a young reader from LitPick, age 15, under the username Alyssakb99, has reviewed SEEING.

A snippet:

"This book taught me a lot of how family can overcome hardships. I would definitely recommend this book to young adult readers; this is a well written story about family and hardships, and how to overcome trials."

Very awesome. While I'm ecstatic the book is reviewing well with adults, I'm so very happy the book is reaching its intended audience. Sometime this month I should be receiving a review from Erik at www.thiskidreviewsbooks.com - a review I've been looking forward to for quite sometime.

In other review news, I also just recently received my first professional review - this one from Kathryn Mattingly, author of BENJAMIN, who gave SEEING 5 stars, saying:

"Joseph Falank has a gift for well-penned prose that causes deep emotion - in his characters, and in his readers. Truth, discovery, and unexpected turns are what life is all about, and in this novel, young Jake's personal journey is a page-turner to be sure. This author paints some beautiful scenes with the brush of his pen and affects every emotion before the final page."

What I love most about Mattingly's review is the part about painting beautiful scenes. My goal when writing is to really try to visualize what is happening while reviewing the words on the page - it should play like a movie in your head as you read. If I feel there are too many fine details, too many specifics getting in the way and I'm losing that latch on the picture of it all, I begin fine tuning and "killing darlings." To read Mattingly comparing my words to visual art makes me feel satisfied that I accomplished what I set out for.

If you took part in the SEEING giveaway over at Goodreads, first, thank you! It amazed me to discover the giveaway ended last week with over 1,000 entries. Wow. Second, if I could, I would send all 1,075 of you signed copies. For the three winners, your copies are in the mail! Hope to hear from you to find out what you thought.

Finally tonight, just last Tuesday, at 7:15pm, my wife and I welcomed the arrival of our first child, our daughter Madelyn.

Some people say there is no such thing as love at first sight. People who believe that must never have had a child.