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.