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.

 

Six Minutes With Joseph Falank

Good morning friends and dear readers.

Up now is an interview I had with LitPick.com for their series Six Minutes With An Author. The interview - which goes over what's influenced me and my writing over the years, as well as answers to questions like what advice I have to other writers, where is my favorite place to write, as well as my favorite book and how it gave me affirmation that SEEING had a place in world - can be found on their Facebook (and while you're on their FB page, why not give'em a "Like"), or you can read the interview on their website.

Planning out a few blog posts to run in the near future - ones where I discuss trunk novels, the ways social media is helpful and also a hindrance, and also one discussing my next novel coming out late next year.

Stay tuned.

Goodreads SEEING giveaway!

Hello dear readers. I know it's been a while, for which I apologize - been busy prepping for baby Maddie's arrival in about a month. But I dug myself out of piles of baby clothes and toys and stuffed animals and diapers and accessories to give you some pretty cool news:

I am very excited to announce that the premiere social media site for booklovers, Goodreads (www.goodreads.com), is hosting a book giveaway - three autographed copies of SEEING are up for grabs. Winners are chosen randomly by the Goodreads staff.

What's the giveaway involve and how can you be a part of it?

1. Know that, most importantly, the giveaway is absolutely FREE! (Yes, free!)
2. All you need to do to request one of the three copies available, thus entering yourself in the giveaway, is click on the following link: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/106127-seeing and then click on the button that reads ENTER TO WIN.
3. Wait until midnight, Wednesday, October 15 to see if you're one of the three winners!

That's it!

***

On the fence about if you want to enter the giveaway? Well, check out what some readers have had to say about SEEING:

Plot: Thirteen-year-old Jake Sheppard learns to cope with the harsh truth that comes with growing up - that those he loves don't stick around forever.

"Such a great read." (John Malik - author of DOUGHNUTS FOR AMY)

"This book may be fiction geared for young adults, but it is a must read for any age if you have ever suffered the intense hurt and bewilderment of being abandoned by a parent. Forget all the self help books and stop asking yourself 'why'. Immerse yourself in Seeing and you will finally realize that 'You've got to learn to let go.' Falank has nailed it....Seeing delivered on it's promise...it has changed the way I see the world, forever." (Yvonne - 5-star Goodreads Review)

"Beautifully written. Not only does it touch upon topics that pertain to adults and parents but it reaches out to such emotions that young adults experience. I will be sharing this book with my daughter. This is a true calling!" (Nicole W. - 5-star Amazon Review)

"Reading Falank's Seeing brings you right back to that very early teen place when the best adults in your life look at you with frustration and pity and you can't stand them as much as you still adore them. Read this book. It's poignant and real. [Seeing is] a lovely read and satisfying, paced just like it should be, slow enough to savor and enticing enough to keep pages turning." (Mary Sze-Tu - 5-star Goodreads Review)

"Lovely story that made me both want to savor it and race to the end. Interesting characters and beautiful imagery." (Sallie Anne Porter - 5-star Amazon Review)

"I found the themes dealing with loss and how it affects the person and their relationships very relatable. The story is told via a 13yo boy but any age can relate to it." (Adara Alston - 5-star Goodreads Review)

Putting Back On The Writing Hat

It's been a wonderful vacation. What with moving into our first house and painting and getting the baby's room ready it's also been an eventful summer. Add to all of the previous, I also had my very first author event last Wednesday night at RiverRead Books in downtown Binghamton.

There were two things I was going to do when the event started; first, I was going to snap a pic of the crowd in attendance - from my point of view - waving at the camera and then tweet it; second, I was going to start a timer to make sure I didn't cut anything too short or talk for too long (figured the nerves may cause me to do one, the other, or both). Forgot to do either. Needless to say once I was introduced by Connie Barnes, the bookstore owner, and what a lovely intro it was, I started right in. Overall, I can't complain. I sold a few books, signed a bunch of copies, and had a lot of laughs and questions to answer that everyone seemed genuinely interested to hear. Like I said, can't complain.

 

But now vacation is over.

And I'm excited.

Yesterday morning, just after the alarm went off at six, I sat down and started in on another novel. I try to do a thousand words per day. In just over an hour I managed to get in my thousand. This morning it took me less than an hour. Things are beginning very well. Of course there will be those days when I struggle to reach my thousand-word goal, but so far so good.

I don't really have a plan with this book except to write it and to do so without planning anything out at all. I haven't plotted, only sketched a general premise. That's big for me.

Unfortunately it's too early for me to say anything more about the book. I dropped this shot on Twitter yesterday morning, and for now, that'll have to do.

Six Minutes with LitPick

Just recently I took part in an interview - Six Minutes with an Author - for LitPick.com ("the latest in preteen and teen literature reviewed by a global community of students"). The interview will run on LitPick's Facebook page. When it's up I'll post.

My first author event is only days away - RiverRead Books in Binghamton will be hosting me this coming Wednesday, August 6th. If you're in the area come on down! If you're not, I'll have pics and a description of the night up shortly following.

Not much else to report on at the moment, but stuff coming down the pike. Stay tuned!