The Maine Island Mysteries Go to the Summer Fairs

You'll find me at two great summer fairs over the course of the next few weeks, including the 9th Annual Books in Boothbay July13th in Boothbay, ME--billed as Maine's Summer Book Fair--where I'll be signing copies of Matinicus and Reese's Leap alongside dozens of other terrific authors including Linda Greenlaw (she of  The Hungry Ocean  fame). FREE ADMISSION at this one! Check it out at http://booksinboothbay.blogspot.com/

And on Saturday, August 3rd, I'll be at The Maine LobsterFest on the waterfront in Rockland, ME. Over 20,000 lbs. of lobster are consumed here each year, and if you wander into the "marine tent" between noon and 4:00 p.m., you'll find me signing copies of all three of my books. Check this one out at http://www.mainelobsterfestival.com/ 

Hope to see some of you there!

"Matinicus" Snags Some Cool Awards

May is quite the month in the world of Indie publishing. Many of the larger awards--the Ippys,  Indie Book Awards, National Indie Excellence Awards and the like are announced in the weeks leading up to the annual BEA (Book Expo America) conference in NYC—North America's leading publishing event—which takes place at the end of the month.

Optimist that I am, last summer and fall I entered Matinicus (the first book in my Maine Island Mystery Series) in every award I could find and wisely kept quiet about it. As a  writer, the corrolary to keeping mum about a new book project is keeping equally mum about award contests, lest the dreaded "So how are you coming with that book?" morphs into "So did you ever win that contest?" And when you've entered an international competition and are up against thousands of other writers, you have to be insane to think you could possibly win.

Until, quite amazingly, you do.

This past winter I was pleased to learn Matinicus had been named Honorable Mention for Fiction in the 2012 New England Book Festival Awards; then last week I learned it had snagged a 2013 Bronze Ippy for Northeast Regional Fiction. A few days ago I also received word the book was named the Winner in the Mystery Category of the 2013 Indie Book Awards. I am humbled and very grateful.

                                            The lesson for me in all this? Dream big, beleive with every ounce of your being, and work way beyond hard to make it all come true.

Matinicus FREE on Kindle for 3 Days!

Matinicus will be FREE on Kindle Friday, Saturday and Sunday (3/29,3/30, 3/31), to celebrate the release of Reese's Leap, Book Two in the Maine Island Mystery Series! So be sure to grab one, spread the word, and gift them to your friends!
More great news...The Reese's Leap Kickstarter campaign was a huge success, thanks to the support of so many of you. I'm pleased and humbled by your belief in me. Next on the list is the ad campaign. Time to kick that puppy into high gear!

Speaking of kicking things into gear, the Reese's Leap Book Launch takes place next Thursday, April 4, 7:00 p.m.at RiverRun Bookstore, Portsmouth, NH
( http://www.riverrunbookstore.com/ ), with an after party just up the street at the historic Portsmouth Athenæum ( http://portsmouthathenaeum.org/ ). Hope you can join us!

The Reese's Leap Kickstarter Campaign

Hello again, and thanks for checking in! There's a lot going on just now, what with the completion of the Reese's Leap galley edits and Anna Torborg's great work on the cover. Just 6 weeks to go 'til the April 4th Book Launch...yikes!

More news...I've just launched a Kickstarter Project timed for the upcoming release.  My hope is to raise $3500 to help fund a large print run and honkin' Internet ad campaign that will not only help sell this book, but take the whole, award-winning series to the next level. Those of you who are familiar with Kickstarter as a crowd-source funding tool, know that it's an all-or-nothing proposition. The full $3500 must be pledged by the end of the campaign on March 22, or the project receives nothing. I'm offering some great rewards to encourage any and all pledges!

You'll find lots of info on my project page: details about the campaign, book synopses, review links, awards, and rewards. And whether you're able to pledge or not, you can help get the word out by taking this link viral: family and friends, FB buddies, anyone you know who reads mysteries, loves stories about Maine, or who just loves to discover new writers.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darcyscott/reeses-leap-taking-the-island-mysteries-to-the-nex  

Hope you'll come along on the adventure!

January Happenings

A happy and prosperous New Year to you all! Mine feels a bit overwhelming already, even just two days in, what with the looming launch of Reese's Leap (the second in my Maine-based Island Mystery Series) and a book appearance calendar that's beginning to fill up.

First, a note about a few cool awards I've been lucky enough to receive. Though it won't be officially announced 'til later this month, I thought I'd let you know that Matinicus, the first book in the Island Mystery Series, has won Honorable Mention in the 2012 New England Book Festival Awards. In addition, the terrific mystery blog, BloodWrites, has chosen it as one of its "Top Five Mystery Reads of 2012". Not a bad way to end 2012!

Now for a few January events. On Wednesday, January 16th, you'll find me moderating a panel of memoirists at the Portsmouth Athenaeum's second Writers' Forum in downtown Portsmouth, NH. Then on January 19th, I'll be signing books at the New England Book Festival in Boston (awards to follow that evening), and on the 26th you can find me, along with a few other local writers, at "The Local Buzz Coffee House & Wine Bar," as we read from our latest books and chat with audience members about our work. Details about all these events can be found on my Amazon.com Author page events listings: http://www.amazon.com/Darcy-Scott/e/B003U7UR1W/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Hope to see some of you there!

whoopee...A Blog Hop!

I'm shamelessly enthusiastic when it comes to talking about writing, so I was more than happy to participate when my friend, the novelist K.D. Mason, invited me take part in a kind of pass-the-potato question and answer session, otherwise known as a Blog Hop. So here goes!

What is the title of your book? Matinicus—An Island Mystery, published in May of this year. This is the first in my Maine Island Mystery Series. Its sequel and the second book of the series, Reese’s Leap, will be released in March, 2013. All the books in the series are set on islands off the Maine coast.

Where did the idea come from for the book? I’m a sailor and the Island Mysteries grew out of my love of the Maine coast and its rugged, often remote, out-island communities. The culture of the island of Matinicus, itself, is particularly unique, with a sort of Wild West-meets-beeper-generation lifestyle that intrigues most mainlanders. I knew I had to write a novel about it the first time I visited the place, and the more I learned, the more fascinated I became.  This was maybe ten years ago.  I was sailing off the coast of Maine and pulled into the harbor on a whim.  The first thing I saw when I went walking was a couple of grinning kids drag-racing along the dusty road paralleling the harbor—no doors on either car, one of the hoods tied down with a length of lobster warp.  And I mean kids—not more than ten years old. I started getting glimmers of a plot almost immediately.

The idea for Reese’s Leap also grew out of personal experience. I’m one of a group of women who vacation together for a week each summer on a remote, very rustic, 200-acre island off the coast of Maine. No men (sorry guys). A few years ago we were fogged in for several days—couldn’t have left if we wanted to—and it occurred to me that it would make a terrific setting for a murder mystery. The series' main character is the reluctant sleuth and university botanist, Dr. Gil Hodges, who Cruising World Magazine calls “The best male protagonist to come along since Lee Child’s Jack Reacher.” He's the kind of guy you love and hate at the same time—drinks too much, is constantly drawn to women of a psychotic bent, yet he’s funny and self-effacing. He also knows his faults and couldn't care less.

What genre does your book fall under? All of the books in the series are crime-based mystery/thrillers.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? Gil is constantly told he’s a dead ringer for a younger Jeff Bridges, so with enough make-up JB might work. Jake Gyllenhaal (Source Code, Brokeback Mountain) and Peter Krause (Six Feet Under, Parenthood) would be great choices, as well. As for the rest of the Matinicus cast,  I’d would love to see Taylor Swift take on the role of Tiffany. Brad Pitt would make a terrific Cash. Not sure about Kirtley, the femme fatale of the book. She’s a lithe, long-limbed and totally uninhibited brunette...anyone out there have ideas for me?

Reese's Leap? Hmmm. How about Nicole Kidman as the wild-child Brit, and Anne Hathaway as Nora—a dead ringer for the love of Gil's life, a woman he once deeply and irrevocably wronged.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?  Steeped in Maine island history and lore, Matinicus is one part ghost story and two parts murder mystery—an intricate weaving of the early 19^th century and the modern day that follows some pretty gritty characters through two centuries of island life, lust and vigilante justice—with a twist of an ending that’ll knock your socks off! Still working on one for Reese's Leap...

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? Two years for Matinicus, about the same for its sequel, though for me a “first draft” is one I feel comfortable submitting to my beta-readers, so it’s pretty polished.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? That’s a hard one, since the setting and the character of Gil are kind of unique (or so I’m told.) If you’ve read Charlie Huston, Gil is a lot like the self-deprecating character of Hank Thompson in the series that includes Six Bad Things, Caught Stealing and A Dangerous Man. And like Hank, Gil becomes more jaded and dark as the series progresses. With some 20 reviews posted on Amazon, Matinicus has consistently gained five star reviews. Editorial reviews have also been stunning. I think this speaks to the book’s originality and the quality of the writing.

Reese's Leap pits one man and five resourceful women against a killer on a remote island where they're forced to think outside of the box in hopes of outsmarting a pretty ingenious "baddy." Not all of them make it off alive the island alive, so consider yourselves forewarned! Pre-pub reviews are great; fingers crossed on this one!

And how about tagging a few awesome authors you think readers will LOVE…

Susan Anderson: www.susanrussoanderson.com

Katherine Mayfield: www.theboxofdaughter.com

D.V. Berkom: www.dvberkom.com 

Jeff Foltz: www.Jefffoltzauthor.com 

A Second Printing and Upcoming Events

Sorry to be so long between posts. So much going on here! We've finally moved off our sailboat for the year and are busy transferring our lives from our sea home to our land apartment which means moving clothing, food, bedding, etc., as well as draining and winterizing all boat systems. Not to mention a good general cleaning both inside and out. A ton of work which we'll turn around and do in reverse in the spring!

Big news on the book front is that we've just had a second run of Matinicus printed (that's me signing hundreds of copies last week at Maine Authors Publishing up in Rockland, ME) and I'm about to hunker down for the rest of the final edits of Reese's Leap, the 2nd book in my Island Mystery Series, which I will have to the copy editor by Thanksgiving IF IT KILLS ME!! This may mean another few weeks of non-communication, but so be it!

A few upcoming events to tell you about. Sunday, November 11th, I'll be one of about 50 authors participating in the annual NE Authors Expo Holiday Book Sale at the Danversport Yacht Club (Danvers, MA). This event is free to the public and runs from 1:00 - 7:00 p.m. A great opportunity to pick up some fabulous books for your Holiday gift list!

I also have two events coming up in January, the first the New England Book Festival and Awards which runs all day and into the evening of January 19th at the Parker House Hotel in downtown Boston. I'll be both speaking and selling books at this event, which also includes the annual and much anticipated NE Book Festival Awards. The second event is on January 26th, when I'll be a guest at the Local Buzz Coffee House and Wine Bar in Cape Elizabeth, ME as part of "Local Writers at the Local Buzz" from 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Hope to see you at one of these events!!

What I Read on my Summer Vacation

Okay, I'm back from three weeks of sailing, a vacation for the most part taken up with research on the Island Mystery Series Book #3, editing of the upcoming Reese's Leap, and lots of reading. We sailed hundreds of miles and had far too much fun--well, except for the part where I broke my nose (whole other story).

This time out I read mostly mysteries as that's what I'm writing just now, though I also picked up Mark Wisniewski's Show up, Look Good--the story of a twenty-something girl from the Midwest who relocates to Manhattan on a whim after breaking up with a fiance who prefers sex with power tools. Chapter One begins "I know of a secret murder and I've loved a speechless man...," and if that doesn't get your attention, I don't know what will.

Next on the list was Broken Harbor by Tana French, an excellent writer with a terrific series based in Dublin whose protagonist, Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy, is the brash, love'm/hate'm cop from her bestselling Faithful Place.

And right now I'm about halfway through the British author Elizabeth George's Believing the Lie--the latest in her Detective Inspector Lynley mystery series. I love this author and these characters, never mind this is #17 in the series. Very much worth a try if you're not familiar with her.

Next up will be Jen Blood's Sins of the Father, the 2nd in her Erin Soloman series, and look for a review on this blog soon. I loved the first book, All the Blue-Eyed Angels, so am really looking forward to this!

In vacation mode now…well, as much as I ever am. Two weeks of sailing in Maine while I edit the upcoming book (#2 in the Island Mystery Series) and research Book 3. Going back to Matinicus, over to Criehaven and later on to the infamous Casco Bay island of Malaga. More on this next time.

Oh, and I’m once again cooking up a storm. Nice to have time to do that again. Spent an hour or so picking blueberries in the hills above Bucks Harbor (off Eggemoggin Reach) and making my friend Marty’s Double Berry Pie—all while thinking hard about the “baddies” I’m dreaming up for Book 3. Here’s the recipe. Enjoy.

Marty’s Double Berry Pie

Prepared Graham Cracker Crust

½ C. sugar

2 TBS. cornstarch

2 TBS. water

Pinch salt

3 Pints Blueberries

Mix the first four ingredients with 1 ½ pints  of the blueberries. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring occasionally, then boil 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and gently stir in remaining berries.

Spoon into crust and chill at least 3 hours.

Top with whipped cream.

Serendipity, Research and a bit of Vacation

Love those middle of the night plot ideas! This one for Reese's Leap, (follows Matinicus as book two in the Island Mystery Series). Decided to turn the Prologue into the first chapter and create a new Prologue dating back to 1905. Rounds out the characterization of one of the main protagonists and explains so much that happens later. Putting the bones of the ideas in now.

Rainy, foggy weekend meant the clothes were strung in the aft cabin (a.k.a. my writing room) to dry, so my "studio" was temporarily moved to the saloon.

Just so you know, I leave on an extended sailing trip  in Penobscot Bay Maine (where this series is set) on Wednesday, August 8, to do some research on book three, and grab a bit of a rest from all the crazy Matinicus marketing. I'll try and keep up the blog during the three weeks we're gone, but some of these places are pretty remote, and I may be out of pocket for a bit.

Chat soon!

On the Writing Process

I recently heard from Peter Schwartz, an old classmate/friend who's an avid and astute reader. His insightful, probing comments about my first book, Hunter Huntress (here he is, reading it somewhere in France, I believe), were unsparing and dead-on. A writer himself, he was curious about about my process, frustrated with his own, and had some real thought-provoking questions that forced me to think hard about my personal approach to my writing: how I get ideas for a book and how I massage those initial glimpses of plot into a final manuscript. Thought I'd take a break from my usual type of post to share what I sent him in response. Hope you find it interesting!  Feel free to send me your thoughts and/or questions via my website: http://www.darcyscott.net/.

     Firstly, Pete, for me a story usually starts with a situation--something that happened in my own life or that of someone I know. Some writers cull newspapers for inspiration. I sit with my bit of an idea for a while, letting it resonate. Then I turn to this huge file of notes I have--things that have occurred over the years, bits of dialog I've overheard, things I decided not to use in another book for whatever reason, etc.--and cull through to see if any of it might fit to move that initial idea along.          
     Sometimes characters are part of that initial idea, sometimes not. I try not to force this early phase of things; based on your comments, I sense this might be where you're getting in trouble. And because I'm a visual person, once I have an idea for a character, I have to find a photo (LLBean catalogs, Time Magazine--they've both worked for me). That makes all kinds of things "come." You never know what will push things along. Sometimes coming up with a title helps. I'm currently editing Island Mystery #2, for instance, but also working on plot elements for #3 and have been stymied. Then my husband came up with the book's title and things began to fall into place. No idea why it works this way, but it does--at least for me.

     In the beginning I, too, had trouble being "mean" to my characters. An early reader of a draft of one of my first books complained that the people I was hurting/killing off weren't any that he cared about. Made me realize the only way to really engage the reader is to lure him emotionally, make him care about the very people you're gonna kill off. Trust me, as a writer you become inured to it after a while.

     Your questions about subplots and layers and believability had me digging deep. The mythology sub-plot in HH, for instance, only occurred to me when I was about a quarter way through an early draft and after I'd had a series of dreams much like the episodes in the book where Jamie's dreaming about the figure running through the woods. Again this part of the process has to do with patience. You have to embrace the fact that things will come in spurts, sometimes requiring you to rewrite everything to date. It takes me anywhere from two to eight years to finish a draft of a book. Probably not what you want to hear, but it is what it is.

    I think a lot of your writerly discomfort stems from the somewhat misguided belief that the writer is in control of the process. I find things go more smoothly if I simply trust my characters and get out of their way. Writing fiction is a very intuitive thing. Just wait and listen, and it will happen.

Lots of Writing and a Little Sailing Trip

We dropped the mooring last weekend and took an eight-hour sail up to Casco Bay, ME, trying to wash off some of the green growth and sea critters that had grown on the bottom thanks to our staying put for so long. I spent a few hours in my aft cabin/writing room organizing yet more of the Reese's Leap editing while the skipper remained at the helm plied with sandwiches, fruit and chocolate.


First stop was Yarmouth Island, the remote island where Reese's Leap takes place and a place I've gone for many retreats. Very cool to be there again, to wander the fragrant trails through 200 acres of deeply silent woods, reconnecting with the physical setting of the new book, due out next spring.
                                  
We spent that night just a few miles upriver in Quahog Bay, working out plot elements for the third and final book in the series. Have a lot of editing to do on number two, first. Planning to hunker down this weekend at the Isles of Shoals. Look for more photos to come!

Babies and Books

This past weekend my on-board writing room (a.k.a., the aft cabin) was taken over by two little boys—14-months and and 3 years old, to be exact—grandchildren of happy demeanor and angelic smiles who conspired to keep me from the writing I was supposed to be doing. So I settled for reading. Not the current book that I, myself, am addicted to (Gillian Flynn's wonderful new release, Gone Girl), but the classics. As in Good Night Moon, The Tawny Scrawny Lion, Harold and the Purple Crayon. Children's literature teaches succinctness and brevity. These, apparently, were meant as my lessons for the day. The universe is an amazing thing!


Apropos to the writing life, over the same two days I received several great "fan" emails and a number of web orders for the softcover edition of Matinicus. Unfortunately, the grandsons weren't impressed and pushed for a return to the reading.

Despite these adorable distractions, I'm now back at work and have managed some of the easy bits of the Reese's Leap editing along with a slew of marketing around the release of Matinicus.

This coming Saturday (June 30), and after a four-hour reading/signing stint at the South Berwick Library's Summer Book Bash, we'll be dropping the mooring and sailing off to Cape Porpoise, Maine—a five-hour run that will leave plenty of time for some serious editing while underway.

Anchors away!

Moving Aboard

Okay so we're in the process of moving back on-board our sailboat--a lifestyle full of complication and compromise--and things are basically unpacked. It's been a long morning. A break here as I pause for breakfast.

Okay, I'm back. Making up the bunk in the forepeak (forward cabin where we sleep), I find myself distracted by last summer's as yet unread novels tucked in the bookshelf. Cutting for Stone grabs my eye, and then there's Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects--both of which I bought before getting really addicted to my Kindle. Plus, I just downloaded her new one, Gone Girl and I can't wait to get to both of those!

I've finally finished with the enormous early marketing push for Matinicus and have the rest of it down to a schedule now (2 requests for review and following up leads for on-air interviews each day; the requisite guest posts and posting to various FB pages, Tweeting, etc.). I'm really antsy to get back to the final edits on Reese's Leap, and get on to the as yet unnamed Book 3! Plan is to take a few days to catch my breath, clean the house--something I haven't done in months-- and then hunker own with Leap.

In my next post, I'll show you the newly set up writing cabin aboard "Skater." By then I'll have finished Jen Blood's terrific mystery, All the Blue-Eyed Angels and will give you a full report.

The day before launch, May 2012

I spend a lot of my writing time on our sailboat, which is also our home for much of the year. And as we finally moved aboard this past weekend--till late fall, anyway--I've decided to incorporate observations about the sailing life in these posts, especially as they parallel my writing process and current work on Reese's Leap, the follow-up to Matinicus. So grab your life jacket and join me. Promise we won't tip (much, anyway), and we'll even do all the cooking!

Welcome aboard!

Win a Personalized Copy of "Matinicus"!

Matinicus has gone live! It's now available through Amazon.com (both softcover and Kindle formats) and Smashwords. The early reviews are pretty terrific, and to celebrate, I've decided to give away 3 signed, personalized copies.

This is the deal. To be automatically entered for a chance at one of the books, simply hop over to FB and like my Author Page (Facebook.com/Author.Darcy.Scott). Winners will be randomly drawn by Ms. Lacey Canapetti (my beautiful and multi-talented granddaughter) on Thursday, May 24th.

Good luck!

Wanted to let you know about two Matinicus giveaways going on just now, one at http://www.goodreads.com/ (ending May 10) and another at http://www.librarything.com/ (ending May 18).  All winners receive a signed, personalized copy of the book. If you win, please remember to leave feedback on these sites and on Amazon.com!

Upcoming events include a radio interview discussing Matinicus with the folks at Zone Radio, 103.1 FM and AM620 in Bangor, Maine at 9:05a.m. on Tuesday, May 8, followed on May 17th by the official Matinicus Book Launch Party, 7:00 p.m. at RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, NH. Hope you'll join us!

Baby Ruth

The candy bar, that is.

Those of you who follow me know the only time I eat one of these things—candy bars, I mean—is when something significant is about to happen in my "book life." It's a guilty little pleasure I've come to love. And not only are we creeping up on the May 17th launch of Matinicus (RiverRun Bookstore, Portsmouth, NH, http://www.riverrunbookstore.com/), but I'm heading south to Newtown, CT early this coming week for a May 1st Hunter Huntress reading at the Booth Library (http://chboothlibrary.org/) where I plan a quiet little pre-launch launch.

So why a Baby Ruth bar? It's the name, of course. One of many theories as to its origin back in 1921 was that it was named for the ballplayer Babe Ruth, whose star was then on the rise. Early readers of Matinicus will know that the book's hard-drinking protagonist, Gil Hodges, is not only named for another All Star ball player, but is himself a baseball nut known to quote Ruth at odd moments. Seemed appropriate.

So kick back and join me, won't you? I've even cut you a piece!

The Lobster Lamp

I'm a firm believer that things come into your life when you're meant to have them. I'm not talking big spiritual concepts, here, but things. Stuff. A lamp, in this case--one I brought home from an old cottage slated for demolition the other day. This thing is made from a ten-inch tall lobster claw mounted on a simple block of wood. It's so big, in fact, I though it was plastic or maybe fiberglass, but a lobsterman friend of mine assured me it is (or more accurately "was"), a claw belonging to a very big, and very old lobster. Close to a hundred years, was his guess.

Now, the fact this thing had been in the cottage for at least 25 or 30 years prior to my taking it home, means it's really 125-130 years old, which puts the birth of the thing somewhere around 1885. That's about 20 years after the end of the Civil War. Freaky.

Anyway, something about the thing spoke to me--I mean other than a rather bizarre level of kitsch. Because it's a lobster. Get it? If you don't, you're clearly not reading my blog enough. Because Matinicus, my double mystery due out in May, is about life on an island of lobstermen gone wrong. An island of outsized problems, you might say. Gotta be a sign, don't you think?

The Thing About Reviews

All authors want reviews. Okay, maybe not want them the way we want love and chocolate and oodles of money, but we need them. And just the good ones, thank you. They're important for the exposure they generate, and if you're lucky enough to land a few of these priceless things pre-publication and have a half-decent marketing plan in place, you can hit the ground running. Creating early buzz is important when so many hundreds of thousands of books come out every year. That's hundreds of thousands. I try not to think about that part.

Thing is, getting someone to agree to a review is a crapshoot. Even if you've managed to ink out the best book of the year, there'll be plenty of folks who don't like it. Trust me on this. Say your reviewer is a woman who was once jilted by a guy who just happens to have the same name as your lead character, lost a child the exact age as one who dies in your story, or has a fight with the boyfriend or the boss the day she sits down to read your novels. Maybe yours is the hundredth mystery/romance/science fiction/western (take your pick) she's reviewed this year and she's simply had it. Makes herself a big old martini, sits down at the keyboard and takes her snarly mood out on little-old-you.

Paying for reviews is a whole other ball of wax. Some of the most prestigious review sites charge big bucks for a review they promise will be completely honest, which doesn't necessarily mean "good" (see above). That means you can pay a lot of money for the chance to get majorly, where-did-I-hide-those-razorblades depressed. These companies charge a ton for their reviews because they know that you know that if by some miracle you manage to eek out a good one, you've got a leg up in the game.

All of this by way of explaining, perhaps, that I'm fully aware the absolutely stunning review I just received from Kirkus for Matinicus (due out in May) http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/darcy-scott/matinicus/, had as much to do with the luck of the draw as anything else. Don't get me wrong. I'm really proud of the book, I busted my ass on it, and I'm ever-so-grateful that whoever reviewed it liked it almost as much as I do.

Just sayin'.