First Book Review

Like a first tooth, first steps and first kiss, some firsts are monumentally memorable.  My first review comes by way of an anthology that contained one of my short stories.  Though a few close writer buddies reviewed Sinisterotica and my story specifically, I don’t really count them since they have their own stories in the anthology.  Plus all the mutual squeeing tends to make one biased.  It’s the reviews from total strangers that give me that Sally Field “You really, really like me” feeling.

Sinisterotica got its first review on Amazon.  A 3 out of 5 rating overall, the narrative was less generous, claiming only six or so of the twenty four total stories made positive impressions.  All three of us in my writers’ group made the reviewer’s list of the “good” stories.  That’s an amazing testament to the talented crowd I run with.  Not only were the three of us thrilled to have our stories accepted in the same anthology, but for all of us to be singled out for praise went beyond the pink.  Key bits I honed in on were:

“There are 24 short erotic horror stories in the book, but I only found six or so really worthwhile.”

Not an encouraging start but after giving best of the bunch honors to the story penned by my wonderful colleague, Stella Berkley, my specific mention said:

“Now for the winners:

Yve Redeemed by Lila Shaw was more on the erotic side than horror, since the devil was a hot guy, but it was still a winner in my book.”

R. Brennan, my other writers’ group colleague, got her nod as having contributed a winning story too.  Stella’s and R’s stories had marched front and center for me too.

A final giddy moment came from this closing comment:

“Still, the few good stories are really good, and worth reading…”

This old gal will take the entire review as a winning first!