Today is an auspicious day! TRAVELER now has 50 reviews on Amazon! Cue the confetti! This is it, the world is my oyster!!

Actually, it just means I have one more review on Amazon than 49, but I’ll take it. I have well over a hundred on Goodreads now, and scattered reviews across other bookseller sites, and so far (knock wood) they’re predominately good.

But that doesn’t mean I disregard or shrug off the bad ones – and there have been a few. Some have valid criticisms that have made me better, some chew over a point just to chew it, one made a claim that literally made my blood boil (oh well, whatta ya gonna do) but all of them taught me something about my writing, my personal stumbling blocks, and the nature of the writer biz. I wouldn’t trade a single one of them.

Most of all, I’m grateful for them. Reviews are a valuable tool for any reader – both the good and the bad. And yes, I like to see a mix of both when I go hunting for books. It makes the author seem more “real” if there are a few dissenters – like they didn’t just have an army of friends sticking up glowing reviews to stack the deck. Getting a well-rounded view of the pros and cons of any book is incredibly helpful.

So if you’ve reviewed my book – thank you! From the bottom of my happy-dancing writer heart, thank you! You are the unsung hero of the reading world, and you deserve all the praise I can heap on you.

You are what keeps me going some days.