StandingWater Creations

I woke up this morning (after four or five hours sleep) to my alarm so I could go to class. It was a late night. I’m not sharing why. However, as I opened the lid on my computer and looked at the e-mails that had arrived overnight, I saw one that threw me for a loop.

I got an e-mail from John Zakour.

John Zakour is the co-author of the three science fiction books The Plutonium Blonde, Doomsday Brunette, and Radioactive Redhead. He is the sole author on Frost-Haired Vixen. If you’re interested, his website is available here. When I do the great link re-organization I may add it (and other authors) for easier access.

Apparently, in the last couple of days John Zakour did a web search (I am guessing about this), came across my review of his books. He felt inspired to respond to me. After an e-mail I sent him, today, I’ve included his message to me this morning.

Here it is:

Hi:

I saw your review of The Frost Haired Vixen.  First off, I want to  say I'm really glad you liked the first three books.  I knew some  people would be bummed and disappointed with Larry leaving.  It's  been an interesting spread.  Some people notice a difference but  don't mind as the books are still enjoyable, some people say the  books are better without Larry, some say the are worse.

I knew there would be some fallout from Larry leaving as well, four  eyes and two minds are better than two eyes and one mind.

I hope you do at least try to finish Vixen.

Thanks for reading and writing.  I do plan to improve with each book.

John Zakour

I don’t know why, but this made my morning. Keep in mind that I go to author-run websites all the time. I enjoy seeing how people work and, when they are willing to share, how they got their breaks and what made them into the writers they are today. It’s fun to see and read about (for me). However, in all the years I’ve been a “fan” of different authors, I’ve only ever written one; well, I sent an e-mail. The author is relatively new on the novel scene. I liked his first novel a lot. I couldn’t, in his blog or online, find information about forthcoming books, so I wrote to ask if he had anything else coming out.

I’ve spent some time reviewing movies and books. Probably more books than movies as I am more apt to be interested in the books I am reading and can be somewhat critical of what I am reading to the extent that I want people to know. With that said, I don’t always have a sounding board to bounce ideas off of when I am reading something. Erin became a sounding board, of sorts, when I’d gotten frustrated with Frost-Haired Vixen, but because of the nature of the type of book, she’s interested only in that I am interested in the material; and not actually interested because she likes the subject matter. (More on this later, maybe.)

In all the time I’ve been doing the website (what, three, four years?) I’ve received less than a handful of e-mails originating from the site (not counting my mother who uses the link as a means of e-mailing me); and never from someone I’ve written about. This was a neat experience for me as, regardless of anything else, I enjoyed the first three books and, according to the authors website, he has been contracted to write three more Zach Johnson novels (I’ve taken to calling them The Bombshell Books). I am excited for this.

Anyway, in a quick response to my e-mail John Zakour stated that he had no problem with being critiqued and that it was okay with him for me to post his e-mail on the website. I thank him for that.

Can I just say that, in a fan-sense of the word, this is really cool? With that said, I won’t ever show it more than just being excited that my little website was found and my review read. It makes me feel like I’ve accomplished a little something along the paths and goals I am working toward.

John Hattaway | smokingpen