Saturday, September 3, 2011

last legs


This is a true story.

All of my stories are true, anyway.

So, this morning, I noticed that I'd been mentioned by a book blogger on Twitter, on his regular IMM post. IMM is book-blogger talk for In My Mailbox, which are posts that tell the titles of the books the blogger has received that week.

So I wanted to see what book of mine was mentioned, and I saw that Feiwel and Friends, my publisher, had sent him an e-book copy of Stick.

Cool.

Interestingly, when he listed Stick, it was a hyperlink. So, I clicked on the link because I was pretty sure the blogger, a really prolific book reviewer named Alex Bennett, hadn't read or reviewed Stick yet.

It turned out the link took me to the Goodreads page for Stick. 


Most people know how I feel about Goodreads. I do not ever read stuff on Goodreads. It is bad for authors to do shit like that.

Goodreads can suck out an author's soul.

Goodreads to an author is like a mirror to a meth smoker. Once you start looking, you'll never be able to pull yourself out.

But there I was, face to face with Goodreads' page for my Stick. I could not help but see that the book had a very nice rating, and quite a number of reviews, too.

But I was not looking.

I refused to look.

Except at the very first review. It was a really nice review, and it was written by a bookseller named Rachael, who works at Powell's Books in Portland.

First off, most people know how I feel about indie stores and the people who work in them. Indie stores are the only real places to buy books, and indie booksellers truly read and love books. And Powell's is like the Holy Land to authors who love indie booksellers.

So, to get a nice review from a bookseller who A) knows her shit, and B) works at Powell's is... well... pretty freaking amazing.

So it turns out Powell's has my books listed in their YA books for boys section.

That is the shit.

You can read Rachael's Goodreads review of Stick here.

Alex Bennett's IMM post is here.

And, Rachael, do not worry. I will send you a signed copy of Stick as soon as it comes out.