At long last I've caught up with reviewing some of the books I've read lately. Indie authors can find it hard to get their work noticed, and it can be equally hard for readers to know whether a novel by an indie author will be their kind of book. Reviews act like word-of-mouth personal recommendations, and help readers decide whether they fancy reading the sample, so I would always welcome honest, constructive reviews, and I hope the ones I write will be useful to both authors and readers.
One of the reviews I've just completed is for Cat's Breakfast,
Third Flatiron Anthologies' Kurt Vonnegut tribute, which is on Goodreads and Amazon. Much as I enjoyed the stories in this, I discovered a drawback to writing reviews beyond time spent reading when I ought really to be writing. Vaughan Stanger's story 'One Is One' (which I loved) reminded me of a 70s single called 'One and One Is One'. I could remember the song, but not the name of the band, so I went in search of it on You Tube. Not content with discovering it was by Medicine Head and listening to it, I then couldn't resist listening to 'Radar Love' by Golden Earring, 'This Flight Tonight' by Nazareth, Norman Greenbaum's 'Spirit in the Sky' and more, and suddenly the morning was gone. Not only that, but I was left with a 'One and One Is One' earworm. Writing about it now has brought it back again. (Do the Iyessi ever suffer from earworms, I wonder?) It could send me mad–or maybe I should write a story about a character driven mad by an earworm. That would justify the musical detour, wouldn't it?