I’m not sure what I expected on release day for “Dreams of Gold and Fire.” After all, I’ve never been here before. But the reality far exceeded any expectations that I might have had.
The day started off with a groundswell of support for the release from friends, family, and folks in my writing circles. The number of people sharing posts and talking about the book was incredible. It seemed like almost every time that I opened one of my social channels throughout the day, I saw a new mention of it.
Then I got a fantastic first review from Upstream Reviews. Graham Bradley had plenty of kind words to say about the book, including these that really hit home for me:
As I read it, I kept thinking “This is gonna be some kid’s Eragon book. It’s gonna be the book that makes him want to keep reading, and he’ll grow as a reader, and he’ll always look back on this with fondness for showing him what he could enjoy.”
That is, after all the ultimate goal, and it would be amazing to be sitting at a convention 15 or 20 years from now and have a young adult come up to tell me that one of my books was the reason he started reading.
But the final icing on the cake came in the early evening hours, when I checked the Amazon rankings to find that “Dreams of Gold and Fire” was ranked No. 1 among new releases in the Children’s Coming of Age Fantasy category. Not only that, it ranked No. 4 among new releases on the Children’s Fantasy Magic and Adventure list, and the three books ahead of it on that list were all new installments of long-running best-selling series from big New York publishers.
No matter where the rankings land tomorrow, tonight I’m humbled and happy. Many thanks to Raconteur Press for believing in my book and making this possible. Also, to everyone who bought the book, shared a post, or talked to a friend about it … Thank you. After all these years of writing, you really don’t know how much it means to me.
Now, I’ll shut up and go get to work on “Gold and Fire 2.”