Snap and Beyond

I'm amazed at how Snap continues to sell and inspire readers. I'm very proud of its success especially when I truly believed Snap would be rejected by everyone for it's graphic violence and anger. But even as I savor the overwhelmingly positive response to Snap I continue to create and write. I'm looking forward to the release my new novel in mid summer of this year. Hopefully my readers will look forward to reading different things as I don't believe I am a writer who is willing to write the same story over and over with different named characters who look like characters I've written before.

I am a student of the world. I am, not to be dramatic, a watcher like Mere and Miss Watkins in The Raised, though I do not have a sinister agenda. I want to absorb knowledge and experiences and I have been blessed with opportunities to do that. I look forward to sharing those experiences with you in a fictional context. Keep reading, keep learning, keep watching!

Happy One Year Anniversary The Raised!

I can't believe it's been a year since the publication of The Raised! It has been an amazing ride! I remember the excitement I felt watching sales take off and keep going. There have been bumps and twists and turns all along the way but sharing my work with all of you has been the greatest experience of my life. Even those who don't like my writing have offered suggestions and thoughts and I've appreciated them all. Thank you to all of you and I hope I continue to bring you thought provoking words to read and you laugh, you cry, you think and you smile, you love and you hate. I hope I can bring you all the joys of reading that are the same as the joy I feel in writing.

Kindle eBook of the Day

I was honored to have Snap selected as a Kindle eBook of the Day!

http://indieauthorjourney.blogspot.com/2012/08/kindle-ebook-of-day-snap-by-allen-renfro.html

Review of Bobby's Boy by Mark Wilson

Bobby's Boy is an exceptional character driven story.  One of the first thoughts of describing this novel as I read it was that through each page I felt a quiet about it. Sort of like the quiet in the woods when snow is falling. It is a story of a life that anyone of us could have and Wilson tells it with such an easy, almost biographical, manner that you don't realize how wrapped up in the story you are until you are at the end and wanting more.  It was the "quiet" of this novel, the normality of the characters that make this novel work. As in real life it is the twists that we don't see coming that make this story compelling and sometimes heartbreaking.

I must confess some of the Scottish dialect had me running to Google to make sure I understood clearly what the characters sometimes were saying. But make no mistake, instead of this being a distraction it only gave the characters more depth and made me more interested. Tommy's career may be boring to some readers and the detail that Wilson goes into could be a distraction to some, but for me Tommy is a character that truly loves what he is doing and that joy is reflected in a flourishing life that I increasingly grew jealous of and then grew thankful that it wasn't me.

I could not post a review of this novel without mentioning the character of Uncle Alec, a hard edged, tough talking man. I found myself totally in love with him and the honesty that he maintained throughout the story. Through the toughness Wilson gives you a glimpse of the love this character has for family, friends and loving life in general and you realize there is a gentle man underneath who only wishes happiness for those he loves.

The more I read the more I fell in love with this novel, a novel of characters we all know in a world in which life is the unknown. I will definitely be reading this novel again. Job well done.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Bobby%27s+Boy+Mark+Wilson

Interview with Brandon Shire

I was honored to have the opportunity to talk with Brandon about my novel Snap. It is always a pleasure to speak with a fellow author and discuss what inspires us, what affects us and what motivates us to write. We both are opinionated and unabashed.  I think the interview shows that.  Here's the link:

http://brandonshire.com/author-interview-with-allen-renfro/