Final Day of Launch and a Final Review and Giveaway

Four lovely ladies attended my book talk and signing at the local library today. They listened to me tell a little about my journey in getting Turtle Heart published, asked some great questions, and enjoyed the excerpts I read.

This is really what writing is about–finding the ones who “get” your writing, whether in your own community, from a 40-minute drive away, or across the world in Germany. Each person who shows up at an event to meet me or reaches out to me online represents someone who understood and connected with some aspect of my writing.

Here’s a short message I received from a reader this week: “I really enjoyed your book. You have a gift of putting into words what most people only subconsciously think. And to me that is very refreshing.“

To me, it was very refreshing to know that someone else understood at least one part of Turtle Heart, understood and appreciated the effort to get down into a human mind and lay it big across the page. Psychology and the thoughts beneath thought have always fascinated me, and in Turtle Heart I tried to go deep into motive and human desire…in this case my own.

“Luci has a masterful way of writing about what it feels like to be the odd one out, knowing that how you’re perceived isn’t how you feel inside,” writes Emily Smucker in her review of Turtle Heart. Read her review, and enter the giveaway she is hosting, here.

That will be the last review and giveaway I will be sharing during Launch Week, though I may share links to others as they are posted in coming weeks.

Thank you again to all of you who reached out with support and encouraging comments. If you read Turtle Heart and loved it (and even if you didn’t), please leave an honest review or rating on Amazon or Goodreads or whatever your favorite venue is. Those reviews are valuable. And thank you so much to those readers who already have.

Thank you also to you local people who showed up to my launch party to buy a book or just to say hi because you like my writing or because you like me, the person. Your support means a lot. I’ve found out publishing a book in a new community is hard and scary, because I don’t have the connections and deep relationships I used to have in Rusk County. But you showing up to my launch party made me feel like one day soon Oakland will feel like home. Some of you even brought gifts for the baby (you know who you are). And a special shout-out to my sister-in-law here, who took the afternoon off to help me and to babysit Annalise. Without my mom and sisters around, that meant so much.

And thank you to Ivan, who take a break from hay today to come to my book talk and hold Annalise. I could never have made this journey without him.