Thank You, Maxine – TWA Hits 6300 on Leap Day

Yesterday was a magical day in its own right. I talked about it ad nauseum in yesterday’s blog.

But on top of everything else, Leap Day 2024 had made February one day longer. Turns out I needed every extra hour. A few days back, as TWA was crossing the 6290 mark, I had expressed my hope on Social Media about how much I would love it if maybe it could cross the 6300 mark in ratings/reviews before month’s end.

I call it shaking the tree. I know there is always some reader out there that has read the book, possibly liked it, but cannot be bothered with posting a review. I get that. We are all busy. But a writer, especially an old new one like me, with no time for a slow reputational build, relies desperately on that magic rating/review number. Quite honestly, before the books were published, I didn’t even realize it was there, but it seems more serious and discerning readers do.

And, have I mentioned, I am shameless?!

So, when TWA hit 6299 yesterday, the added last day to a usually shorter February, I put it out to the Universe – in this case Meta/FaceBook (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091444194790) – and asked the powers that be to deliver just one more rating/review. I would have settled for just the anonymous rating. Numbers are numbers.

When I was wrapping it up for the day with announcing the good news that all five books of The Claire Saga – including Where The Ley Lines Meet (dropping on 4/16/24) – had remained in the top 100 of Amazon’s Humorous Sci-Fi, I noticed that TWA had stubbornly held onto 6299.

But, as the rock-god Mick J tells us, “you can’t always get what you want . . . .”

And given that I was a fan when MJ first released that song – 45s ruled – I have tried to live my life with getting by on just “what [I] need.”

So I turned it over to the Universe to handle it.

This morning, when I was doing my post mule feeding email and book numbers check, I went to the TWA website just to see where it was sitting. There I spotted the 6300 mark. I opened the web page desperately hoping that the one new number was a review, as opposed to a rating, because I knew it would be dated.

Imagine the thrill I felt when there, sitting as the top of the “recent reviews” list, was that lovely review from “Maxine.”

And it has the magical incantation “Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2024.”

Viola!

Do not tell this old Druid there is no magic in this world.

So, thank you Maxine. I so appreciate you putting TWA into the next ratings level, and doing it with a review. I also appreciate every prior rating and review that got TWA to 6299. The idea that each of those readers took the extra time from their lives to let me know what they felt about my debut novel, means everything to me.

Well, that magical Leap Day 2024 is followed by a naturally and repeatedly magical Friday.

And 6300 makes that Friday feel even more magical.

But I better get to it.

Kitties to cuddle and rounds to make.

You fine, five readers, who I know have done me many solids in the past with your own ratings and reviews of all of the books (ahem), need to have that last cuppa, pull your socks up and venture into what we all know (but the bosses don’t) is the first day of any weekend.

And, with the broadest smile on my face, I’ll be right out there with you.

But, while we are all out there skiving, let us not forget to make this day a great one.