Comments on: Quake by Joe Cottonwood

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:46:26 +0000

How awesome that Joe commented and he was so positive about a not-quite-positive review!

By: Natasha Maw

Natasha Maw — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:21:58 +0000

Marcia – Thank you for the recommendation. I’ll be looking into it.

By: Marcia

Marcia — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:08:40 +0000

You might try The School Children’s Blizzard (On My Own History) by Marty Rhodes Figley and illustrated by Shelly O. Haas. It was published in 2004 by Carolrhoda Books. The book tells the story of one class of children caught in the sudden blizzard in January 1888 in Nebraska. Several hundred children died in the story trying to get home from school. The story is very well told and the illustrations are terrific.

Marcia
Better Than Magic
http://www.eloquentbooks.com/BetterThanMagic.html

By: Meghan

Meghan — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:59:23 +0000

I managed to miss this review the first time around, probably in my frenzy of writing an essay, but I did read this book when I was a kid! I liked it, too. I remember that it scared me, I remember the description of the wave in the swimming pool, and I remember being glad that I lived in NJ where earthquakes don’t happen. LOL! That’s about all I remember, but I appear to be the only commenter who read the book as a kid, so I thought I’d stick my head in over here. I’m very glad to discover that the author is so kind. =)

By: Jenn M.

Jenn M. — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:04:07 +0000

I just read through this post again and the more I read the comments left by Joe…the more I want to read the book! Someone who can converse with his readers and take everything in stride. I want to read this book because I like Joe!

By: Shelly Burns

Shelly Burns — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:35:42 +0000

Natasha, It is so nice to see the thoughts from an author and to know that they (authors) have been having a controversy of their own as we have gone through our controversy about negative reviews. It’s great to see Joe’s honesty and willingness to “put himself out there” by commenting on a blog. I have received 2 comments lately from authors and personally I’m glad they are doing it. It lets us (book bloggers) know that even the authors are taking note of what we are doing.

By: Natasha Maw

Natasha Maw — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:13:07 +0000

Sorry Joe about the frustrating comments. It did get picked up as SPAM (who knows why especially when you’ve commented before). I wish I was tech savvy enough to have a pop up window saying it was picked up but I’ll approve it. Anyways, I’ve published your comments.

Concerning the “controversy” recently, a book blogger received a signed book from an author from a book giveaway he hosted. She didn’t care for the book and posted as much. It was fair but honest. The author was upset because he thought that because he personally gave her the book that she shouldn’t have posted a negative review. He asked her not to remove the review but rather remove the cover art and a short passage of text which she used to illustrated how choppy she thought the writing was. He’s also a lawyer and used that to intimidate and imply a lawsuit if she didn’t agree. Many other bloggers picked up the story, many chimed in with their own opinions. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the author hadn’t written four blog posts tearing apart book bloggers and leaving a long trail of comments on many blogs about the whole thing. To make a long story short, it was like a train wreck that we all couldn’t stop watching. I only wish that much of it had happened privately instead of in the open. Thank goodness, it has died down now but the general outcome was that bloggers should be fair, respectful and honest without tearing the author apart. It was also a great example of how an author should not respond to a review.

I personally LOVE it when authors stop by and leave a comment. It’s always a great reminder that there is a person behind the pages. I love the interaction. I’ve had several authors stop by and all have been appreciative and kind, yourself included. If done with mutual feelings of respect, I can’t see any harm done in authors interacting with readers.

This interaction alone has sold me on being willing to read your other books. So for that you should be commended!

By: Jenn M.

Jenn M. — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:57:48 +0000

HA! She just started getting interested in ‘listening’ to books on CD while she does things in her room like paint or play around with toys. She just got a new speaker set for her ipod and we were just talking about how she could download books onto it.

By: Joe Cottonwood

Joe Cottonwood — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:52:07 +0000

I have 3 other titles for middle readers: Adventures of Boone Barnaby, Danny Ain’t, and Babcock. None are about disasters – unless you count love and friendship and family as disasters… All 3 titles are out of print. Boone Barnaby will soon be available as a podcast, if your daughter would like to hear a book on her ipod.

Thanks for your interest.

Joe

By: Joe Cottonwood

Joe Cottonwood — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:48:50 +0000

Just tried a third time. Still vanishing. Maybe one day 3 identical posts from me will bombard this page.