Letter From a Reader

Awww... I want to cry. I just received the following message from someone that reads my blog. BTW - I responded and told him I appreciated his letter and that I won't publish his name, but that I wanted share what he wrote because it touched me. He answered, "I figured as much. I read your blog everyday. I think I had an idea of how you'd respond. Thanks for respecting my privacy and you're more than welcome to share my words."


Anyway: Here's his message:


Dear, T.L.,


Yes, I'm writing with a greeting. I can't help it. It's how I was taught to write. I'm from the old school of things. When a man wants to write a letter to a lady, he should open with a greeting.


I know we've never met but I've been reading your blog for almost a year. I first stumbled upon it reading a review you wrote for Anthony Ryan. By the way, that was one of the best book reviews I've ever read. I purchased the book immediately and Mr. Ryan didn't disappoint. Raven's Shadow was everything you'd written and more. I hope Mr. Ryan appreciates your enthusiasm for his work.


I'm not writing to flirt with you, only to tell you what reading your blog has meant to me. It's literally changed my life. I'm highly professional and somewhat of a high profile, but inside I struggle trying to self identify. I've lived my life being defined by everyone else around me. In my case, it's been a good definition. I can't complain.


Some of the things you've written touched me very deeply. There were times I misdirected those feelings, believing perhaps I was falling in love with this beautiful soul being poured out week after week in front of me, but I kept telling myself you weren't real, more than likely a created persona to enhance your writing career. Yes, I'm a skeptic. I'm in the entertainment business and question everything. Just when I'm convinced of this created persona, you then write something so naked, so heart-breaking, you'd literally have me weeping at my desk. I knew in those times that you were a real person and you were being honest while sharing the intimate pain of your life.


So many times I wanted to write to you and tell you how beautiful you were to me. I've seen some of your pictures and think you're a very pretty woman, but the beauty I witnessed poured out in those blog posts have greatly exceeded your pretty face. It broke my heart to see you often doubt yourself, doubt your worth, and believe yourself to be unlovable. It boggles my mind how you're alone. I wish there were more like you in this world. Every time I received a new email notification that you've posted a new article, my hope was always to find you'd found your happiness. I wouldn't have to wait long when you would post again and it be something happy, something brave, something that showed you did see yourself as the beautiful soul you really were. I sometimes pondered if you were perhaps bipolar because you often went from one extreme to the next. I slowly began to understand your process. All this time I had felt like you were writing to me, or at least to a captive audience, but you were not. You were the audience. You have been the targeted reader all along. I want you to know you're simply amazing.


I don't have a blog and never will. I'm not as brave as you to expose myself the way you do, but I am taking a page from your example. I've started writing a journal to myself. The first few entries were stilted, odd, and somewhat confusing, but freeing at the same time. I'm not the same caliber of writer as you, but seeing my words on the page helped me see them in a different light and understanding. I'm learning a lot about and not struggling so much with self identity. You've restored my faith in people. You've reminded me about the important things.


I want to thank you Ms. Gray for sharing your heart with unknown strangers as myself. I sincerely hope you find the happiness you're searching for. That man will be one of the luckiest men in the world, because I have no doubt he will be loved like he's never been loved before and appreciated like he's never been appreciated before. I may not know you, but I know your heart. You once wrote a post about why you call someone in your life Beautiful. You, my dear, are the truest example of Beautiful I've ever seen. I work with beautiful faces every day, but they do not possess the kind of beauty I witness in you.


Please keep writing. I believe you're changing many hearts across this world, not just mine.


Sincerely,

Your Faithful Reader


*** With a hand full of tissues, I'm wiping the wet tears off my face and gobs of snot dripping from my nose. *** This just made my day. Hell, it's made my week, my month, and probably my year!!!!

Review - Raven's Shadow - Anthony Ryan

Book: Raven’s Shadow (Blood Song Series – Book 1)

Author: Anthony Ryan (http://www.anthonystuff.wordpress.com )

Publisher: Indie

Genre: Fantasy

Book Description:

Publication Date: January 21, 2012

An epic fantasy exploring themes of conflict, loyalty and religious faith. Vaelin Al Sorna, Brother of the Sixth Order, has been trained from childhood to fight and kill in service to the Faith. He has earned many names and almost as many scars, acquiring an ugly dog and a bad-tempered horse in the process. Ensnared in an unjust war by a king possessed of either madness or genius, Vaelin seeks to answer the question that will decide the fate of the Realm: …who is the one who waits?

Blood Song is the first volume of Raven's Shadow - a new epic fantasy of war, intrigue and tested faith.

Review:  I had once again began to lose hope in the indie publishing field, having been disappointed with the last few indie books I’ve read.  A few of them started with great promise, but left me quite disappointed in the end.  But all hope was not lost, at least not since stumbling across Raven’s Shadow by Anthony Ryan. I haven’t been this excited about an indie book since Progeny by Ryan Kaelin (http://www.rtkaelin.com ).  What is it with Ryans writing exceptional stories?  Anyway …on with the review.

The story starts with our protagonist, Vaelin Al Sorna – known as a Brother of the 6^th Order, the Sword of the Realm, Young Hawk, Darkblade, Beral Shak Ur, and Hope Killer, being led as a prisoner by Lord Verniers Alshe Someren, Imperial Chronicler, First of the Learned and honored servant to the Empire, to face a judgment by a country and people whom his Battle Lord father had almost decimated when he was but a small child.  Already prejudiced against him for being the son of their most hated rival, Vaelin is also the killer of their beloved Hope, the successor to the Emperor’s throne in their latest skirmish with King Janus and the Realm. As they travel across the sea to face a trial by conquest, Vaelin tells this chronicler the story of his life and how the most hated of villains he became.

This prologue pulled me right into the story and piqued my interest to the point I just had to read on.  That’s one of the formula’s I love best – have a despicable state of being and then go back and show me how one achieved such a state.  It is the basic fundamental aspect of humanity - to understand how someone reaches a certain state in their life, either deplorable or exceptional, so we can better understand and see the path to that destruction or success and apply the principles to our own lives. 

The real story begins with Vaelin as a mere child dealing the death of his mother, along with losing that innocent childhood, as his Battle Lord father abandons him to the Brothers of the Sixth Order, a sect of the Faith that focuses primarily on the art of war.  It is his time with the Sixth Order that we fall in love with Vaelin, and his other brothers, as they are transformed from weak, innocent boys, into a close-nit team of merciless assassins.  We are carried right along with Vaelin as he develops his skills, face his trials, and nurtures the hate for the father that abandoned him.   You can’t help but root for him and his Order brothers as they transform from the fearful into the greatly feared.  Anthony Ryan does an excellent job of sewing the reader so perfectly secure into all the emotion and action that has you completely solidified and connected with the protagonist.

What is a great adventure without a little love to soften the hardness, - bring a little light into the darkness, than to have a splash of romance?  I love the way the author didn’t douse the reader in sappy syrup, but sprinkled just enough to allow the sweetness to be savored on top of the spice.  My mind went into three different directions on this aspect of the story, but I’m very pleased with how it turned it out.  I loved the twists and turns the story took, but can’t express how much I loved how the author kept the priorities in line.  This is usually where a writer plunges off an unseen cliff, especially with epic fantasies – they allow the romance to overcome and dominate the story, instead of balancing it.  It’s hard to do, because it’s so easy to get carried away with emotion, but Anthony Ryan handled it very well.  At least, I’m well pleased.  I hate seeing a great super strong character lose all his strength and integrity for a woman.  As a woman, I want a strong-willed man; not a limp-wristed, love sick puppy.  A valiant warrior, who has strength to lead and fight, must also have strength of mind, yet time and time again you find these oxymorons posed as heroes, men who can stand against all the world, but can’t say no to a woman???  Okay, time to move away from this particular rant and on with the review.

There is another twist I absolutely LOVED in this story, but I don’t want to say too much about it because it will give it away.  Let’s just say – I didn’t see it coming, and it broke my heart – literally.  THAT is hard to do.  I’ve read and written so many stories that I’m rarely surprised, but in this – I was absolutely blown away.  Not only was the foundation and story thread brilliantly laid, but exceptionally executed.  Well done, Anthony!  If I had any criticism of this entire story, it would be this: Put it through one more round of edits (especially where commas are concerned) and get this traditionally published so it can receive greater exposure. 

I don’t know Mr. Ryan, but I’ve come to admire his work, just as I know you will too if you dare to delve into the adventure of Raven’s Song. 

Till next time,

~T.L. Gray