The year of 2015 has included quite a few highs, and lows, for me, and my book In Ark: A Promise of Survival including having to emotionally weather some of my first difficult book reviews.

I’m over it, but it is certainly an experience to discover that while there are many who love my book, there are some who I have not pleased.

I’m taking in all the constructive and helpful criticism, as I pen my second book in the ‘Mya & Ark’ trilogy, and it does help me learn a lot. Although some of the commentary, in my opinion, borders on being unnecessarily cruel – such as telling me I should stick to my other careers and never write again. I’m not one to shoot down anyone who puts a lot of work and effort into creating something, be it a work of fiction or other endeavour, but the people of the Internet can certainly be cruel when it comes to judging creative works.

Mean-ness aside, I’m grateful to be continuing to get attention and interest throughout the year of 2015, for my first book (published in 2014). Today, I’m ending the year on a high note as just recently, a fantastic 5 star review has appeared on Amazon.com. In the review, my book is described as being “wonderful entertainment” and also:

“…an engaging, deeply moving book that succeeds in being realistic and symbolic at the same time.”

You can read what reader and author Edward L. Rubin, has to say about my addition to the growing collection of titles in the cli-fi genre, in full, below. His cli-fi book The Heatstroke Line is also getting great reviews and attention. See my review of his book here.

In addition to this latest review, there is also a growing collection of mostly fantastic reviews to be found on Amazon.com for my book, which you are welcome to check out here.

I wish you all a happy holiday time and new year!

Here’s the great Amazon review for my book:

“In Ark is a stellar contribution to the emerging cli-fi genre. It combines and brilliantly unifies an apocalyptic vision of a world suffering from climate change and intensely personal story of a woman’s search for herself. A few decades in the future, tsunamis rage across the world, food shortages afflict American cities, and it is unsafe to venture outside without protective clothing. Mya Brand is recovering from a shattered relationship and mystified by a Hopi and Irish family background that is largely undocumented and unremembered. Her effort to compile a digital archive of ordinary people’s lives is both an attempt to preserve a record that will survive the oncoming disaster and to restore a sense of meaning and purpose to her own existence. When she is abducted and transported to the Ark, a self-contained, eco-survivalist community, it seems as if both efforts have been dramatically advanced. She now has the time and technical assistance that she needs to expand her archive, and the tranquillity and friendship that will enable her to re-establish her self-confidence and trust in other people. But the Ark is not the refuge that it promises to be. As the story unfolds, the action suggests that we cannot readily escape from the effects of climate change, nor can we rely on others to restore our sense of self.

This is an engaging, deeply moving book that succeeds in being realistic and symbolic at the same time. The world of the future is vividly portrayed, the action is fast moving (Mya’s abduction occurs in the second of the book’s 22 chapters) and the prose reads easily and effortlessly. At the same time, the main elements in the story, such as the Ark and Mya’s archive, carry complex messages about memory and identity. The result is a novel that provides wonderful entertainment, a harsh warning about the effects of climate change and an opportunity for deep reflection about some of the most important things in life.”