Russell KirkPatrick.com

What's the best kind of review a writer can get? Answer: one where the reviewer takes the book seriously.

There are very few of these. Most reviewers use your book to make a point about the genre, or about the history of fantasy, or about how your book compares to some other book. A few dunderheads write reviews solely for the purpose of showing how clever they are. These generally trash anything that smells of popularity, and champion obscure work to prove how intelligent and discerning they are.

But sonetimes a reviewer actually engages with your work. I don't care whether the reviewer likes the book or not, as long as she understands what I'm trying to do.

The very best review tells the reader what sort of book it is, what it offers, who might enjoy it, and what its shortcomings are.

What do you want in a review? 

I haven't blogged in a week. This is because I'm embarrassed to admit I've written only  7000 words this week. I need to write 3000 words a day to get this ms finished on time.

Erk.

I've noticed I start slow when writing a book, then gradually speed up. I'll get to my target daily production, but not for a month or so. In the meantime I'll continue to feel guilty.

I'd love to blame my tennis elbow - now in both arms - but it's not bad enough to prevent me typing (yet). Off to the sports doc on Thursday. Anything involving pain will be thoroughly reported. Stay tuned.

Finally, I caught wind of a review of Path of Revenge. I'm trying to track it down ...

Actually, I might blog on the subject of reviews. Someone remind me. 

Home again, and having slept 13 hours a day for the last two days, I think I'm over my jet lag.

So: did I get my money back?

Yes. You bet.

I growled at the Cathay Pacific people, and very nice woman admitted that she'd been in charge when the mistake had been made. She assured me it was their mistake and would be put right. Spiked my guns, she did: I was looking forward to shouting.

Well, on to novel writing. I have two people working on the atlas stuff: for now I will focus exclusively on writing. My goal is 3000 words per day. I'll report to you on my progress.

OK, here's a fun story. We leve Auckland to get to Bahrain and we're issued with boarding passes. We are close to arriving in Bahrain and we're told by a steward that our tickets are incomplete, and to contact a mamber of the ground crew on arrival. We arrive late at night and can't find any Cathay Pacific ground crew. So we get on with being in Bahrain.

Today we arrive at the airport and are told that, although the ticket is valid and we are the people named in it, we can't travel. Apparently we're missing part of our documentation, a fault emanating from Auckland. Can we ring Auckland and find out the problem? No, it's 1 am there.

So I have to repurchase the tickets. It cost me - wait for it - $8000.

I'm now sitting in the Hong Kong lounge sharpening my claws. Someone in Auckland is going to catch it.

More to come, I have no doubt.