#SpecialFeature :: #GuestPost - What to Expect when People Read Your Novel

*** Special Feature - May 2017 ***

About the Author:

Kurt KammMalibu, California resident Kurt Kamm has written a series of firefighter mystery novels which have won several literary awards. He is also the author of The Lizard’s Tale, which provides a unique look inside the activities of the Mexican drug cartels and the men dedicated to stopping them. Kurt has used his contacts with several California fire departments, as well as with the ATF and DEA to write fact-based (“faction”) novels. In his chilling and suspenseful multi-award winning novel, Code Blood, Kurt takes the reader into the connected lives of a fire paramedic, a Chinese research student with the rarest blood type in the world, and the blood-obsessed killer who stalks her. Colt Lewis, a young Los Angeles County fire paramedic responds to a fatal accident. The victim dies in his arms. Her foot has been severed but is nowhere to be found. Who is the woman, and what happened to her foot? During a weeklong search, Colt risks his career to find the victim’s identity and her missing foot. His search leads him to a dark and disturbing side of Los Angeles…an underworld of body part dealers and underground Goth clubs. He uncovers a tangled maze of drugs, needles, and rituals. Emergency medicine, high-tech medical research, and the unsettling world of blood fetishism and body parts make for an edgy L.A. Noir thriller. Kurt has built an avid fan base among first responders and other readers. A graduate of Brown University and Columbia Law School, Kurt was previously a financial executive and semi-professional bicycle racer. He was also Chairman of the UCLA/Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Foundation for several years.

Visit his author Website & on Facebook!

What to Expect when People Read Your Novel

For most writers, the real reward for writing a novel is self-satisfaction. Unless you become one of the few truly successful writers, great fame and fortune will probably not be on your rewards list. The real payback from writing a novel is writing a novel. I'm talking about the pleasure you get from the considerable effort it takes to conceive a story with a good plot and then the hard work necessary to get it on paper. 

Hopefully, you will get feedback from readers who enjoyed and were entertained by your creation, and if you do, savor those comments. Deposit them in your memory bank for future withdrawal. Just be aware that most people, including some of your best friends, won't give a damn if you've written a novel. They will have other priorities and reading your book will be way down on their list. Don't expect them to run right to their computer and order your masterpiece. I can't tell you the number of times I have been disappointed when I tell a friend or a particular group that I have written something that should be of great interest to them, only to get blank stares. Well, get used to it, it happens.
Now, what about the readers who read your work but were not entertained or enlightened? I know, you spent hours thinking through plot details and adding things which you thought were colorful touches, perfect descriptions, or humorous twists, only to discover that your readers missed or ignored them. Remember, by the time you finish a novel, you have read and reread each line so many times that you can recite everything by heart. Your reader, however, may read just a few paragraphs a day, may be distracted, or may be skimming, and much of your beautiful detail is lost. Others may misinterpret some of your characters and their motives. Never be surprised at the different—and seemingly illogical—ways readers can interpret parts of your story. Again, it's going to happen and you're going to be disappointed. Just get used to it, move on, and if necessary, make a memory bank withdrawal and savor one of the favorable comments you received.

One other thing—it is an absolute crime to allow your novel to be published without professional proofreading and editing. Your cousin Sally can't do it for you, and your best friend Paul can't do it. Please, please pay for professional proofreading and editing. (Note that these are two separate functions, usually performed by two separate people.) It's hard enough to please an audience without subjecting them to misspellings, awkward dialog, and plot inconsistencies. Many readers will not take you seriously and simply stop after the second or third misspelled word.

So, with that said, I hope you enjoy reading Code Blood and I'm waiting for comments—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

About the Book:

Colt Lewis, a rookie fire paramedic, is obsessed with finding the severed foot of his first victim after she dies in his arms. His search takes him into the connected lives of a graduate research student, with the rarest blood in the world and the vampire fetishist who is stalking her. Within the corridors of high-stakes medical research laboratories, the shadow world of body parts dealers, and the underground Goth clubs of Los Angeles, Lewis uncovers a tangled maze of needles, drugs and maniacal ritual, all of which lead to death. But whose death? An unusual and fast-paced LA Noir thriller.

Book Details:
Genre: Suspense, Vampire
Published by: MCM Publishing
Publication Date: October 2012
Number of Pages: 233
ISBN: 0979855136 (ISBN13: 9780979855139)
Series: Code Blood is a Stand Alone Novel

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Code Blood Literary Awards:
* Writer’s Type - First Chapter Competition. January 2011- First Place
* 2012 International Book Awards - Fiction: Cross Genre Category – First Place
* National Indie Excellence Book Awards – Faction (fiction based on fact) - Winner of the 2012 Award
* The 2012 USA Best Book Awards - Fiction: Horror - Winner
* LuckyCinda Publishing Contest 2013 First Place – Thriller
* Reader's Favorite 2013– Finalist – Horror Fiction
* Knoxville Writer’s Guild - 2011 Novella or Novel Excerpt – 2nd Place

Giveaway
6 Winners can get their choice of Kurt Kamm's books in Digital format.

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