The Blue Room is wonderful. It is gripping. I intended to read for a few minutes and could NOT put it down. I forced myself to stop about halfway through because I was hungry. I can’t believe this is your debut novel. I would believe it if you said this was your fifth or tenth book. It is lovely, soft, precise, strong, enrapturing. –Corinne E.
*****
I finished your book last night. I got so enthralled I stayed up late to finish it. I really enjoyed it! –Nancy Collins
*****
What a wonderful novel you wrote! It spoke totally to me, and I am going to read it again, leisurely so I can benefit from it and also write to you with details of what moved me the most. I hope you are considering writing another one! –Pilar Tirado
*****
I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading The Blue Room. It left me wishing for my own such space…Congratulations on your accomplishment! –Mary Born
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I just finished reading The Blue Room. I …am so impressed at how you fleshed out the story. Your emphasis on detail and colorful prose captured Kathryn’s essence and made her very believable and real to the reader. I guess knowing you and sharing our experiences with the writing group, I can, with empathy, understand the hard work and the commitment you gave to creating the book. You did a superb job and brought light to a topic that we need to know more about. –Deanna Baxter, Author of Willows By Flowing Streams
*****
Finished The Blue Room yesterday. Read it in 3 sittings. I enjoyed it a lot. I knew the writing would be clean: yours always is. It also flows well…I’m sympathetic to the characters—even Mom, eventually. So, good job staying away from stereotypes. Perhaps because I’ve been having back problems all week (my chronic pain, I guess)—I read some of TBR on my back in bed yesterday—I especially liked the latter part of the book on Kathryn’s fighting back against her pain, and also the chapters on her chronic pain group. There, I think, is your audience. –Richard Wile, Author of The Geriatric Pilgrim and Requiem in Stones
*****
[I] wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed and appreciated your new book. I always knew you were an excellent journalist and academic writer, but congratulations on such a powerful novel, which I think will be of help to many people. –Anita Marson Deyneka, Author of I Know His Touch and A Song in Siberia
*****
I finished The Blue Room this morning. WOW, and congratulations. What a stunning, often heartbreaking journey through pain, both of the soul and body, you have shared with us. Thank you! I couldn’t put it down for the past two days. I need to sit with it and let it all sink in. The story you have told is very impactful. I had no understanding of chronic pain prior to this. My heart goes out to you and those who suffer and live with such pain. –Sandra Eldred
*****
What a book you have written! I like the rhythm of your prose…it changes smoothly when it needs to. Your writing is highly readable, so the reader can easily keep pace with the story as it moves ever forward.
There is so very much in the story that is familiar to me! The time frame, the cars, the housing conditions, clothing and hairstyles, the methods and thinking and attitudes around work, school, family, gender roles, teaching, education, behavior, morals, and discipline—it stirs up so many memories—not all of them good.
This is a story that must resonate with a large fraction of the women of the world. Or at least the Western world. Western society lays relentless, conflicting, and impossible demands and expectations on women of every type, at home, at work, and in the wider community. Many spend all their lives and every iota of energy meeting the wants, needs, and expectations of everyone around them, but rarely for themselves. It is toxic, draining, and damaging. And we blame ourselves, second-guess ourselves, and believe that somehow it is all our fault.
All this to say, WELL DONE YOU!!! You must be very proud of what you have accomplished. Writing is hard work. Doing it successfully is harder still. Thank you for involving me a little bit in the birth of your book (it was great fun!) and for the lovely acknowledgment you have afforded me. –M.L. Whitehorne, Cover Artist and Astronomer
*****
With All Due Respect 