Another review for Erekos has come in, this time from the amazing folks at The Book Smugglers.

So far, it seems that the only major complaints from ANYONE are “it’s very literary” and “MOAR ACTION PLZ!”

Honestly, I can’t tell you how pleased this makes me. Erekos is, in fact, a very literary, meta novel…and I knew going in that it wouldn’t be for everyone. In fact, that’s half the reason I wanted to publish it – because it’s an unusual book, an unusual story, and one that might not find a home with a mainstream publisher as a result. However, it’s a beautiful story, and one that deserves readers.

Yes, the action takes a very long time to happen, and the battle scene is short. But action isn’t really the point of the book, either, so…again, I honoured the author’s obvious intent there, rather than trying to flesh out the battle scene into scores of pages.

These critiques of the book make me intensely happy, both as an editor and a publisher. They’re things I noticed as I was editing (I believe I actually used the exact words “pull the reader out of the story” at one point…), and they’re things we tweaked and polished and then actively decided to leave alone. I’m happy with our choices, and I’m happy that these are things that are being picked up on, honestly. They’ll help me to refine my own craft as an editor, to trust my instincts, and in doing so, it will help me to assist my authors in refining their craft.

Which is, after all, half the point of Candlemark & Gleam. I want to provide a home for authors, a place where new voices can be confident that they’ll be heard and nurtured and challenged, a place where writers can bring their wild flights of fancy and their strange stories that might not fit elsewhere, and work to refine them and polish them and make them really gleam, bright and bold, before sending them out into the world.

So far, it seems like we’re pulling that off.

I hope we can continue.