At Last! The Blasphemers Gets a Turn

Annamaria on Monday

I thought about calling this post "Thank God," but since it is about a book called The Blasphemers, I thought I could be tempting fate by invoking the deity. This is especially chancy because I'm going to be bragging about that book.

 

There have been ways in which the book brought blessings to me, the greatest of which began when I was just starting to write the book.  I met Sarah Lesiamito and learned, in a superficial way, of her efforts to "keep girls in school." Lover of school that I have always been, I wanted to help if I could.  "What do the girls need?" was my question.  Once Sarah explained, I undertoook an effort to supply her girls with something they needed and did not have. It took a while to find the right supplier, and once I did, a year and half or so later, I wrote a blog about that project here.

Two years later, back in Kenya, I was carrying two copes of the just-released third in my Africa series to give to friends in Tanzania.  Then, having just arrived in Nairobi, I learned the true focus of Sarah's work, which-by chance-happened to coincide exactly with the background theme of the book I was toting in my luggage.  I gave one of the copies to Sarahy.

And thanks to our discussion that evening, we became sister warriors against those retrogressive practices; she the general and I the quartermaster.  We are now up to 49 girls who are safely studying, as regular followers of MIE know well from my time-to-time updates. Here is the latest.    

Little did I know, then, that the book you see above in Sarah's hands was an orphan.  As any author can tell you, before a book goes on sale, copies are sent out to publications and critics - copies called ARCs - Advance Review Copies.  This gives reviewers a chance to evaluate the book.  And if they say good things about it, to convince readers to order the book in advance of its publication date.  Publishers put a great deal of store by those "preorders."  It took me months to learn that The Blasphemers was, for all intents and purposes, invisible at birth because, by mistake, the ARCs were never distributed.

The book was traveling incognito.  the last thing any author would want.  Boohoo.

BUT not any more.  With the debut of the new edition last month and the anticipated arrival of its baby brother in a couple of weeks, The Blasphemers has gotten its first lovely review.  You can read the full review here.

Here are my favorite quips: "This mystery novel opens with vivid descriptions of the setting... II could not stop turning the pages...I found the ending of the novel to be multi-layered and heart pounding."

Fingers crossed that the launch of a Death on the Lord's Day, due out in ten days, will get such a nice reception, and a more timely one.