Another Review

Love, Bill just received another great review from the Writer’s Digest Self-Publishing Book Awards:

“Love, Bill starts out as woman’s search for information about the father who died when she was six, but it’s much more. The unexpected turns the book takes and the questions that are raised keep readers interested right up until the end. The author is a skilled, confident writer, who understands how to reel a story out. Just when a reader is thinking ‘Gee, it’s tough only seeing Bill’s letters and not seeing Dorothy’s,’ she addresses the issue. And while it is an issue – it gives us great empathy and compassion for Bill while 1940s Dorothy is a voiceless shadow figure at first – the author turns the tables. Her efforts to find out more about what happened and her mother’s first marriage make this a layered and intensely fascinating book. Credit also goes to Bill. His letters are well-written and poetic. His depiction of the train wheels in the Sept. 1, 1944, letter saying ‘no hope, no hope’ and ‘no more, no more’ are heart-rending. They stay in a reader’s mind and when the author mentions it later, the reader is delighted. That leads to another wonderful element in this book — the author goes forward, then comes back, instead of dumping everything she wants to say at once. The author uses communication, not only her father’s letters, but communications she has with people as she tries to uncover the mysteries of the book, well… The ending letter from the author to her father is an excellent frame for the story. When the author in the first chapter mentions sitting on the front stoop waiting for her father to come home, it’s heartbreaking. The photo at the end of the author as an adult on that stoop, as well the mention of it in her letter, give the story closure. The cover is beautifully done and the interior formatting is professional and readable, including the use of photos.” –Judge, 25th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards