Spotted in the Wild

This is just a quick post that no one will read but is important to me. One of my goals in my Cyclopean quest to get The Heron Kings published was to see it on a real, honest to gods bookshelf, in a real store somewhere. Call me a whore for validation, whatever. Today I spotted not one, not two, but three copies of my book in the Science Fiction & Fantasy section of my local Barnes & Noble! Wedged in between some other obscure, completely unknown authors 😎

I usually post the Amazon link, but I’m sick and tired of giving Jeff freakin Bezos money.

Small victory I know, but one I’ve waited years to see accomplished. Of course I hope they don’t stay there long…

In other news, the book received a nice review from the British Fantasy Society last week.

“Fast-paced and gripping The Heron Kings is riveting stuff. Eric Lewis’ ability to take his reader in and entertain them is wonderful, at times I felt like there was actually a movie in my head. His characters are flawed, they are real people who act and react in human ways. I enjoyed the way that Alessia’s character is at odds with Ulnoth’s and it shows how very human they are. Theirs is a friendship with flaws that they tolerate for the greater good. All of the characters have character, good and bad. Lewis has used each of them to help craft his story perfectly. Often with fantasy novels, the world-building and lore are complicated. Lewis hasn’t done that, instead, he’s kept it very basic and that works to his reader’s advantage, you follow the story rather than getting confused by names and places. Having never read Eric Lewis’ work before I will now be putting him on my reading list. Definitely worth a read.”

This is particularly amusing to me, since BFS rejected my short story “Past Imperfect” as being “exploitative and improbable.” I can’t think of better words to describe The Heron Kings, but whatever, I’ll take what I can get!