I was anxious to expose the novel to the world. I continued to correspond with iUniverse (see blog from Sept. 7, 2025, paragraph 5). I paid that company more money in order to have the novel critiqued. The reviews were honest, sometimes brutal.
The first review was from a company called Blueink which savaged MPTR with statements like “…there’s very little action in the plot, and the most critical scenes – including the story’s climax – happen entirely offstage” and “this story requires major revisions to reach the standards of quality, excitement, and expanded mythology that are already available in the traditional marketplace.”
Ouch!
Peter Dabbene from the Clarion Review presented a more upbeat review: “Coates…captures the characters of Paul and Chad perfectly, with the budding independence and maturity appropriate to their age, as well as the uncertainty that accompanies a lack of experience” and “MPTR is an enjoyable, self-contained tale that will entertain young readers and bring an ancient myth to life.”
Kirkus Reviews offered a review that was somewhere in the middle of the other ones: “The initial mysteries surrounding the new school principal set the stage for a page-turning story and will pique readers’ interest” and “An intriguing tale, but one hampered by uneven characterization and a disappointing ending.”
Reviews can be unkind to a person and I limped away from them, broken but unsurprised. I knew from the moment that I finished MPTR that it lacked action.
On September 21, 2014, I attended another “Word on the Street” (see blog from Oct. 7, 2025). There was a downpour that day, preventing people from circulating among the booths, one of which had been rented by me. I ended up selling only four copies of MPTR. I did talk to some people, including a man who found out I was a teacher and who said, “Oh, then you make good money.” He decided not to purchase the book but I don’t think it had anything to do with my being a teacher.
On December 12, 2018, I attended the monthly meeting for Canscaip (“Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators, and Performers”). It was their last one before Christmas and we writers were allowed to give an elevator pitch concerning our children’s books to see if anyone was interested in buying them as gifts. I delivered a blurb about MPTR. Sadly, no one bought it. But I did get to practice my social media skills which were becoming necessary in the twenty-first century.
