Being Liked

I found a review of one of my older books on line yesterday. It was a beautiful review (she--I'm assuming it was a she--loved the book, gave it the highest grade she could, and basically glowed about it.) If you're interested, here's the site:
http://www.channelingboards.com/Romance/page1.html#Ever%20Yours
If the owner of the site is reading this, thank you. I hope you how much you made my day when I found it.

Being liked and enjoyed is an odd part of this business. As an author, I know that I shouldn't take reviews personally, that everyone's taste varies, that not everyone will like every book, and that we shouldn't even want that. As an author you want to evoke strong emotions in your readers, but strong emotions also means strong dislike in some readers. If everyone likes a book, that probably means the book is meh. But if some people love a book and others hate it, then you've done something special. Nothing is worse that doing OK. Succeed with glory or fail spectacularly, but either way go for the big emotional response.

With my new series of books coming out next year (in a new genre, under a new name), I feel a great deal of fear: What if it's not liked? What if no one wants my type of book? What if I never sell anything again? But ultimately none of that is important. I am writing with all the skill I can, putting in ideas that I find important, and hoping that out there someone will like what I've done and said. I can do no more. Fear is the one of the hidden aspects of writing you don't often hear about. However, doing the writing despite the fear... well, courage is something to be admired even if it isn't your conventional courage. It may not save lives, but it is admirable. It is the picture of someone having the guts to follow a dream, of living a life uncompromised.

Whoa, I didn't mean to wax philosophical.
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
White Lies by Jayne Ann Krentz
The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore
Third Circle by Amanda Quick