Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to read and review my work! It was an honor and a privilege to have my book spotlighted by FWFC for a week (and then some ^_^).

Roll Call

GreenLime8, leoconstellwriter and aftermat : Thank you for reading, voting and commenting on my work! It's always great to see your names on my notifications hehe and I'm happy to know you enjoyed reading the novel.

NowhereGray : Now that you mention it, it IS kind of like the reverse of Happy Feet! XD Haha. Thanks for pointing out the lack of description in some places, and maybe I can add a glossary of names with the pronunciation and all so they're easier to remember. ^^

kit_mccartney : I'm so glad you're reading too much into it! That's exactly what I want people to do haha. I want them to go beyond the work's entertainment value to think about themes like poverty, deceit, and racism and how the real world (and our country specifically) is rife with them but we've become indifferent. Tolerant, even. But I don't want to scare readers off with heavy politicking, so I try to make it as subtle as possible and hope that the message still comes through. So I'm beside myself to know that the whole point of the book is not lost on insightful readers like you. Oh and thanks for pointing out "Ollie's family's racket" haha, I realize now I can just simply say "the family's racket." P.S. I tremendously enjoyed reading your in-line comments. XD Wox and Ollie will be honored to have you as the 3rd member of their troop haha.

ChantalCruz30 : The manifesto is actually my favorite part just because it was so fun to write, so I'm ecstatic you like it too. XD And you're right, I tagged this YA but it actually deals with mature themes. When I started writing it, I agonized whether to make it more General Patronage / squeaky clean but I decided that in order to tell the story that I wanted to tell, I would have to get down and dirty, ratings be damned. I don't intend to sully innocent youngsters' minds; I intend to make them realize that somewhere in the world — maybe not in their neighborhood, but somewhere in the world — kids actually smoke or steal or get beaten up by their parents. It's pretty bleak but it's the reality for a lot of children. So thank you for giving my book a chance and adding it to your list of YA exceptions. XD

And I guess my writing is heavily influenced by the late great Terry Pratchett, although I swear I didn't consciously try to sound like him hehe. But in TGRC I do pay homage to a few YA works that have made a lasting impact on me, among them S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders" (the relationship between Wox and Ollie) and Ellen Raskin's "The Westing Game" (the mystery and intrigue). :)

libranages : Yay, I'm so happy you didn't think Chapter 6 was one massive boring info dump and that it was, in fact, your favorite chapter. XD I guess our books are a bit alike in that the real story doesn't start until much later hehe. Thank you also for pointing out the disjoint among the first 5 chapters. I will look into this and see how I can make them flow more smoothly.

Regarding Wox's change of heart, well, he took Faure's advice and *chose* to believe he was The Miracle... but for the wrong reasons. The two events in Chapter 7 — being beaten up by his father and being ridiculed by his teacher and classmates — pushed him to the edge. He figured that if he were The Miracle, he would instead be treated with respect and deference, like how Bast had addressed him so reverently and even bowed before him. So he believed not because he was truly convinced but because it would benefit him to do so. More on this in the next chapters. XD

And to everyone wondering about the Crafty Mroothian Youth and Bogey Cross, I don't want to spoil my own work haha but I will say that they both have a much bigger role to play later on in the novel. ;)

And the award goes to....

The Most Helpful Reviewer for me is libranages. ^_^ He was able to answer all the questions I posed at the beginning of the week and gave me a lot to think about when it comes to the flow of the story and characterization. The best reminder that I got out of his review is that I have to answer every question I brought up (like about Bogey Cross and the manifesto), which would keep me preoccupied for a while given the many conflicts I threw into the book, but it must be done and done properly to ensure a satisfying end to it all. So thank you, thank you, libranages, for your compliments, invaluable insights and enthusiasm. There's no better feeling than to have someone be invested in something you've invested your heart and soul in.

A final word

I started writing "The Golden Riff Chronicles" ten years ago and I realize that I have been very ambitious in this undertaking (my notes on it — containing back stories, historical events, character outlines, etc. — are probably twice as long as the book itself haha) but after hearing what you all have to say about it, I'm more inspired than ever to keep writing, keep pushing through. Thank you so much for this much needed boost. So I'll go ahead and give myself a deadline: I aim to finally finish the book within a year.

And I'm crossing my fingers that my daughter will like it. XD