My novella Kumori and the Lucky Cat, which is volume 1 in the Lucky Cat Series, was recently reviewed by Kirkus Review. Their review can be read here:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/wendelin-gray/kumori-and-the-lucky-cat/

Just a few words about the review’s commentary on my execution of the story. I’m not a romance writer, though I do usually have a romantic subplot to my stories. I don’t read or watch romances that often, so it’s not really my dominant interest here. Love in totalitarian societies wouldn’t run a normal course anyway, I suspect, and I had to make some serious artistic choices, especially on volume 2, as to what I wanted to emphasize, the romantic subplot or the main battle that forms the overarching story. I’m fine with the criticism here of the paucity of that portrayal since it fits my own evaluation of my work to some degree.

Complicating matters is the fact that I wrote this series with a certain aim in mind. My friend who recently graduated with a language degree wanted to compare notes between her degree now and my similar language degree way back when, and this story evolved from that discussion. I decided I wanted to write a fantastical story, much like the underground Russian writers I had admired as a student, exploring the general traits of totalitarian societies, the peculiar psychologies, and state violence against their citizens. I was starting with Andrei Bely and Mikhail Bulgakov rather than modern romance writers, and I’m certainly not just re-writing Yevgeny Zamyatin or George Orwell. The idea was to use fantasy and horror to soften the difficulty of the subject matter and make it more accessible; I also wanted to use a fictional world state instead of an actual historical state as a way of defamiliarizing the subject and removing all caveats readers might have if I stuck too close to reality.

I also have a new book trailer ready for the new release of the novel around the new year. The Kumori and the Lucky Cat YouTube Book Trailer can be found here:

I also did a virtual book reading a few years ago of sections of this novel that are available on my YouTube channel, too:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

I also have a study guide for the Lucky Cat Series History Lessons I’ve been posting on Facebook, many with new links since some of them expired. This is not comprehensive but only represents some things I came across in the daily headlines over the summer that connected to the themes of the series.

facebook-history-lessons-on-totalitarianism-pdf-study-guideDownload

I’ll be releasing the earlier books in the series with new covers once I get book 4 ready, which should be in the next few months, so be on the lookout for more announcements about the series coming soon.