Reddit mentions of Try Hard Not to Scream

First, please consider the exact words she wrote, then. the situation I am in. Imagine this as a blurb on the back cover of your debut novel:
"In spite of the novel's commitment to naturalism's ambiance, its tone is not despairing but deeply sentimental; it reads, quickly and pleasurably, like a salty revision of Angels with Dirty Faces."
* * *
"This novel evokes the early Stephen Crane: it is feverishly committed to naturalism-vernacular, sex and drugs, etc. – but it is finally inspired by a sad, soft humanism. It caters in equal parts to prurience and to a non-taxing liberalism. It was easy to read and unexpectedly absorbing."


That's part of what Virginia Heffernan, previously senior editor at Harper's, and staff writer at the NYT, etc., had to say. about my novel - words that any writer would love to get from any critic! Such glowing remarks from a top flight critic would almost certainly guarantee a few thousand sales!

So here's the deal: Virginia read the manuscript years ago when she was a graduate student in journalism at Harvard and was working as a fact-checker for The New Yorker. She wrote a short review of Scream to give to New Yorker columnist Mark Singer, who, when he went to Crete, Greece, to interview me about a book he was writing, had volunteered to read and comment on the novel but instead forwarded her summary and review to me. a very gracious act. And remember now, Virginia Heffernan is a real smart lady and highly regarded writer herself. Her assessments in the literary world are respected. (Check the wiki entry on her.) She loved my novel! And her words carry weight. Hence this effort to draw attention to them.

Some backstory to all this: After three spurts of trying to get an agent, I recently published my novel independently on Amazon at this address: https://www.amazon.com/Try-Hard-Scream-Terry-Gantry/dp/1093700386/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Try+Hard+Not+to+Scream&qid=1572168297&s=books&sr=1-1

Fun Facts: Hard copies of the manuscript (which I subsequently carefully updated, and edited out a couple of sex scenes) went back and forth between Mike Misenheimer in an Indiana prison and me on a Greek island over a period of years. A long-term prisoner, Mike was the creative spark and a critical co-author of Try Hard Not to Scream. Earlier, Mike had been the main co-author of the minor nonfiction prison classic An Eye for an Eye and the novel Framed, which was translated into several languages and which Paramount made into a feature film starring Joe Don Baker, who had starred in "Walking Tall" two years earlier. I got Mike out of prison shortly before "Framed" came out on the big screen and went to see it with him.

For this thriller, I used the nom de plume Terry Gantry and think Mike and I co-created a damned good book. One that "evokes the early Stephen Crane"? !