J.S. Smith's Blog: By The Grace of Goodreads

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5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved this book!
September 6, 2012
By Karen Jansen - See all my reviews
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This review is from: By The Grace Of Good Friday (Kindle Edition)
I read a lot of books. I usually take around 6 or 7 books from the library at a time, and am done them before they are due. This book was better than most I have read lately. I was hooked on the characters in Scott’s book right from the beginning, and felt that I knew them by the end. I have never written a review before, so I don’t know what to say, other than I LOVED this book, I wish it was longer, and I desperately hope that there will be sequels…many, many, sequels!



5.0 out of 5 stars
Future movie
September 5, 2012
By TVsucks - See all my reviews
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This review is from: By The Grace Of Good Friday (Kindle Edition)
A great tale with a little of everything. Suspense, romance, action, travel and lots of descriptive paragraphs which are informative and interesting and never boring. Especially good for those of us who enjoy some actual history with our novels. You can learn a lot about the reasons for the “troubles” in Ireland from enjoying this book.
When the movie comes out I will definitely go see it!!




5.0 out of 5 stars
Aye…a great read!
August 28, 2012
By Doorni - See all my reviews
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This review is from: By The Grace Of Good Friday (Kindle Edition)
Great characters emerged at the outset and continued to evolve right to the last page. Descriptive Irish nuances brought the action to life and made this book a hard one to put down. Looking forward to more!




5.0 out of 5 stars
A well written gem
August 25, 2012
By ShwaGuy - See all my reviews
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This review is from: By The Grace Of Good Friday (Kindle Edition)
I really enjoyed reading this book, I found the story was always keeping you wanting to turn the page. I cannot wait to read the next book. This book has brought to light a period of history that I only heard of, I know that it is not a true story but I found some materials on the internet that I would have never looked for had I not read this book.

J.S. Smith has brought to life a piece of history and I hope to read more from him.




4.0 out of 5 stars
More Please… And some Whisky also.
August 20, 2012
By Bil Manderson (Scarborough, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: By The Grace Of Good Friday (Kindle Edition)
I’ve read high action novels before, authors such as Vince Flynn, Chris Ryan, Andy McNab, Mr Smith in his first attempt has made me want more from him, after the initial introduction to the characters and the outline of the story building, I found it hard to put down the ipad, i was hooked… In fact this was a two malt whisky read..

Well done on your book. Can’t wait for more..

4.0 out of 5 stars Semtex, Soda Bread, and Maureen, August 3, 2012



By Bill MacLoughlin


This review is from: By The Grace Of Good Friday (Kindle Edition)

A straightforward tale that moves along briskly, J.S. Smith’s By The Grace Of Good Friday is driven by the changes wrought by Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement in 1998, and the various splinter groups who resisted those changes when the Provisional IRA was disarming.

Mick Kennedy, the not-quite-ex-Provo, is a lucky man, or rather, has become a lucky man, thanks to the affections of the lovely Maureen.

The presence of Maureen, who’s no slouch, and certainly not prone to passivity, goes a long way toward making this a dialogue-driven narrative, and achieving some balance in what’s often a male-dominant sub-genre. Then again, she’s a reminder that anyone who thinks Irish women might be anything close to passive have never set foot on Irish soil.

Most of Smith’s characters are practiced at easily crossing the disturbingly seamless line between domestic tranquility and abrupt violence. Just who can reset explosive charges may come as a bit of a surprise, but that’s part of this world.

The territory is familiar: Armalites, thick slices of soda bread, and police stations squatting behind razor wire. Nor does Smith make any pretence of neutrality: this tale is thoroughly immersed in a culture where membership in the Provisional IRA is about as shocking as a turf fire.

You could argue, perhaps, that this tale might be a trifle too brisk. I found myself wanting a bit more, to flesh out the motivations of some of this cast of characters, particularly those who oppose the Agreement, and round the story out a bit. That addition might bring it closer to, say, the nuances of Matt Minogue, the police inspector from County Clare who inhabits a number of novels from another Torontonian named John Brady.

What’s here, though, is an entertaining afternoon’s page-turner that ought to make you want to be sure that Mick and Maureen survive the baddies and go upstairs together another time or two.

*Veteran news producer Bill MacLoughlin covered the Good Friday Agreement live from Belfast. He’s currently working on a political thriller called Dead Air, and a non-fiction overview of organized crime in Canada.*

By The Grace Of Good Friday is my debut novel (available at Amazon.com!) and one of the most often asked questions is, “How long did it take you to write?” My answer, “Far too long!”
I got the idea for the story in April 1998, the day after the signing of the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland. I sketched out a ragged outline on scrap paper and modified it a few times before finally setting to the task of writing. However, committing time to the project was a challenge.
I have a few excuses for not writing. Number one, spending the whole day in front of a computer writing radio commercials left me with little creative energy in the evening.
Secondly, at the time, my children were both busy in sports and would remain so for the next ten years. My daughter played soccer all year and my son rotated from hockey in the winter to summer sports. He began with baseball, then moved to lacrosse and finally football. On top of travelling to practices and games, I was also active as a coach in hockey, baseball and lacrosse. In fact, for two hockey seasons I was either head coach or an assistant for two different travelling teams which kept me at the arena nearly every night.
Thirdly, for the first five years during the book’s birth, we lived on a 12 acre parcel of land in the country which required plenty of upkeep including lawn care, vegetable gardening, hauling water and snow shoveling.
So, coming out of the gate, it was probably the worst possible time for me to begin the project. And, me being a chronic procrastinator, all I needed was a single excuse to put off writing for another day. However, I didn’t quit. I continued to work on the story sporadically, sometimes writing several pages in a day.
Eventually, we moved to the greater Toronto area, the intention being for me to pursue a voice-acting career and perhaps get my book published assuming I finished writing it. Five years later, I considered the book complete. But, in the time it took me to write the novel, the publishing industry had changed significantly. The internet and digital technology now made it possible to buy a book online and download it to an electronic reader. Authors were now able to offer their books to the public directly without a publisher or agent. No longer were we stymied by the expense of printing or someone else’s idea of what type of book sells best. If we had the stones for it, we could go it alone.
Armed with a minimal understanding of social marketing, some passable website design skills and 25 years in the traditional media, I set about to sell my debut novel. This decision has brought us to this very moment in time, as I blog away with hopes of building the social traction required to generate book sales into the millions or at least enough that I don’t feel embarrassed.
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