In the past few years I’ve decided to take my Being A Writer in a different direction. Writing is such a solitary pursuit and my life has been chock full of enforced solitude for eight years or so. And thus I decided that it could be a good thing to interact with other writers, and I followed the rabbit trail from my anchorite world over to places like Mike Duran’s blog, NaNoWriMo and various author forums. I’ve friended a lot of authors on Facebook and while it does “eat into my writing time” it also does a lot to demystify the process. For so long I looked at writing as this thing I could never do because it was so very hallowed and Jo Marchish. Jo was my writing hero, and how was I–sans garrett, sans Civil War, sans sister’s untimely demise–going to be that?
But now I know a lot of writers and I see them write and see them live through query letters, rejection letters, publishing and book tours. It’s been good.
There is one awkward part, and that would be that writers enjoy having their work read. I enjoy reading. So where is the problem? The problem, as you may know having read me before or joined me at a Thai restaurant for conversation or received an email or three dozen, is that I am a picky reader. A VERY picky reader.
And, as Jill Domschot politely says, I’m “direct”. Other people say “blunt” and still other people say “rude”. More than once I’ve been called an assh—e and recently was even promoted to “dick”. (That cracked me up because the people who called me a dick seemed to be overly fond of their own penises and so I really ended up wondering if they meant it as a reverential title.) I’ve been called these things enough to be aware that they point to a real potential failing. So in these years of being reclusive I’ve also worked very hard on tempering my temper and finding ways to be direct–I’ll never not be–while still being considerate of the humanity of the people I’m talking to.
I hope it’s working. It better be working because I am beta-reading about a dozen things right now and I really want to be able to provide good feedback without killing the authors. Authors are fragile and I know better than most how very PERSONAL it is to have someone read what you’ve written. I’d rather walk naked to the mailbox than let someone read my fiction. But when I do let someones read my fiction I WANT them to tell me exactly what they think. Because I want to be good. But I’m still sure that when someone says “please read my book” they don’t want to hear “you suck at this and all the time you’ve spent on it is wasted effort.” That’s why I don’t offer or agree to read some people’s stuff at all. If I agree to read your work it’s because I’ve liked what I’ve seen of your writing skill thus far and I feel like I can honestly assess your fiction without having to break your spirit. At least I hope so.
Anyway, I’m prattling on about this because I just finally read a friend’s YA Fantasy novel and the review is now live on Amazon. I have one copy to lend for Kindle if you’d like to read it.
You write reviews like Roger Ebert. You should write more of them (or maybe I should just read more of them).
For the record…the fact that you are “direct” makes this particular review rather valuable to me
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And I totally understand your wariness when it comes to reading other authors. I have had to deal with being blunt about issues I’ve found in writing, but it is because I do want to be told the truth about mine. Especially when I’m still in beta-reading stage. I’d much rather fall on my face BEFORE publication. Because that’s what it comes down to. If the writing is not up to par, you will find out in one place or the other.
I’ve already read this book, so I should review it, too. I’m really grudging about reviewing books. I guess this is because of the damned if you do, damned if you don’t attitude of many writers, so I just steer clear. I find the quality of Splashdown authors to be quite high, in general–within the 3-5 star range, and the same is true for Finding Angel. I think I would give Finding Angel 4 stars.
Good review. An honest one is worth ten shills any day, IMO.
And yes. I like that your such a d— , erm. Direct. I mean. You’re very direct.
I have had the same problem with design. I loathe hearing “Hey, I designed this logo/business card/poster/website. Could you take a look at it and tell me what you think?” because I never know if the person wants me to tell them it’s great or if they really want to know what I think. Especially when it’s coming from a non-designer (because let’s face it, everybody seems to think they are a designer when it suits them).