Two updates!
1. Earlier this week I got an email from one of my beta readers, and it was THE BEST. A little bit about this person: we met in a writing workshop in college, she is the cutest, most bright-hearted person I know, and she is incredibly talented. I’ve read a few of her short stories and the way she manages words into these expertly crafted, luxuriously ornate scenes is a matter of divine gifts. Asking her to beta for me was a very logical thing to do, and her message proved it. She basically reiterated a few of the things I knew to be wrong with KMDC (for instance, over-indulgent descriptions and cumbersome language that really makes for a bumbling first act) and she also substantiated a few of my hopes. She was so positive! I can’t wait to get my hands on her notes. I can’t wait to get my hands on any of the notes from any of my betas.
2. One of my beta readers exchanged books with me, and I just got to the end of hers! My very first thought was, “Wow. What a blessing to be included in this process.” It’s such an intimate thing, sharing creative art, and since there’s no institutionalized (read: condoned) way of writing a good book, the process is wrought with personal doubt and small, paranoid torments. Being allowed into that process is a great thing, and I admire anyone with that sort of strength. Heaven knows it took me long enough to share work.
I’ll be organizing my notes on this writers work for the next few days because I want to make sure I make the exchange worth it for her. The book was pretty awesome, which helps, but telling someone “I loved it!” isn’t helpful. At least not to me.
3. I liked. I know that. I know I said there were only two updates but I’ve discovered that this was a lie I also told myself at the start of this post, and I’m sorry your trust also had to be deceived. I’d edit the first few line but, really, that’s a false thing to do and I want you to know that you can trust me now implicitly.
Anyhow, the third update is that my parents just finished reading through my book and their reactions have been adorable. Fantasy is by no means their genre and I think they’re trying to be polite in conveying that they have no idea what to say. I sort of dreaded sharing this project with them, because it would sort of crystallize in their minds all the time I’m spending hunched in front of my computer, but I’ll be glad to get their feedback. It’ll be good feedback, because it will be coming from people who don’t write novels, who don’t write fantasy, and who aren’t really interested in making leaps of logic just to participate in a story. They’re shrewd readers. They’re unrelenting. They’re smart. They’re scary.
I’ll be back later with a post about their reaction. I promise you it’s going to be funny in a sort of awkward way.
(I take that back–it might just be sad).