Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Praise

I've been working through some old projects lately, which has been wonderfully satisfying.

And I received a work-in-progress ms back from an extremely helpful reader.

It takes a brave person to wade through an unfinished (not even half finished) manuscript that is in the works and give an honest opinion.  This latest ms is completely unorthodox.  I did away with chapters entirely and I change point of view for every new scene.  Considering the radical nature of the storytelling, I sent it out early to see if it was edgy without being over the cliff.  This particular reader has helped with several of my manuscripts and is familiar with my work.  Because I am unpublished, but sharing my work, on my title page I mark it as an unpublished work with the year.

I opened the returned and edited ms to find her note on the title page.  She had circled the 'unpublished work' notation and wrote, "A real shame, if you ask me."

I blushed with pride.  That is high praise indeed.