You know that saying “the hurrieder I go the behinder I get?” Howzabout “the more I think about it, the confusider I get…”
As you’ll recall from the Saga of Me, I’d been waiting and waiting for first my lovely wife, and then her lovely sister, and then, well, ANYONE, to roll out some valid feedback I could use on the novel I’ve just rewritten.
Well, after much haranging and ballyhooing on my part, my lovely wife, who had already begun reading it without my haranging, finished it. Despite her quite justifiable frustration with the author, she felt the book made it all the way to page 70 without falling apart.
For one of my books, that’s epic.
Upon our return from the recent drive-the-kid-to-Oregon trip, what waits upon our doorstep but notes from the lovely sister-in-law.
She read it no less than 4 (spelled f-o-u-r is you skeptical), yes, four times. Four!
She really liked it! Pointed out some themes and metaphors that I have to nod and smile knowingly to rather than say what I actually thought, which is “I did?”
Her notes are concise and well organized, and just plain breathtaking.
She liked the book.
She liked the book enough to actually want to read the upcoming final rewrite.
Over the moon. Gobsmacked. Thunderstruck. That’s me.
With Lovely Sister’s tempering of the notes given by Lovely Wife, I believe I now see a way forward that will make everyone happy, and that will produce a good and marketable novel we can all enjoy.
Four times!
Over the moon!
John D Reinhart 