I'm so excited that I now have 4 reviews for Stellar Cloud on Amazon. The little snippets of feedback are very interesting and I'm enjoying them. And right now they balance my hubby's feedback.He finally started reading them over the weekend. His comments were as follows.
The Rising--"I didn't get it."
The Sleeper--"I can't believe you wrote something so smutty." (Which means once again he didn't get the story. Makes me wonder if I'm just not clear, but he doesn't read science fiction so I'm trying not to worry too much.)
And I guess the next one he read had 1 swear word in it. So he stopped reading.
Reviews like that really make you hang your head. All night I wondered if I needed to go back and add to them so it was clear what I meant and not what he thought I was talking about. Then I remembered the whole "trust your reader" and the fact that hubby was not my target audience.
And then today I got this lovely review on Amazon.
"I hate short stories, because there is normally no character development, no fully developed scene, and the tiny stories are trite and end abruptly. This collection, however, pulled me in. It seems as if this set of stories was designed to set you up in a wonderfully written world, with compelling characters and then you get to imagine the story however you want. Each story leaves you with a feeling that it ended in the correct spot, that anything more or less would just ruin it. While I would love to read more, I'm actually happy with them as they are."
~J. Brook from New JerseyNow I feel better. My one goal, the thing I worked harder on with these shorts than anything else, was making them NOT feel like the first chapter of something larger. So this review makes me very happy.
Awesome review, Charity! Yes, remember who you are writing for. Obviously not your husband. It would be cool if he liked it, but as long as he supports you, it's all right.
ReplyDeleteWhen we find readers who get it, that trumps everything.
Exactly. Thanks Alex!
DeleteI think as I move into fall I need to turn off "marketing" mode and slip back into writing, and allow people who want to find my kind of story find it.
Then, after I finish the two stories I'm working on I can get back into marketing after Christmas.
Reminder: do not let your husband read your stuff. He stopped reading after one swear word? Yikes.
ReplyDeleteIt's just because I wrote it and I don't swear in real life. It shocks him that my characters don't have the same values I do. ;)
DeleteWhoa, one swear word stopped him? Yikes indeed.
ReplyDeleteI've read your short stories and can tell you that you met your objective: they did not read like first chapters of something bigger. They were complete within themselves.
Also, that story was not smutty. I picked up what you were putting down! You were not sexually explicit or anything. Your husband probably hasn't read the REAL smut to know the comparison.
For what it's worth, my husband only plans on reading my stories if someone buys the movie rights.
Thanks Katie. Mostly I think he's embarrassed that other members of the church might read it and think bad things about me. He almost died when I told him I read this at my writer's group and they are all members. They thought it was some of my best writing ever. Go figure. He worries too much about what other people think. I still consider my stories clean and smut free.
DeleteI once named a principle character Berle. My hubby read that much and laughed. It hurt. Still does evidently.
ReplyDeleteHe hasn't read anything since then and I don't encourage it either. He does support my writing endeavors and that means a lot.