Love me, Love my work...Not.

It’s been a while since my last post, and for that I apologize. Holidays and other train wrecks have disrupted my blogging schedule. Although, to be honest, I don’t have a blogging schedule; I do this as the impulse hits me. Readers are lucky for anything they get.

Anyway. Abandoning the festive mood for the moment, let's address something relevant to writing. Over the last few months, reviews have come in for Lonely Hearts Mountain. They are what I consider mixed, meaning: No one has absolutely dissed the book, but some reviewers have pointed out flaws, while describing it overall as an entertaining read. And you know what? That’s okay.

I can’t remember and am too lazy to look, but I may have said here before that fiction writing, for me, strongly resembles channeling. It’s not a purely intellectual exercise. The characters tell the story, and I act as their scribe. Only after they’ve spewed the first draft onto the hard drive (via my fingers and keyboard) do I go back and look at things like sentence and paragraph structure, chapter organization, POV shifts, etc. And even then I seldom jerk with characterization and plot.

Guess what happens? Sometimes I wind up frowning over a plot sequence or device. Sometimes I snort in disgust at a character’s behavior. Sometimes I roll my eyes and think, “Really? What idiot is gonna buy that?”-- referring to whom you like, literally and figuratively. Editors, readers, reviewers…will they pay for it? Will they find it believable? Will they enjoy, it, even?

Who the hell knows? Not me. Who cares? Not me, again.

Don’t get me wrong. I want to write good books, meaning books that will sell and entertain, sometimes possibly even educate. I work hard to do that, and learn more about how to do it every day.

At the same time, I know my limitations and I know the real world. I’m not writing gilded classics here. At best, these are nothing more than entertaining stories. Not everyone will like them, all the time. Some folks will hate them, for a thousand different reasons. In the case of Lonely Hearts Mountain, one reviewer felt certain events moved along too quickly. So did I. (Who gets engaged after knowing someone for only six days? Seriously.) Another got really irritated with the female protagonist’s stupid decisions. So did I. (Dumbass, there are men with guns up on that mountain. Stay off it, for God sakes!)

And that’s okay. In the real world, in real life, events sometimes move quickly. We don’t always handle them well. Sometimes we make stupid decisions. Sometimes who we are beneath a façade--good or bad, in-character or not--becomes evident only in specific situations.

Story characters are people too, and they don’t always get everything right. Neither do I: as an individual, a writer, and their scribe. And still, that’s okay. One reviewer said she was glad I wasn't angry when she mentioned the story's flaws. Seriously, folks, if anyone out there really can’t acknowledge occasional less-than-total-perfection in themselves or their work, I know a few good shrinks you can speak to.

In the spirit of holiday giving, I’m offering a free PDF copy of Lonely Hearts Mountain to one reader, chosen randomly from everyone who emails me to enter the drawing between now and December 24, 11:59 pm (2359 for you military folks) per the email time stamp. Send email entries to romancebyrachelsmith@yahoo.com with “Me, me, me, pick me!” in the subject line. Barring intereference from the Universe, the winner will be notified December 26.

Not that I actually expect anyone to enter.

And finally, the random question of the day:

That can't really be a fish you're standing on, can it?
Only if it looks like one. Does it? (Yes, I briefly worked as a semi-shrink.)

**UPDATE**

I posted this entry, went to look at it on the page, and realised that the blog now has three actual followers. So henceforth I will cease whining about how no one is reading. Seriously, CJ, BJ, and Lori, you made my day. Thanks.

But I still bet no one enters the drawing for the book.