Really happy to report that the Publisher’s Weekly review for Shred Sisters is also positive. Phew. I know this isn’t my first time at the rodeo, but getting these early reviews is reminding me of a few things. 1) It’s fucking scary putting yourself out there. 2) Getting good/bad/no reviews is as much luck as anything else. 3) The only antidote to anxiety is working on a new writing project.
How’s the page a day challenge going that we started on May 9? Be honest! I have 50 new pages. Just saying.
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Betsy Lerner 
Fantastic review! Of course it is you beautiful genius.
Rewarding and lovely are such lovely, rewarding words!
Congrats, Betsy. I work 2-3 hours on weekdays, writing longhand. Pages may be tossed as I write, so I don’t measure by pages completed.
“How’s the page a day challenge going that we started on May 9?”
I don’t measure artistic work done by page counts. I don’t work on a factory production line, and I don’t fashion widgets. I’m more of a time-server. I have a certain number of minutes I allot to my work, on a daily average. Sometimes I’m a little ahead, sometimes I’m a little behind, but the schedule is my compass and my engine. Results will vary.
That said, the work proceeds apace. Currently I’m doing a rewrite on an older, longer story. It addresses issues that have long informed my writing — Love, loss, death, sex, the wonders of the world, and the power of words.
Glad to learn your book is well-received, Betsy.
point well taken and glad to hear the work is happening and gathering so many threads of your life. Full orchestra.
It’s SO satisfying to get those reviews! 🎉Big congrats on this!
I was in the throes of editing, I’m sure, so didn’t take up the challenge, but I love doable goals. This is a doable goal and one I’m going to follow as soon as I figure out what I’m writing about next.
The latter body of work is in my agent’s hands, as we speak. It was big, still is big, even through the edits. It went from 131K down to 111K before turning it in. I’m trying not to hyperventilate over it.
That’s me above.
John C. Krieg
Love the challenge, because it’s so basic at its core – a writer writes. There have been times when I would do anything to avoid actually writing. In nonfiction, telling myself I needed to do more research even though I had more than enough to go on. In fiction, backing down from the work and tenacity required for a bonified novel and settling for a short story collection centering on a theme, and then winding up with a mediocre novella and telling myself that that was okay while knowing in my heart that it certainly wasn’t. Perhaps Bukowski, who had a seething contempt for writers without purpose, said it best: “A writer is only a writer if he can write now, tonight, this minute.”
Concerning getting reviews, I believe talent plays the larger part, and writers such as yourself make their own luck. Reviewers have a reputation to protect too, and they aren’t easily given to promoting the work of hacks.
Concerning your book, thanks for taking on the subject, especially the collateral damage to other family member’s part. I’ve been through it and am still going through it and must admit that I was not as empathetic as I would like to have been in the past. It’s utterly amazing how those who have no understanding of the depth of the problem pass judgement on those who do, and I have been judged. I will say that mental health is beginning to be much better understood, and when dealing with the mentally ill, there is no such thing as “tough love” – only love; if you can find it within yourself, which is something I struggle with. The condition might be mitigated somewhat, but it never really goes away.
I await the arrival of your book and have every intention of giving it a glowing review and placing it. I’m personally not mean-spirited enough to give any book a poor review, and if that’s the case, I simply won’t write one. Incidentally, taking the time to write an extensive review and sending it to Amazon is becoming a thankless task, and they have been rejecting mine left and right for the last nine months. This is something that never happened in the past. There is some WOKE censorship going on there, and I am forced to rewrite and send them some very short fluff – five stars, of course, which all they really want, because any book that gets panned isn’t likely to make them much money. I don’t think this is just my imagination because I have writer friends who are telling me that the same thing is happening with their reviews to Amazon.
I agree with you that reviews are very important. I know I buy books based on them, and the blurbs on the back covers, especially if I like the authors who wrote the blurb. It’s only human nature to want some form of positive reinforcement concerning your purchases.