Today is my birthday. I love birthdays--especially my own. But in reality today is a day like any other. I finally finished going over the copyeditor's notes and changes on the 360-page manuscript of THE WILD QUEEN, Mary Queen of Scots. The CE made a number of corrections, some of which made ME wild. I'm standing fast on some, caving on others. But this puts me further behind on VICTORIA RULES/CONFESSES/WHATEVER.
Meanwhile, I have to stop obsessing about CLEOPATRA CONFESSES. Yesterday was the official pub date, and I hover around amazon.com to see if anybody has posted a review. One did appear today, but with only three stars. THREE STARS?? Why not FIVE?? Because the reviewer, a librarian, loves the book but thinks the book ends too soon and should continue for another 200 pages or so, in order to cover all of Cleopatra's life. But that's not what I set out to do in CLEOPATRA CONFESSES--which was to narrate the Egyptian queen's early life, her formative years, not the entire arc of her life, as interesting as it was.
I've become pretty good about accepting criticism of a work in progress, doing draft after draft if that's what the editor says needs to be done. But once a book is published, I confess that I'm really bad about dealing with negative criticism. I try to ignore it, but I'm no good at that.
Now, as I said, I have to focus on the work at hand, not on what is already done and out there. Besides, it's my birthday!
Meanwhile, I have to stop obsessing about CLEOPATRA CONFESSES. Yesterday was the official pub date, and I hover around amazon.com to see if anybody has posted a review. One did appear today, but with only three stars. THREE STARS?? Why not FIVE?? Because the reviewer, a librarian, loves the book but thinks the book ends too soon and should continue for another 200 pages or so, in order to cover all of Cleopatra's life. But that's not what I set out to do in CLEOPATRA CONFESSES--which was to narrate the Egyptian queen's early life, her formative years, not the entire arc of her life, as interesting as it was.
I've become pretty good about accepting criticism of a work in progress, doing draft after draft if that's what the editor says needs to be done. But once a book is published, I confess that I'm really bad about dealing with negative criticism. I try to ignore it, but I'm no good at that.
Now, as I said, I have to focus on the work at hand, not on what is already done and out there. Besides, it's my birthday!