Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Wednesday's Writing Update: Ash2Nash Book Tour, 1st Negative Review, and Rewrites

Happy Wednesday!

On Saturday, my sister and I drove down to the Tennessee border the town of Kingsport for the Ash2Nash Book Tour, featuring authors Beth Revis (Across the Universe), Myra McEntire (Hourglass), and Victoria Schwab (The Near Witch). It was a fun trip, taking about three hours to get there, and we spent some time in Books-a-Million and Target.
Beth, Myra, and Victoria were fun to listen to. It's amazing as writers how similar we are, even if our journeys take different paths to publication. I also got my books signed. Beth recognized me from following her blog, but I'm shy in public—dang, being an introvert—and didn't speak to any of them until time for the signing after the YA Panel. I also got an awesome signed poster of Myra's Hourglass. If I ever have a novel published, I want posters. I realized that if I ever do a book signing, I want a panel of authors too. I think I could handle that.

On Monday, I noticed I had my first semi-negative review of Once Upon a December Nightmare on Amazon. The person gave it three stars and said "it was very well written, [but] it is sorely lacking imagination." Considering I wrote it to be a bit spoofy of horror movies yet with real things that happened to me and my friends, I can see the person's point. The only thing about the review that makes me sad is that the person felt like it wasn't worth the money they paid for it. Yet, if it is the worse review I ever get, I'll be happy about it. I didn't find it nearly as painful as I thought it would be.

I'm still working on rewrites for Virtuoso. I wonder why writing takes so much less time than rewriting. I guess I'm trying to make sure every word and sentence are right, so I won't have to do as much editing, although I'm sure my critique partners will find things that need work. I'm behind schedule too. I should be finishing chapter fifteen today, but I'm still on chapter thirteen. I guess that's what weekends are for, and I'm looking forward to a free weekend to catch up on chapters and get some reading done.

So what are you up to? Have you been on book tour or have attended one? Do you read reviews of your own books?

6 comments:

Christine Rains said...

Don't think too much on that review. Your story is fantastic. I hope you have a good weekend of rewriting. I'll be on my own for the weekend, so I might get some done. I haven't done anything yet this week because I'm trying to catch up on blogs and email. Hopefully I'll be able to do some editing today.

Theresa Milstein said...

Look at those autographed books. I'm drooling! I wish they were touring by me!

Aubrie said...

Makes me want to go find that person and slap them in the face. Grrrr. Once Upon a December Nightmare has oodles of imagination. And it's a bargain price. What does this person expect?

Don't worry about it. I'm glad it wasn't as painful as you thought it would be. Sounds like it's more painful for me, the dedicated CP!

:)

Talli Roland said...

Three star reviews aren't bad! You should go read some of mine, ha! :) I try not to read Amazon reviews - it's bad for the soul. I actually don't mind a negative review if it makes a valid point; you can't please everybody. But sometimes... well... *zips lips*

J.L. Campbell said...

I've never visited a tour/signing, but where I live those are few and far between.

Luckily for me, I haven't yet had a soul-crushing review, but there's still lots of time. :)

Nicole Zoltack said...

3 stars aren't bad! I hope that's the worst you get. I've had some one stars and some DNF (did not finish). Now that hurts!