I was talking to someone about my book Arthur Mace, Medieval Gumshoe. She said she’d read it and enjoyed it.
It’s always nice to hear that someone likes your writing. I’m not one of those horribly insecure authors who sits around, nervously biting their nails, terrified that someone might say something innocuous (‘your book was OK’) that they then interpret to mean they aren’t good enough to ever write again and they’re going to go throw themselves off a bridge. And I don’t have an ego that gets so over-bloated by a little bit of praise that it thinks I can do no wrong. (My ego is already thoroughly convinced I’m the most important thing in the Universe.)
But then she went on to say something else. She said she has re-read my book and it is a perennial favorite read of hers.
I am both flabbergasted and honored by her statement. I mean, books you re-read are written by authors like Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Holly Lisle, Spider Robinson, Anne McCaffrey, J. R. R. Tolkien … you know, people who can write. To think that someone likes what I wrote enough to read it more than once is kind of mind-blowing to me.
When I wrote Arthur’s tale, it was just a fun little lark to keep myself amused. I liked the idea of putting a hard-boiled gumshoe in a fantasy setting and dealing with all kinds of crazy problems. I figured I’d publish it, put it out there for sale, and maybe sell a few copies. I didn’t think anyone would ever bother to read it more than once.
I’ve written the second Arthur Mace tale. Much like the first one, the draft is a total mess. I really need to sit down, run it through Holly’s How To Revise Your Novel class like I did the first novel, and get it ready to publish.
I’ve got ideas for more Arthur Mace tales. I definitely know what the fifth planned book of the series will cover but I need a few others before it to help set things up. Also, I need Arthur to tell me the story involved in that one, but he’s very reluctant to talk about it. It’s a lot harder to get the books written when your characters won’t talk to you.
Anyway, thanks to my reader for sharing that bit of news with me. It really made my day.
If you’d like to support my efforts, why not buy me a chocolate chip cookie through my Ko-Fi page? https://ko-fi.com/jhusum