A Little Victory Only an Author Would Appreciate

Something unique happened yesterday. I was a little disappointed realizing the only other people who would understand were the two writers in my non-digital life, my wife and a friend of mine. So I’m sharing it here, under the “Celebrations” tab because I’m sure many of you will understand also.

I finished my first novel about 18 months ago. One of my final beta readers finished his review about 6 months ago. Yesterday I got the following message from him, “Hey, how’s it going? I was talking to a friend about your book. Did you get it published yet?”

My first thoughts - He was talking to someone about MY book? This guy reads a LOT and my book is coming back around in his head 6 months later? AND he’s talking to someone about it? (Which of course could be bad also😂 but from the tone of the conversation, I didn’t get that impression.) That’s kind of cool!

I didn’t explain that I had since learned an important mantra about NOT publishing my first book first but we did chat via text for a few minutes as I explained to him that some of the writing was going to be revised to make it better before it (eventually) goes to print.

He ended our conversation with this. “I have nothing but admiration for your writing, and doublely for asking a random person on a fantasy book reading discord to read it and give comments. I think you got an awesome concept, plot, characters and some of the writing is great. I’ll love to see the next version to see how you’ve taken it to the next level.”

Maybe it’s just a little thing, but wow. That was kind of cool. Someone who’s not family and friends got some lasting entertainment out of my work. Wow… lol

Anyway, some of you may have experienced this before; many of us have not. It was kind of surreal.

Have a blessed day.

Holyoak