Whew, life has been coming at me fast recently. I’m back in writing class, for one thing, which means reading up to 60 pages a week of my classmates’ writing and typing up feedback for them. I’ve also been marching around town like the rest of the newly energized populace, carrying signs and chanting. In addition, I somehow ended up on the board for a newly formed chapter of a national PAC organization, so I’ve added that to my schedule of preschool Board meetings and PTA events. In short, my husband has basically only seen glimpses of me as I dash out the door each night when he arrives home.
During this whirlwind I have received a ton of helpful feedback on No Man’s Land. A few months back I applied to a writing mentor program online and thought I didn’t make the cut, I connected with dozens of other writers and we decided to break into small groups and exchange chapters. So I have three lovely writer friends from across the globe who have read my first chapter and given me their thoughts. In my writing class I’ve shared the first two chapters and received five responses for each, and I submitted my first three chapters to a lovely group of people called The Inkwell Council, who were kind enough to select my submission for a free critique.
But wait- there’s more! Tonight I’m meeting up with my old writing buddy, R, from previous writing classes. R writes canine police procedural mysteries (just a tad different from my genre) and he is a talented writer who gives excellent, critical, no punches pulled, feedback. He was the classmate who famously told me, “You can write, but this chapter is boring” during my very first workshop last year. A nice gentle introduction to the world of workshopping -ha! R and I swapped our first 80 pages so he has officially read more of No Man’s Land than anyone beside myself and I’m looking forward to hearing his thoughts.
Now time to edit, rewrite, and edit some more…