Humblebrag
Originally published at ipse illum dicto. You can comment here or there.
Over the years, I’ve read many a blog post from an emerging writer talking about how freaky it is to get blurbs for their book covers from really great authors whom they admire a lot. And I’m always like, “Yeah, I can spot a humblebrag. Nice try.”
But you know what I’ve learned? It really is freaky.
I’ve got two blurbs on the cover of Little Dystopias from authors I was reading decades ago when being a professional writer myself was the stuff of daydreams. Mind you, these aren’t household names, but they’re writers I’ve admired for years. The second blurb came in today (in the nick of time to make the dust jacket) and I was literally trembling. I’ve never been the sort who craves approval (in fact, I often joke that my life has been a series of choices designed to alienate me from my elders), but praise for my work from someone I’ve looked up to for that long actually rocks my world a little bit. I seriously found myself thinking, This can’t be right - surely he means to say nice things about someone else’s book.
So, yeah, there’s my humblebrag, y’all. It’s true. Nothing can actually prepare you for what it’s like to have your work get praise from your heroes.
But that’s not the funny part. The funny part is that both blurbs, totally by coincidence, start out with the exact same words: “Little Dystopias is a fascinating…” My writer/editor brain is saying to me, You can’t have the redundant phrasing so you have to drop one of them or rewrite it while my emotional core is doing backflips.
Totally discombobulating.
#SFWApro