Letters from the universe
It's easy to get bogged down in reviews that say unflattering things about your writing, and reviewers that don't seem to have read your book, and the difficulties of getting a sequel written, and frustration with one's own shortcomings as an author.
But then today, I got a letter (or rather, Jane Seville got a letter) from a reader. An 80-year-old man who'd just lost his partner of 26 years at age 95. This man had taken up reading M/M romance with his partner, because their sex life couldn't be what it had once been anymore and it was something intimate they could still share. After his partner passed, he kept reading them because he felt a connection to the men in the stories we write.
He wrote me to thank me for writing Zero. He said he'd never felt such a connection to characters, that he felt like Jack and D were his friends, and he'd read it three times now so he could go with them on their journey all over again. He was much more eloquent than I'm being right now, but that was the gist.
Then he said that this book had particular meaning for him. His partner's name? Jack.
*weeps*
Who the hell cares about bad reviews, anyway?
But then today, I got a letter (or rather, Jane Seville got a letter) from a reader. An 80-year-old man who'd just lost his partner of 26 years at age 95. This man had taken up reading M/M romance with his partner, because their sex life couldn't be what it had once been anymore and it was something intimate they could still share. After his partner passed, he kept reading them because he felt a connection to the men in the stories we write.
He wrote me to thank me for writing Zero. He said he'd never felt such a connection to characters, that he felt like Jack and D were his friends, and he'd read it three times now so he could go with them on their journey all over again. He was much more eloquent than I'm being right now, but that was the gist.
Then he said that this book had particular meaning for him. His partner's name? Jack.
*weeps*
Who the hell cares about bad reviews, anyway?