Michelle's corner

I had a look at the time stamp on the file. Five months ago. That's when I last touched Genie.

It's difficult to get the momentum to keep working at things. Two colleagues have been reading Check Mate; or rather one colleague, and another one's wife. The feedback is positive. In the larger scale of things, though, no one seems to be reading what I'm writing, which is prety much the best gague I can have that I'm not exactly turning out sterling work.

Feedback and reviews are the double edged sword. No one owes anyone anything, except perhaps civility and honesty. Even if someone's had a book for free, nothing is owed. It's up to readers whether they feed anything back... but when it comes to continuing to write; overcoming the effort and finding the time, regardless of the chaos that life is delivering... reviews and feedback are the shot in the arm that keeps some people at the keyboard, attempting to improve and deliver better work.

So, here I am, with Genie approaching 69,000 words, and working on two sets of alpha reader feedback... with a third set waiting. It's going to take weeks just to merge in these two sets of notes, wishes and warnings. It might just drop off the radar again. It's so easy to put these things down, just for a minute, and never pick them up again.