Many authors fear reviews. They want them, but anything less than 5-stars seems to shatter them. I don’t read reviews anymore. I used to, but I just don’t go there now. I know I would end up carrying those voices back into my writing room. My artist child is too sacred to me to rent out that head space. I’ve done that and it took me a long time to crawl out from under my bed, so to speak.

So, imagine my surprise when I woke from a nightmare about getting a 1-star review on Quest for the Three Books. Lame! Dumb!

It was probably Loki trying to wake me up so I’d go get to work on the audiobooks. If so, he’s got my number.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about getting a small tablet for my sound booth because I tire of changing pages so often on my iPhone. First world problems, I know. But knowing that I’d mostly be using it for that, I didn’t want to go to the expense of an iPad.

My son recently bought a 10″ Kindle Fire for school and really liked it. I wasn’t certain I wanted something that big in the booth. In 9 square feet, space is at a premium.

Then I saw that a 7″ Kindle Fire for $35. Done. I can live with ads on the lock screen — as long as they don’t pop up at me as I’m trying to get stuff done, I’m good.

So I started working on the audio to For a Good Time, Call Loki this weekend and I saw some passages that others had highlighted. Generally, I have things like that turned off — again, distraction, plus I make a lot of my own notes, so I don’t like it overlapping. These highlights were passages that I presume other people found humorous. I know I was laughing when I saw what they were.  See? Distraction.

But I got to thinking that I should look at some of my other books because maybe I could find things that resonate with other people and use those.

DAWN, WHY ARE YOU SO STUPID????!!!!

What I found were notes that others had made that were mini critiques. This is exactly why I don’t read reviews.

Okay, so they were’t wrong. There are still things I’m getting wrong in the book. It still felt like opening Pandora’s Box and letting the little gremlins out to jump all over the fragile writer ego.

I had to go slap myself. No, seriously.

First, they weren’t wrong and I’m glad someone had taken the time to highlight them and make notes on it. Once I remembered to pull on my thick skin and remembered that I’m not a wimp, I  reminded myself that I’m glad when things like this are pointed out to me because I can fix forward. Crap, there’s a lot. And, not all of them did I agree with. I also wonder if there’s some of my notes mixed in. Wow, this can get confusing fast.

Then, I had the realization that someone out there is working over their editing chops on my stuff. I’m actually proud of that. If I can help someone grow their own skills, go me. It’s further proof that 1) nothing is ever perfect, 2) you can always learn something from someone else, and 3) linking arms with others is very beneficial.

Now, I only looked at one book, which if you guessed correctly, it was Quest for the Three Books. I haven’t ventured to any of the new stories, but I do have an awesome proofreader on these, so I hope between the two of us, we are catching things like this.

Now I have two issues: 1) I don’t have time to go back through Quest right now to fix things up, and 2) do I turn off the comments from others in my Kindle so I don’t see them? If I leave them on, can I turn my comments off from going back for the world to see? Is that even possible, or is it all or nothing? Ah, technology, gotta love it!

Mostly, I’m impressed with myself for throwing off an event that once would have sent me into depression for a week or more, or at least let nagging thoughts roam through my head for far too long. I had my moment of “Oh, crap. Poor me,” and then shrugged it off and got back to work.

Okay, it did help that I had Loki whisper in my ear, “You could always threaten them with your Vogon poetry.” Laughter does amazing things.

I worked up a new logo. Wanna see?

I prepared that for the Snake River Fandom Con app. You will someday, hopefully soon, see something very similar. These images are used on a story cover. Right now, the story is in limbo; I keep trying to submit it to a magazine, but it never seems to reach them for whatever reason. I suspect the Universe wants me to release the story another way. But I’m waiting a bit longer.

Soooo, you might have a cover reveal coming soon because now I’ve also put together the final version of that.

I’m not sure if I want to change the banner at the top of my blog or not. I haven’t really given much thought to that yet.

I guess that’s all for now. I really need to get to editing some stories. Also have things to prepare for Snake River Fandom Con in Pocatello this weekend. Hope to see you there.

Now, for the numbers.

Fiction words written last week:  4,545 words.

Blogs/Newsletter articles/non-fiction written:  2,976 words.

Daily word goal reached for 44 days. Weekly word goal reached for 9 weeks.

Writing month to date total:  24,566 words

Writing year to date total: 241,806 words

Drawing/painting last week: No painting this week, but I draw – yippee! I have new sketches in my sketchbook!

Audio: I spent 7 hours recording and editing audio. I missed one morning because my laptop battery drained during the night. I spent my morning in the kitchen writing an email to inquire about my story instead. It was the next morning that I work early from the nightmare. Definitely Loki telling me to get up and get to work.