Yesterday was the official publication date for Invisible Things, but nothing really happened, I was traveling from Ottawa to Philadelphia and found when I arrived at my mother's house here that there were a lot of copies of the finished book waiting for me in boxes but also a palpable absence in the 'person' of my dear departed cat Blackie, who died here in May - I guess I haven't been back to the house since, and I was slightly overwhelmed by feeling.
Ugh!
Also I still have a lung ailment and an excess of sputum, a term I have switched to after having exhausted the expressive and comic potential of the word phlegm.
Some more self-promotion of a sort:
Erica was kind enough to do an interview with me for The Book Cellar.
A giveaway and interview at Adventures in Children's Publishing.
Liviania at In Bed With Books had mixed feelings about the book.
It is an exercise in masochism to link to this review, but if you need a schadenfreudian pick-me-up you can read it and feel my pain! I think the only thing I can do is go on and write another novel...
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Really I don't see why one should be _pained_ by that rant. The demand for AIR AND PUNCTUATION made me think of that stretch of Beckett's Watt where he brackets everything in commas: so, to take your first sentence, "Sophie was lying, on her stomach, on the bed, in her own little room, under the eaves, a bedroom with slanted walls, and a small window, overlooking the trees, in the park, behind the institute." Something to keep in mind for the revised edition?
ReplyDelete"Sputum" is inexplicably reminiscent of whales.
Take heart, do. And if you can, don't even read the dratted things. I wish I could follow my own advice, because I've had some really devastating criticism, though to be frank, I could write it myself - and more! I cringe when I reread my writing and wonder if I will ever get to where I'd like to be. Perhaps not.
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving!
Don't worry about reviewers who've have minimal exposure to literature. "Where is the dialogue?!" It's in your favorite sitcom.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the book!
I echo all the above commentators. The review clearly expresses more about the reviewer than your book. Speaking of which, any book with a cat named for Tristram Shandy is one I want to read. I'm sold!
ReplyDeleteAgree with everyone above... The dialogue comment alone should release you from any anxiety about this teen "critic"'s opinion (and her mother's)... I started Invisible Things last night, haven't been able to put it down, and am loving it!
ReplyDeleteFinally got around to reading the review; I wouldn't grace what is in essence a flame post like that with the honor of 'critique'. Ignore it. Keep writing. Or blow phlegm and sputum all over it!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to reading it.
The Bacchae on Morningside Heights! Finally, the long-deferred autobiographical novel! I couldn't finish the review of this novel, however, because the sound of the author's gum chewing and hair twirling made it, like, unreadable.
ReplyDeleteThanks, all! I am back online after Thanksgiving peregrinations, was not UNDULY disheartened by a review but it is always nice to get moral support from well-wishers too!
ReplyDelete