On September 8th I finally got to talk with David about my book. He had finished reading it and it was time to hear what he had to say!!! I was really nervous. David is the very first person to read my book that wasn’t a family member or a friend. All my family and friends gave me really positive feedback. Although I do trust that my family and friends would somehow tell me in nice way that it sucked, David would just come right out and say it. He is brutally honest. It’s one of the things I like most about him. He tells me how it is. I was worried he was going to tell me it wasn’t good enough. I was worried he was going to tell me to give it up, put it on the back burner, or just burn it all together.
I sat back and gave a huge sigh of relief when the first thing he said to me was, “I really enjoyed reading it”. I furiously typed everything he said to me. Here are some of the things he said:
-“It was easy to read”
-he was “whipping along through it”
-he “really liked the character and Josie too”
- the book “captures the teenage girl very well”
-“rang true her (Lilly) relationship with her mom”
-“high school life felt real”
He went on to talk about certain specifics of the characters that he liked as well. I felt as high as a kite. All the things he liked in my book were things I was really hoping to convey. Essentially the real life of a high school teenage girl.
Then came the hard part. David telling me how I can make this book better. Some of it was just grammatical stuff. He says that I need to get my book edited. So, if any of you guys know a great editor, I need one! He also said that I need to have a better sense of urgency or foreboding in the first chapter. Once you read the book, you will understand what he’s talking about. David also said that I made the boyfriend too nice. I believe he said “No high school guy is that nice.” Point taken. Additionally, I use too many “grownup” words in this book. All in all, he said that the things I need to fix are easy. He said that the book is well-written and that he definitely sees a big audience for my book.
This is all really, really good news!!!
David and I came up with a game plan for what’s to come, but I will share that in the next blog!
