Ye Old Drawing board

Not unexpected, or at least shouldn't be, but after some constructive criticism from two of my proofreaders, I'm poking my head back into the very ending of DoW and reworking it a bit. One twist too many. :-) I had an alternate ending in mind originally, but went with option B. I'll go back and try on my original plan A, see if it fits better. It will, I think. I should have listened to the inner voice, as they say, since the novel does progress to a certain inevitable conclusion but I changed gears at the very end, always a risk. But that's how it works, and just shows how important it is to have some front-line readers to make sure you didn't get off course. Shouldn't take too long. In the meantime, I've been slowly putting together a chapter synopsis which, if you've never done one, requires a lot more work than it would seem. Condensing the entire novel into a 2 page summary, while maintaining some sense of dramatic flow, is critical since the synopsis is a primary marketing tool when sending a novel out to editors.

The short fiction review site, The Fix, has a review of Apex #11 online online. Can't tell from reading the review whether he liked "Ray Gun" or not, but more than likely, his reaction is one I expected (even in some way, hoped) I'd get. Torn, not sure how to react. The story is meant to make the reader uncomfortable, as the main character has Alzheimer's, and there is a bit of humor, but I treat the condition itself with the, well to be honest, fear it deserves. One of the reactions I hoped to garner was, at times, a reflex to laugh at something, but not being able to, because it's simply not funny. Being from the character's perspective (unreliable narrator, is the expression), you simply can't. You will, at some of the things he says, but it doesn't feel right. So the reviewer is right on the ball with his point that some people might hate the story, other's love it, with few in between. Of course, I'd be happy if most fall into the "love" category, but it was heartening to hear this, because it meant the emotion in the story was strong enough to garner one of the two ends of the range, without any ho-hum response. Can't do better than that. :-)

Also got a nice "fan mail" from Jennifer Pelland with whom I share the issue. Doesn't happen often in this business, but when you get a "nice job" note from someone you don't know, it makes a writer's day. And that did.