Random thoughts on waiting for reviews

They do not sell thicker skins at Target; I’ve looked. They don’t sell them at the indie shops downtown.

Thicker skins don’t grow from seeds like corn and Swiss chard. You can’t paste them on with Elmer’s or Mod Podge.

My editor tells me to throw myself into the next book.”Focus on that,” she says, and she’s right.

My husband tells me to toughen up. “You’re not going to make it, otherwise,” he says, and he’s right.

Someone called Pride and Prejudice “insipid” on Goodreads, you know. In Kirkus, next to Harry Potter, there is no star. Jimmy Page is a writer of “weak, unimaginative songs” in Rolling Stone’s review of Led Zeppelin 1.

I fold laundry. I cook dinner.

Sticks and stones, sticks and stones, sticks and stones.

I consider the pros and cons of hibernation, and then I remember: it’s almost spring.

I look at my empty garden and decide what to plant.

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2 Responses to Random thoughts on waiting for reviews

  1. madelyn says:

    Fine points, Jenn. Someday I will go into a shop and purchase a calendar with brilliant quotes on it. Half of them will all be by you! =)

  2. Jenn Hubbard says:

    I often wonder if anyone puts as much stock in reviews as the authors themselves do.

    I don’t think it’s really possible or desirable to develop a thick skin. Writers have to be open to the world and vulnerable to it.

    But reviews are survivable. Any pain–or joy–they bring is temporary. Meanwhile, there’s the writing.

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