While I was recently perusing the internet stacks for a good ebook to sink my teeth into, I skimmed the customer reviews of each book I considered. The more reviews I read, the more I realized how people can literally rip a writer’s work apart.
Ok, I’m not naïve. I know everybody has their own opinions about everything and everyone and not everyone is going to like you in this world. But as an unpublished author, am I ready for all that negativity? Do I want to spend my blood and tears working on a project only to have someone blow it all up on a review that they may or may not have written in a moment of rage after a fight with their husband?
Don’t worry, I’m not writing this post because I’m wavering and thinking of cutting my losses. Oh no. I think I’m more worried of how I will handle it. I mean, will I really read every review–the good, the bad and the ugly? Will I secretly cyberstalk those who give me unfavorable feedback and make their lives a living hell? Oops, that just slipped out.
I guess if you put your work out there for the world to see, you have to pull the big girl panties up or big boy boxer briefs on take what’s coming. Or as my friend Jamal over at Scribereglyph said so eloquently in his post Never Forget: You Suck and You Always Will, “we can’t please everybody”.
P.S. Are no reviews better than horrible ones? Hmmm…
Kit’s heart was beating so fast that she thought it would explode through her chest. Her whole body tensed up and her breathing felt restricted. She couldn’t move. Damn it, she couldn’t move!
“I thought it was you, but I had to get a closer look to be sure. How have you been?”
She couldn’t even get her tongue to work. It had become thick and useless. Her mouth was dry and pasty. She could have used that apple martini right about now. Not just to quench her thirst, but to give her the courage to run.
“Amber, what’s wrong? Not happy to see me?”
He was right. Kit wasn’t happy to see him. She had thought she would never lay eyes on him again. He was an unwanted visitor from the past.
“Don’t tell me you’re scared of me?” he quipped, as he took several menacing steps closer to her. “You had to know that I would find you.”
Kit backed away from him only to push up against the building. She felt like a trapped animal. There was nowhere to go.
He tapped on his chest several times with the palm of his hand. “Why are you acting like you don’t know me? Come on, Amber, it’s me!”
She shook her head frantically trying to diffuse his anger. She definitely didn’t want to make the situation worse, but before she knew what was happening, he had grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Are you listening to me, Amber?! Are you?!”
Somehow Kit managed to scramble her senses together and push him away. His eyes bulged with anger and his teeth gnashed together exposing their imperfections. He moved in closer to her.
Kit looked desperately about hoping she would see someone…anyone…that could help her. Again, she found not a soul walking the streets in the downpour. Her chest tightened and the pit of her stomach knotted with dread. He was making her life very difficult right about now.
“Look at me! Look at me!” he barked within six inches from her face. She felt every word as spit flew from his quivering lips. Kit winced in disgust.
The rain intensified leaving no hope of anyone showing up to save the day. Kit decided to do the only thing that she could think of. She grabbed at his face with her acrylic tips and dug in for dear life. He tried to subdue her hands by attempting to secure her arms by her sides, but he couldn’t quite get a grip.
Kit dug her nails deeper into his face until she could feel the flesh of his face touch her fingertips. He screamed in gut-wrenching agony as his blood trickled down his cheeks. She took her chance, pushed past him and ran.
“Amberrrrr!!” he screeched. “Come baccckkk herrrrrrre!!”
The hood of her rain slicker blew back off of her head, exposing her to the cold pellets of rain. She couldn’t see a damn thing because the water was coming down so hard. She panted as her eyes feverishly searched for someone to help her. She couldn’t believe that there were no people around.
Then, out of nowhere, a man turned the corner of the building up ahead. Kit ran frantically towards him. “Please help me!”
“What’s seems to be the problem?” the man asked calmly.
“He’s going to get me! He’s trying to hurt me!”
“Who?”
Kit turned back to look in the direction from which she had just fled. She gasped as she realized he was no longer there. Or maybe he was and she just couldn’t see through what seemed to be a waterfall of water. “Him,” she managed to say flatly.
“Miss, there is no one there.” The man now sounded exasperated as if Kit were disturbing him from something.
“I—I—” she stammered. Where had he gone? He couldn’t have disappeared that quickly.
The man began laughing hysterically and pointing at Kit. She started slowly shaking her head. What was wrong with him?
“Poor, poor, Amber.”
“Oh, my god! You’re with him!” Kit’s limbs went numb as she tried to grasp what was happening.
Just then, a white van pulled up beside them and two figures clad in rain ponchos jumped out surrounding Kit. She felt completely helpless. There was nowhere to run.
Her first attacker got out of the back of the truck and stood before her. His face was bleeding from the clawing Kit had unleashed on him only moments before.
“Amber, do you know how long we have searched for you? You should have known from your previous attempt to escape, that we would eventually find you.”
“Leave me alone!! Get away from me!!” she screamed to no avail.
“You know that we can’t do that. You need help, my dear. Vic. Lou. Help Amber into the ambulance.”
“What?! Noooo! Noooo!”
Vic and Lou did as they were told and hoisted Kit into the back of the vehicle, where a gurney awaited her. They strapped her arms and legs down. The second man that Kit had come up on the street pulled out a syringe that he immediately stuck into her arm.
“What are you doing to me?!” she demanded.
The bleeding face one chuckled. “You have to be sedated for your own good. You know that. You’re dangerous.”
“Dr. Garrett, will you be riding in the back with the patient?” Vic asked.
“Yes, Dan and I will ride in the back to assure there are no problems.”
“She seems harmless,” Vic stated.
Dr. Garrett smirked. “Don’t let her fool you. She claims to have more than one personality although we have never been able to diagnose her conclusively with dissociative identity disorder. The police think she made it up to cover for murdering her parents and two sisters.”
“She killed her parents and siblings?”
“Yes, she killed them and continued to live in the same house with their decaying corpses for six weeks before anyone knew anything about it.”
Vic shook his head in disgust. “She really is loony tunes then.”
“Now, Vic, we don’t use those terms at our facility. We only use clinical terminology.”
“Sorry, Doctor.”
As the ambulance pulled away, tears streamed down Kit’s face as she realized she would be returning to a cage. She couldn’t live locked up for the rest of her life. She just couldn’t. Not for something that she didn’t do. Couldn’t they see that she wasn’t responsible?
“Don’t worry, sweetie, I’ll get us out of this. I always do,” Amber said to Kit.“It’s you and me ‘til the end. Like always.”
“Oh, god, noooo!!” Kit screamed frantically. “Don’t let her take me! She does things! Horrible things!”
Kit’s eyes began to flutter uncontrollably as the sedative took her on the other side of her two-way mirror.
“That’s it. Sleeeep. Sleeeep. Let me handle ev-er-y-thing while you sleeeep.”
I started this short story awhile ago and finally finished it. This is Part I...
Kit tried to shield herself from the nippy wind and the light drizzle by pulling her rain slicker closer to her body. It wasn’t working. She could feel the cold penetrate the rubber slicker like little needles piercing through her skin till it scraped into her bones. She clenched her teeth to fight off the pain.
She couldn’t believe she had ventured out into this mess, but she had no one to blame except herself. The urging for an apple martini and the lack of the ingredients had driven her out from the sanctuary of her apartment. Now she was wondering what she had been thinking just ten minutes earlier while she was still in the comforts of her warm, dry living room.
Suddenly, the drizzle became an enraged storm with sheets of rain slamming down from the sky. Kit cursed as she quickened her pace toward a storefront that donned an awning. The store was closed for the night and so were most of the businesses on the block, as Kit began to notice. She also realized that there weren’t that many people on the street, leaving it to appear deserted compared to the hustle and bustle during daylight hours.
The harder the rain fell and the less people she saw, made Kit feel an uneasiness. The liquor store was only another block and half away, but she was definitely stranded until the weather let up. She pulled her slicker closer once again, but this time it was to give her a false sense of security.
Then out of nowhere an indistinguishable figure approached her refuge under the awning. As they came closer, Kit squinted, trying to get a better view of the person. She tried to reign in her anxiety, but it took a hold of her and led her mind on a journey of panic. Why was this person choosing to cross the street to invade her personal space? There were plenty of other awnings and doorways to take cover from the rain. Why hers?
Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped as it became clear she recognized the hooded silhouette.
I came across a song yesterday that I hadn’t heard in years. It’s called I Can’t Make You Love Me by Bonnie Raitt and is a melancholy love ballad. Now, I’m a sucker for love stories, love poems and love songs no matter the circumstances or the outcome. They could end in tragedy where I ball my eyes out or they could finish in a cheesy cornball finale leaving me with a wide-tooth stupid grin on my face.
So hearing this song and listening to the lyrics made me take pause. If you have ever heard it, you know it’s about a lover who realizes that the one they love no longer feels the same way and that their love affair has reached its conclusion. Pretty sad, huh? Nevertheless, the story is fantastically written. The words are right on and you have no doubt the pain the person feels in their realization.
Of course, Bonnie Raitt’s voice adds color to the story, but if you look at the lyrics without the music, it seems to read like a poem. I wonder if songwriters write poems? I’m sure they do, as it seems to go hand in hand with songwriting.
Don’t you love a good song? One that is simple, to the point and you don’t need a video to figure out what the hell they are trying to say. Since I deem myself a music head *chuckles*, I know that there are loads of good songs out there that can stand alone as poems. Their eloquent narratives let you absorb the emotion and passion, pulling you into their anguish and heartache as well as their joy and paradise. Some even leave you a little hot and bothered.
Other favorites of mine are The Rose by Bette Midler, This Woman’s Work by Maxwell (or Kate Bush who wrote and originally recorded it) and Always On My Mind by Willie Nelson. Stop me because I could go on and on!Do you have a special love song that does it for you?
