Hi friends how are you? I am taking it easy today because I am feeling tired from all the work I am doing on my novels and also still have not recovered from my trouble with my ears, it turns out I have an ear infection in both ears, and I am on antibiotics. I hope to send off for my proof copy very soon. Then, I will read through the other proof copies that I have.
Instead of posting a usual status update, I decided to blog for you. Preparing for publishing is a much longer and harder process than I thought it was going to be, but I know I will get there eventually. I will do anything to make my lifelong dream of being a published author come true. Earlier in the week, I had an unpleasant experience with someone from the critique group that I have joined. She really put down my work and was very rude about it. I do not expect to get great comments all the time, but do not expect people to be as rude as she was. She then saw on my profile that I have the disabilities I do, and e-mailed me via my profile page in the group apologising, and said that if she had 'known that I have disabilities and that it was just under a year since I started writing novels, then her comments would have been different ' . If she had have read my profile on the website, then she would have known that I have the disabilities I do, and also if she had properly read the introduction to my submission that explains which disabilities I have, and the fact that I use dictation software to use the computer, and because of this there might be some typing errors in what I write, then she would have known. But no, she just decided to dive in and criticise me harshly to the point that it seemed she was criticising her worst enemy. Don't get me wrong, I know this is a critique group, and that I should be prepared for whatever comments come my way, but this to me was crossing the line on rudeness, especially as other people could also see the comments.
I have been asking myself since this happened what kind of comments she would have given me, and how the fact that I have disabilities should mean that the comments should be automatically more positive, or condescending, or even pitying. I do not know this person, but I myself absolutely can't stand being pitied by somebody, in a matter whether I know them or not and how well I know them or not.
I mentioned this to Alfredo was very supportive, and said that there are different ways of saying the same thing and that she should have been more diplomatic. I myself, if I had thought this about somebody's work, I either would not have commented at all, all been more diplomatic about the way I put in my opinion across. That said, I know that everyone is different and not a lot of people are like me, and I have been repeatedly told over the years that I am too kind. Maybe that's true, but I tend to treat people as I would like to be treated by them, and I'm not the kind of person to put someone down especially like this. I was very shocked by this when it happened, and what happened occasionally goes around in my head still, but I am determined not to give up my writing just because someone thinks what they do. At the end of the day , if this person doesn't want to buy my book, then they shouldn't but I am sure there're plenty of other people will want to, and that plenty of other people will value my work a lot more. As Alfredo said, only the people who are closest to me for example him, my family and some friends or those possibly with hydrocephalus or cerebral palsy will be able to appreciate what I do, and be able to identify with the effort that it would take a person with these conditions to produce a book. I will never stop saying that I am proud of what I do, and I am striving for success in spite of some spiteful comments that I might find along the way. If people don't like what I do, then they don't have to read excerpts of what I do or even buy the book that is completely up to them but I am not going to stop fighting or trying to sell the book just because of a few people who don't know how to appreciate my work.
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