7 Comments

I want to thank you--for this, for "Be Not Aggrieved", for whatever else comes from this line of thought you're on.

I am, admittedly, an "aggrieved" writer, though I've really done nothing to deserve the feeling yet. But feelings are like that; they just show up whether they've been earned or not. Sometimes you can convince them they're at the wrong party, but that doesn't always make them leave. Sometimes you have to force them out, and if you can't, you wait them out.

Your writing about the injustices of writing is helping me wait out the feelings. It's helping me keep my eyes open, in a staring contest with reality I haven't yet won. I can't find that kind of help in many places right now. So this is really valuable to me. Thank you.

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I think you make an important point here, that it is impossible, and even unwise to attempt to shut out or deny the existence of these feelings. Sometimes the only way to move forward is to acknowledge them. I have to recognize that the chief source of my own potential grievance is over 10 years in the past. That time, and the inevitable fact of my survival allows for some distance and perspective that wasn't available to me immediately. I spent more than a few moments resenting an anonymous early reviewer that I thought was unfair to the book, even blaming that review for the lack of attention and other reviews, but nothing good was going to come from that resentment. It's a process, a journey.

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I really enjoyed this. Thank you. I hope to one day publish a book that will be deemed crazy-ass. I love it.

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author

We could use many more crazy-ass books, IMO.

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love this! would just like to note that abe books is a subsidiary of amazon. i wish i had a solution to this sneaky amazon move but just thought it was worth pointing out

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Apr 8Liked by John Warner

A very thought-provoking and moving piece. I will be thinking about this for a long time.

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Apr 10Liked by John Warner

Lovely piece

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