Another Novel Freshman Experience Lesson...from the mouth of babes.

Sometimes kids just melt me.

My little minions are...er active.  But sometimes they stop and are so sweet I forget that I just timed them out.

I brought home all my ceramics from class (pics here if you missed them) and was critiquing them.  Sort of mumbling to myself as I got them out of the box. I UGHed one of them. One of the minions corrected me, "They're all beautiful," as he picked them all up gently and checked them all out.

I've been thinking about that moment ever since.

Sometimes we're our own worst critic. And while some of my pieces weren't quite as successful as I hoped,  I smiled and whispered "They're all beautiful," to myself as I finish taking notes on them.  

Yes, I've mulling the minions words and I've realized that he was right.  Every piece I produced this year in class was beautiful, even if they weren't what I envisioned, if only because they all left me with something.

Each taught me what to do...or what not to do.  Either way, I will build off both the successes and the less than successful pieces.

As a writer, I've faced those kind of moments.  Some of my earlier books have been rereleased. And while I still feel their a good story, I know that if I wrote that same story today, I'd have crafted it very differently.  Because I've grown as a writer.  And that's a good thing.  If I'd stayed stationary all these years, I'd be doing something wrong.  So if  (when) you pick up an earlier book, I hope you enjoy the story.  But afterwards, I hope you pick up a more recent story and that you think, yeah, that's better.  LOL

Holly

PS. 
I mention picking up books because I do hope you all give them a try.  I hope you mention them to a friend (or a bunch of friends) and I hope you'll go leave a review on your favorite online site because those reviews are how other people find my books.   I occasionally give a workshop called,  My Writing May Be Art...but My Kids Need Braces.  That about sums it up.  I hope you'll pick up a book because that's how I make my living.  My grandmother would be aghast that I mention it.  She was aghast that I talked about hairy legs in I Waxed My Legs for This? too.  But it's the truth.  (It's also true that I won't ever wax my legs...ouch!)

There's a sales-palooza right now...
Just One Thing
Everything But series
Pickup Lines

(That's right...a newer tearjerker Romance+,
an older Hungarian grandmother who curses her family to bad weddings and HEA's series,
and the oldest of the bunch...rom com that's set in the front seat of a truck!)