Accepting Praise with Grace. Resurrected Post.
Perihelion Online Science Fiction Magazine likes my novel, Under Strange Suns. No, really. Check out the review. And that���s good. It warms the outer crust of my black, stony lawyer���s heart. But it also makes me squirm a bit. I don���t receive praise well.
Stupid, isn���t it? Someone likes what you do. Say thank you. Appreciate that someone appreciates your work. And move on. But I���ve never been comfortable with it. You might think it speaks to a lack of self-confidence, a deep-seated, niggling sense that nothing I produce could be that good. Could be, but I don���t think so. My well of amour-propre seldom runs dry.
I suppose it is something to work on. To learn to accept praise in the spirit in which it is offered without it leading to either a swelled-head or to a parsing of the praise, picking it apart to look for some hidden slight or suggestion of insincerity.
There are worse problems to have.
