Another First...

A couple of weeks ago the ladies book club at church ready my book for the month of February. They met and talked about it and asked me to be their guest speaker. It was humbling knowing most of the ladies there had read my book and most had enjoyed it.

One woman said she started it and couldn't finish it. She couldn't get into the characters. She apologized and I felt bad for her, not because she didn't like the book but that she felt the need to apologize.

As an artist not everyone will "get" your work. I know that and I am bracing myself for that first negative review. I am waiting for the hit that will inevitably come. The one that tells me my book isn't worth the pages it is written on or that I am crazy or don't know what I'm talking about.

But this woman's view was not it. She simply didn't care for the book. That is fine! It's not for everyone. It is a strange book. I know that. It's not Twilight or The Hunger Games or The Princess Diaries. I understand that.

I wished I could have said something to help her understand more of what the characters meant to me but if you don't like the book, no amount of talking is going to make you like it. That is one of the great things about being an artist. Some people you will touch deeply and change their life forever. Some will take it in stride. Others will throw it on the trash heap. Whatever you do with the book the point is...you read it. That is what's important to an artist, is that you took the art, examined it and took the time to praise it or bash it.

The worst thing you could do to an artist's work is walk by it and not give it a second look.