A Little Appreciation

I've been feeling guilty about not having anything exciting to blog. Sure I have book reviews to add and Curious Endeavourances to update, but nothing that has seemed "new" to me. Then, quite recently, something unexpected happened...

No, I'm not pregnant, and no celebrity dropped out of the sky to tell me that all of my troubles are over. So if you were hoping for something epic to follow this introduction, I'm sorry. Insert disappointment here. 

So now that we've lowered our expectations for this tale, this is where it all began:

...and if you watched this:

...or read this: 

you'd realize that this probably isn't a very good start to anything. I wasn't overly impressed with this re-telling of the Shakespearean classic due to my own personal biases, and so I rated the text, left my review, and moved on. It was just one month's book club pick, chosen specifically because I had to teach MacBeth in that month so it was a decision made by my cohorts to ease the amount of reading on my plate, to choose something I'd be reading anyways. I respect the work and appreciate a lot of the creativity in the interpretation of the original play, I'm just still getting used to graphic texts. It might be no surprise to you that my greatest strength in the multiple intelligences test is linguistic - I'm not very visual. And so this text and I had to agree to disagree. It happens...

...then one of the creators of the text contacted me...

*insert expletive here*

After the previous encounter with an author I didn't rate well, I was ready to enter a battle-zone. But then this happened:

... not what I was expecting, but I was warmed by this. It reminded me of the balance between reader and writer. It is a relationship between strangers, but a potent relationship, because even if the two never meet, they are connected through art, and art is nothing less than a glimpse at the soul. No, this book was not for me, and having your art rejected admittedly is one of the most heartbreaking things you can experience. Robert Deas's response shows a level of character that I believe few people possess. My soul was not touched by this book, and there's nothing I can really do about that, nor can Deas, but I gave it a try and met it with honesty. It's easy to jump at praise, feeling grateful and proud. It can also be easy to jump at the negative, either in a lashing out, or in a purposeful denial/avoidance of it. Deas's response was unexpected, and in many ways, unmerited since I would never think an unflattering review from me would be worth acknowledging. But it wasn't just me: 

it's the whole Curious team! And not just us, he went through his reviews and reached out to anyone who gave him and his work a little bit of their time. This show of appreciation really got to me. It's such a small gesture and yet, my respect for someone I've never met, whose name I probably wouldn't have even recognized if someone brought it up during conversation, has increased tenfold. 

I responded, not because I felt like I needed to make up for my bad review, but because I felt like maybe that too would be appreciated. I still don't love the book, but I'm all the more willing to suggest it to others who might better suit the readership than I do. 

I was talking to a friend about it. Nothing extensive, just a "isn't that nice?" comment about the exchange. And without thinking too much on it, I added, "I would totally do that, just show a small sign of appreciation to anyone who even bothered to give my work a try." But I hadn't. Not that I have a posse of raving fans. I have sold about 60 books total, and few care to review or rate. Even my giveaway readers showed very little sign of life once the books were sent out. I discovered, due to some glitch, that all rating details about my book Freakhouse are off. Apparently I have -1 reviews, which makes no sense if I can see at least 1 review on it. Anyways, one of my giveaways did get read, and it did get rated. It's been over a month, and I never got a notice about it, but I did see it. I decided to pull a Robert Deas. I just said "thank you". I was nervous about it, wondering if it bordered on creepy, as, quite frankly, I often talk myself out of initiating contact with anyone just out of the concern of being bothersome or intrusive (in case you're wondering why I don't call). But I'm glad I did it. Apparently I'm not the only one who was glad of it either:

To Robert: I'm sorry that I didn't enjoy MacBeth more, but thank you for creating it, and thank you for inspiring me. 

To Sara: I already thanked you for reading my work, but thank you for showing me that a small act of appreciation is always welcome. 

I will do my best to keep this going. It feels like the right thing to do.