Ego boosts

Recently I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from my Stormy Weather readers. They all seem to like the story and the characters (most of the characters, anyway) and they had lots of good ideas for how to beef up the story and shore up the plot. The best part of letting people read my stuff is seeing how invested they become in this story that's come outta my head. You know how when you and a friend read the same book and you talk about it afterward--"Did you like the guy in the place with the thing?" "Oh, yeah! Totally! And the dude, what was his name, the Mattress? He killed me!" I love that--no two people read any story the same way, and hearing other people's takes on a book is awesome. However, it's even better when you share that sort of thing with a story that's been written by one of the involved parties. When the readers see everything you've tried to convey, that's great. But when they see more than what's on the page, well ... that's the magic. It's the reason I love to read. And it's the reason I love to write. One of 'em, anyway.

Now that I've gotten all my reviews back, it's time to get crackin'. I've got back story to think about, scenes to write, a climax to deconstruct and rebuild, and villains to flesh out. What was it ... a finished, polished manuscript by September 1st? Another draft out to readers by August 1st? I think I can actually pull this off ...