There'd Be Days Like This, My Momma Said...

Happy Mother's Day to mothers of children, both the two- and four-footed kind. On Mother's Day I'm reminded of the kind of things mothers always said. Such wisdom for the ages as: "Wear clean underwear, what if you're in an accident?"  "Why? Because I told you so!" And one of my favorites, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." Well, that's all well and good for polite company, but it doesn't do much good for book reviews...which brings me to the point of all this. Recently I received the dreaded horrible review. Yes, all authors know it is coming some day, but when you actually sit down and read the venemous words another human being is saying about your creation, your story, it stings. A lot. Every book is not every reader's cup of tea. I think we all realize this, but when you sit down to write a review, even an unfavorable one, say something helpful. Like when your mother criticized your clothes, your hair, your eating habits, she did it out of love and in an effort to IMPROVE you, not tear you down. That's my beef. This review did not say anything I could act on to improve my story and writing. The reviewer told me she cheered at the end of the novel not because of the events that unfolded but because she would not have to engage with my main character any longer. Ouch. But she did not say why she disliked the main character. Was she two-dimensional? Did she fail to grow with the story? Was she boring? That type of criticism doesn't help a bit. She also wrote that my writing was difficult to read. Huh? Okay, enough licking old wounds, you get the point. When I write a review, I first take into account the experience of the author. Is the author a big name with all the support a large publisher can bring to the table, such as a first rate developmental editing staff, copy editor, and glitzy graphic designers? Or is the author putting out a debut novel, maybe even self-published? I adjust my expectations accordingly. Also, if I have something unfavorable to say, I back it up with why I feel that way and often gives examples from the writing. Writers need reviews for marketing and for improving their craft. We don't need trolls sitting out there in cyber land waiting to take pot shots at us. If the bad reviewer scares us into a hole where we become afraid to publish our work, they've won. They've become akin to literary terrorists. So, dear writer friends, stay brave and put your stories out there. Make your mothers proud!

L. R. Trovillion
www.lrtrovillion.com

It is my turn to post and it happens to be Mother's Day. I would be remiss if I ignored the opportunity to say something about the influence of mothers on this, their day.  I'm posting a picture of my mother that I especially like because it was a time when she was young and happy and had all the promise of life in front of her...also, because she is sitting on a horse.

My mother was not an accomplished horsewoman, but she had a love of horses, especially in her youth.  I hope I've passed that on to my own daughter, whose first horseback riding experience was "in utero" (perhaps not such a smart idea) and who later spent years in pony club, junior equestrian teams, and eventing.  By high school she traded in her ratcatcher and boots for a rugby shirt and cleats, but I believe her years of riding, training, and showing horses gave her a certain mental toughness that is hard to duplicate. More than that, competing in a sport with a horse--another living thing as your partner--teaches you that you are not the center of the universe.  This is often a critical lesson to learn during certain teenaged years. Thank-you to the horses. Here's a picture of me and my daughter from years ago, at a time when we were both able to enjoy riding together. (Yes, I know my hair should be tied up under the helmet. I had taken it off, and just popped it back on to mount and pose for the picture.) 

Horses have figured in the mother-daughter relationship in our family for two generations now, so it is no happenstance, I suppose, that it figures prominently in my novel, False Gods. Relations between mothers and daughters have been endlessly explored, examined, picked and pulled apart under the microscope of the novelist as well as the movie producer.  It has provided rich, fertile ground to till for stories...and yet, there always seems to be more to say about the myriad and diverse relationships between these two female family members.  The mother in False Gods has difficulty with her two daughters, but instead of it being the teenagers who are the troubled ones, it is instead the mother who suffers from emotional problems to the extent that she doesn't even notice the damage she's inflicting until it is almost too late. I won't give anything more away, except... speaking of giveaways (warning: this is where the self-promotion comes in), a contest is now running on Goodreads until May 13th to win one of seven copies of False Gods for free.  I'd love to hear what other people have to say about their mothers, their relationships, and whether horses were a part of it. 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23846365-false-gods?from_search=true&search_version=service