Compliments

It’s not every day you get a compliment and especially about your writing.

I think my first compliment from someone who wasn’t familiar with my work was from my dentist. It was two years ago and I was having a crown done. The first week was pulling the old filling from the tooth and while we were waiting for the anaesthetic to take effect, I happened to mention I had published a book. After asking me its name and what the author name was, I was sitting in the chair and I heard his keyboard pecking. I said, “Are you googling it now?”

He said, “Of course I am.” I thought ‘wow! My dentist is reading my book!’

So a week later I go in for the other bit of work and as I walk into the workroom he says “I bought your book. I read all the samples and couldn’t put it down so I bought it.” I was gob-smacked.

Six months later, when we brought out the hard cover, I let him know. Six months after that, I signed that book for him.

A few months after that, a friend I had known for a very long time got a copy. He texted me in tears and told me “you’re not supposed to kill off major characters. And why him?” I was speechless. He told me when he’d finished that the book had him running the full gammutt of every emotion possible. My heart swelled.

Just last week, this friend and I were talking and he told me his daughter hadn’t yet read it and he was disappointed “because yours is so much better than that Twilight stuff.” Again, speechless. Now waiting for movie offers! Just kidding.

My whole point of writing is to entertain people. To take them out of our drudgery world of ‘work, sleep, eat, study, maybe play if there’s time’. If they enjoy the book at the same time, then I have truly done my job. Of course, the fact I enjoy writing has nothing to do with it.