Three weeks after vinishing my book and less than a week after returning from a two week trip to The Netherlands, I received my mom's notes with some corrections.
In all honesty, I am almost disappointed by the low amount of mistakes/ typos/ etc.
Not really haha! I spend a lot of time on this.
It's a good thing that she stuck to checking spelling and grammar only though and not rewriting my sentences, I guess.
Talking about that...
Two days ago, I got into a conversation with an old British ex-rockstar/ songwriter who hung out with the likes of Freddy Mercury and Cat Stevens ( if what he tells me is the truth, he has memory issues ).
It happened right here, in my little town, at my favorite terrace. I had met the man once, a month or two ago.
I could make this a long story, but suffice to say that ( despite his bad memory ) he remembered me talking about my writing and was curious to hear more.
Once I showed him an older draft of Hypersensitivosaurus and Cold Turkey, from months ago, on my E-reader and he got to see some of the illustrations, he became quite enthusiastic. He really liked my characters. In fact, he started reading and - without me asking for it - he began giving feedback on my writing, coming up with suggestions to make it an 'easier' read or to add more humor.
I especially liked the latter, but I also tried to explain to him that I am in the process of overcoming my perfectionism ( that has often stopped me from sharing stuff and, especially, finishing stuff ) and that I felt it's good enough the way it is.
My next book will be better ( written ).
I asked him, nevertheless, if he used E-mail ( kind of hoping he wouldn't ) and he replied that he didn't.
In other words, if I would give him a printed version of the book, next time we meet, he could come up with corrections.
I don't think that's going to happen, unless I decide to go for yet another print, in a couple of months.
In all honesty, I appreciated his offer and it might lead to a better book, but I'm not sure whether I want to collaborate with the guy, without going into too much detail.
My radar/ reading of people is pretty well tuned, these days, and there's something off with the guy, eventhough he probably means well.
It was an interesting meeting though and it lead to me reaching out to my mom, once again, to ask for her corrections, that I knew to be finished.
I just implemented the changes, not all of them, she made some mistakes too. I guess that I'll probably have to read through it, one more time ( tomorrow? ), before I'll go search for a print on demand place and continue to make the book available for people like you ;<)