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Albert Camus

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

she is supposed to die. - Always Kiss Me Goodnight by Megan Gaudino

All seventeen-year-old Sophia wants is to coast through her junior year. But with her parents obsessed with her Olympic-swimming-hopeful brother, a psychic best friend with a penchant for reading tarot cards, and prophetic dreams that predict her death—that won’t be easy.


Description:

Published: August 26th, 2015

Sophia Destino is supposed to die. 

All seventeen-year-old Sophia wants is to coast through her junior year. But with her parents obsessed with her Olympic-swimming-hopeful brother, a psychic best friend with a penchant for reading tarot cards, and prophetic dreams that predict her death—that won’t be easy. As her nightmares begin to come true, Sophia finds herself dodging death and longing for the time when getting over her ex-boyfriend was her biggest problem. Until she meets Leo Knight. The mysterious stranger seems determined to keep her alive—and steal her heart. But Leo has a secret that is about to change everything and Sophia is about to learn that sometimes…your number is up

GUEST POST
Take the Good with the Bad: Dealing with Criticism 

Always Kiss Me Goodnight is my debut novel and it was just recently published but that doesn’t mean I haven’t dealt with my fair share of criticism. Before my story was a book with its very own ISBN it was posted on Wattpad.com. The site is an amazing place for newbie and veteran writers to gain fans, make friends, and most notably acquire honest feedback from an extremely diverse group of readers all for free. But, just like everything else in life all the good of the site comes with some bad. 

I couldn’t be more grateful for all the feedback I received while Always Kiss Me Goodnight was posted on the site and honestly I don’t know if it would be published with all the Wattpad exposure. On a bad day when I felt like my writing was the worst, I’d read comments from people telling me how they fell in love with Leo and Sophia and I’d have inspiration to keep going or how my story made someone love reading again, those comments will always stay with me but not all comments were nice. People, especially people on the internet, can be mean. It’s a fact. 

It’s also a fact that someone will despise your writing. I know my story isn’t for everyone and I know there will be negative comments and reviews but you can’t let that keep you down. Dealing with criticism is just another part or being a writer and sometimes that criticism can push you to be a better writer. Now, if the comment is a plain and simple “this story sucks” well there isn’t much for you to work with there. Those are the kinds of comments you have to just shrug off and not take personally. I like to think that person just had a really terrible day and needed to vent off some frustration leaving my story the target. It happens. 

The in between comments were actually my favorite because they’d give me the most to work with. If i get a “I love this story so much” comment, it’s fantastic to hear but doesn’t tell me what to improve, but if someone says “I like the idea but there was a lot of head hopping” or “I love the action in this scene but there were a lot of boring parts,” I have concrete things to work with. In between comments are even useful after the story is published because then I know what readers want as I’m working on my next project. 

After all that is said and done though the mean-for-no-reason comments will sting. Your writing is a piece of you so it’s really difficult not to internalize the comments, but I just so happen to have a foolproof cure for dealing it. Go straight to GoodReads, search for your all time favorite book, select to read one star reviews, and laugh. Seriously it’s that easy. If someone can say such horrible things about one of your most loved books, well, of course there are going to be negative feelings toward your work. Everyone has different opinions, everyone has different tastes, and that’s okay. 

About the author:
Megan Gaudino works in a high school library by day and on her own books by night. She lives in Pittsburgh where you can find her reading, writing, and Instagraming.

Author's GiveawayS
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3 comments:

Stephanie LaPlante said...

Thanks for the awesome giveaway

Unknown said...

This sounds like a very interesting read. Thanks for the post and the giveaway!

Unknown said...

Looks like a really good read! I really wanna curl up with it!