No, I didn't give up blogging for Lent.

Life interrupted.

To re-cap the novel situation:

We're in Beta-read mode. I transformed The Mist manuscript into five paperback copies and distributed them to select members interested in providing feedback to the author...me.

I'm nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous (Thank you, Mr. Poe).

Kind of like when you're waiting for an answer from your boss about a possible job promotion or potential layoff.

Or like one of those high school deals where you left that secret someone a note in her locker, asking her to the dance, and minutes later you cross paths with her in the hallway, and she gives you that look and it sends you scurrying into the paranoid corner of your mind. What did she mean by that? Her eyes looked crazy! Oh, she hates me...that sort of thing.

So that's how I'm feeling when I run into those individuals clutching my paperback manuscript as they quicken their steps down the hall, or turn their head when I smile in their direction.

And the silence, that's killer too.  I mean, i don't want to hover around them, asking questions.  In my head I'm asking  how far in the book have you gotten so far?  What do you think?  But thankfully my mouth doesn't cooperate and I instead stammer something about pitcher John Lackey's inability to get anyone out in the game the night before.

It also doesn't help that I'm going through that everything-I-write-sucks phase, too. 

Take this blog entry, for example.....lol.  Yeah, good one, eh?  No, really.  it was good, right? Wait, it's bad, isn't it? You hate it.  Be honest.  C'mon, I'm craving feedback.  I can take it. 

Wait.

No I can't.