The Scariest Thing

It's October, that time of the year when we relish in scaring and in being scared. The time of year when we pay good money for people to jump out of the shadows and frighten us. The time of year when we dust off all of those scary movies and cuddle in the darkness on the couch gripping onto our significant other. The time of year when we dress up in scary, or extremely not scary, costumes.

With all of this fear in the air I thought it was an appropriate time to talk about one of the scariest things for a writer....reviews! For the average person it may not seem like reviews would be that scary, but for a writer they are nerve wracking. It's even uncomfortable for me to talk with someone who mentions that they've read my book.

"Hey Ashley, I just finished your book." Says a longtime friend.
"Oh." I reply as my throat gets dry and I start looking for an exit. Why does this person want to talk to me about my book? Are they trying to torture me? Do they just want to laugh in my face, or do they want to point out everything that's wrong with my beloved creation?

Even if that person says that they really liked my book, I still feel extremely uncomfortable and long for the conversation to either end abruptly or move onto a completely different topic.

And I'm not alone. A friend of mine was so nervous about reading a review that he'd gotten from Kirkus that he made his wife read the review first so that she could tell him whether or not it was good.

So you can imagine my terror when I noticed that I had a few new reviews on Goodreads. Instinctively I closed my Web browser and justified my action by telling myself that I didn't care about reviews anyways. I tried to tell this lie to myself for a few minutes while I argued in my head. Finally I told myself that I was being a sissy and logged back in to Goodreads. And then I slowly made my mouse hover over the word "Reviews." And finally I clicked.

And there they were, three new reviews. I forced myself to read them and even though they were really good reviews, I still felt a little panicked after I'd finished...probably just the rush of adrenaline from wading through the dark halls of Goodreads waiting for a horrible Review to jump out at me. It was the scariest experience I've had this October.

And what were those scary Reviews that haunted me?

Terrell Sanzone: "I received my copy of this book through the Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for an honest review. If you have not yet read nor put this book on your 'To Read' list DO IT NOW! This is a wonderfully fluid read, lots of plot, characters and main character sarcasm to get you through Summer heat, Fall depression and anything else you've got bogging you down!"

Thelma Melendez: "Doctor Brian is an unwitting hero that I couldn't help but root for. His plunge into the world of secret societies is action-packed and dramatic. I was caught in the whirlwind of the madness surrounding him and was glued to the page. Would highly recommend!  *I received a copy of this book via Goodreads Giveaways"

Katrease: "So I got this book for my birthday and I honestly hadn't heard much about it, but now I can say that it was a great book, amazingly written, and very creative. :) I totally recommend it to anyone who is looking for something to read. It was awesome!"

Terrifying...Absolutely Terrifying! Wouldn't you agree?