It might be that the Quarterfinal stage is the furthest I get
The Publisher's Weekly review has come in for it, which is how they move people up to the next stage.
The review of my medieval young adult novel, "Finding Peace", seems quite short compared with others have posted on Amazon. Also, like a few other authors mentioned on theirs, it seems to be 99% a plot summary. I'm at least grateful that, in my case, the plot summary seems to be fairly accurate. There's a minor issue that the reviewer says the whole story is about getting to Claire, when actually the character reaches Claire in Chapter 2 and the rest of the novel is about other parts of the adventure. Still, a minor nit.
Here's the review.
"Set in medieval times, this fast-paced novel features a fiercely independent protagonist who has to overcome incredible obstacles to find happiness - some put in place by others and some that are her own doing. Elizabeth has been a fighter from a young age, learning swordplay under her loving brother's tutelage and in spite of her mercurial father's contempt. After her brother's death, she flees on horseback from her father's keep and from an engagement turned sour, stopping at inns along the way and pressing ever eastward to the ocean and the one friend she has left in the world, Claire. Along the way she meets friends as well as foes, and through these relationships she is forced to learn to quiet her hot temper and open up to people and allow them to help her. Though there are some inconsistencies in the plot and more than a few passages of overly ornate language, this novel moves along with pleasing energy, and the moral is an admirable one of female empowerment and self-sufficiency. Overall, it's adequate but not inspiring."
I've been writing my medieval novels for a while - I have 12 of them out now. So I have already gone through all the highs and lows of people liking or disliking my stories. I'm fairly content that I write what I want to write. That being said, I always want to strive to be as good as I can, since these are done to benefit battered women's shelters. So with that in mind, I have two thoughts here.
One - they point out my ornate language in places. I admit I enjoy the ornate language and I'm not nearly as bad as many other authors out there. I consider my use fairly mild. If they want me to trim it out altogether, I'll just agree to disagree. We all have different styles we like to read and that's ok.
Two - this is more confusing to me. They point out "inconsistencies in the plot." When I write my medieval novels I spend about a year solid on them. I read, re-read, polish, re-polish, so I've probably been through this particular novel 100 times or more. I won an IPPY Silver with it so it got even extra polishing work before I submitted to IPPY. It would be really bizarre to me after all of that if somehow I missed a plot hole. Certainly it can happen - authors can sometimes be a bit blind with their own material. But I strive hard to seek those out and fix them. I am quite baffled where there could be plot issues with this. I'm not writing an incredibly complicated Russian spy novel with eight layers of deceptions
. The characters have depth but it's a quite manageable depth. There shouldn't be plot issues. I definitely have researched medieval life in general for decades now. So I'm honestly confused by this and would love to know *what* they thought was inconsistent. It would be nice if there was a way to get more feedback on this.
Did any of you read this? Could some of you read this? Does anybody see any inconsistencies? None of my own readers can find any.
Adequate is certainly better than inadequate. If this reader didn't connect with the language then it makes sense he wouldn't feel inspired - he probably felt "slightly annoyed" when he hit those phrases
. So I'm content with that.
Again, I want to make clear that I'm not dismissing constructive criticism. I avidly and eagerly absorb any helpful notes I can get about improving my stories. I'd just like to know what to work on, besides of course removing my occasional instances of ornate language
.
Lisa
