Greatest Compliment Ever…

I must say, that today, a few minutes ago, actually, I received the greatest compliment ever…

So last night, like usual, I send my mom what I’ve already written of book 5 of Parched. She’s a black belt reader, and my first-line editor and proofreader.  She tells me when I need more backstory on this or that or I understand why this or that happened. This needs to be made more clear. And then there’s the fixing the there instead of their, and that kind of stuff. This is before it goes to the editor and still… The business of words is tough, the road to perfection long. I mean, five errors that I saw in The Catcher in the Rye and that book has been around for almost a hundred years! (Man I love that book. Love it.) Dear Publishers, please publish it in E-format so that I can read it on my Kindle over and over and over again.

But she’s my mom, and I’m one of her babies.

She knew me before I knew myself.

(Think about that)

Isn’t that deep when you think about it????

I always wondered how could she separate me from my prose. I mean, could she read my stories and not see parts of me? Not wonder if I’m revealing some deep dark secrets.  Is she looking for clues into who I’ve become over the years????

And then today, she sends me this cute email. You know those mass emails that people send from time to time. It was titled, “Things My Mother Taught Me.”

Anyway, normally, I’ll delete those emails right after reading the first couple of words, dismissing them as a gross waste of my time.  But this one was quite funny and interesting because, yeah, I think my mom did about half of the stuff on the list! And so I wrote her back to say, “funny!”

So she writes me back and says….

And here’s the compliment…

I am reading your new book, how do you think of these things? Going home now.

Why is that the greatest compliment ever?

Because she’s my mom, and this tells me that when she reads my work, it’s written to where she’s able to separate the prose from her daughter.

I like that.

That’s HUGE on so many levels.

Sigh….

Now it’s time to get back to work.