It’s A Match!

So, as I briefly mentioned in my last post, I recently hooked up with Cina Pelayo after seeing her post on Twitter during January’s Critique Partner Matchmaker (#CPMatch) on Twitter (created by Megan Lally).

We started sending one another chapters of our books-in-progress and right from the start, we’ve been the perfect match. I mean, we both write spooky things, so we have this shorthand already built-in. I mean…we just get each other, you know?

I admit, I was a bit nervous sending her my book. Only 1 other person has read any of it. What if she hated it? What if I’d written 300 pages of garbage?

But I sent it to her anyway, the first 5 chapters. Then I hid…but…she didn’t email me back and tell me my words were an insult to the English language or anything. She didn’t send me an email back saying, “That was…interesting…”.  Instead, she sent me NOTES! Suggestions! Cool things she liked and other, insightful comments for things I can fix, or clean up, or just make…better.

Then she asked me to send her more!

Her notes to me have been so good. Like…SO GOOD. She just makes me want to get in there and make everything clearer and more detailed and bring out all the cool little things I originally imagined when I came up with this crazy idea, back when this seed was a short story begging to be a book.

She LIKES my book, warts and all. She can see the potential there. She’s actually EXCITED about what I’ve written. Guys. You don’t even know what that means to me (well, most of you, as fellow authors, probably do…)

Wait.

Hold on a minute…

Thinking about it all….

I’m getting a little verklempt!

Talk amongst yourselves. I’ll give you a topic. The jelly bean is neither made of jelly nor is it a bean. Discuss.

Okay. I fell better now 🙂

Anyway, long story short – it’s SO AMAZING to have someone read my book and want to know what’s going to happen next. It just spurs me on to get back to edits so you guys can read it too!

Not gonna lie, I did get a little teary this morning reading over more notes. Not in a depths-of-despair kind of way, but just so grateful for this new friendship and EXCITED that someone else is excited about my book, too!

So, what now? Well, this book still has a long way to go. But I’m determined now more than ever to finish it. How cool is that?!

Are you a writer looking for your own #CPMatch? Post your pitch on Twitter, complete with a few labels to find your perfect match. Check out Megan’s post for tips & info on how to get involved.

P.S. You guys are going to LOVE Cina’s book! And I get to read it first! BAHAHA!