Oatmeal Girl gets a glowing review, OR Structural Analysis of Literary Technique in Smut

There are three main stages to being an author:

1. writing
2. being published
3. being reviewed
   

Note that only the first stage is presented in an active verb form. Writing may be a struggle, but theoretically it is something over which the author has control. The other two are in the hands of the fates or the gods or the vagaries of the business.

In the case of my story that was published in the anthology Best S&M Erotica Volume 3: Still More Extreme Stories of Still More Extreme Sex, the writing was the easy part. It burst out of me in response to an assignment from the sadist, which in turn was a response to a poem which you can read here. Even being published was relatively easy, as Chris had invited me to submit something for the collection, and when my initial attempts at writing failed I asked if he would take this piece instead. I was too naive to be as worried as I should have been about whether it would be accepted or not.

Which brings us to the review.
For yes, there is now a review.
A quite glorious review
by Sharazade
which praises the book as a whole
and has some extra nice things to say about me.

It feels funny writing that here. It makes me feel shy... even though I know that I need to publicize the book and I do know that my story is good, and I quite agree with Shar's observations.

Anyway.

Please do go over to her blog and read the review. She is remarkably intelligent and perceptive and on its own the article makes great reading.

(Of course, I left out the fourth stage. Being read. Shar's review is her testimony to my having been read. It is her own way of saying "Good girl." And we all know how I like being called a good girl...)