Pearls My Mother Wore

I received a pleasant surprise in the mail this week, a favorable critique of Pearls My Mother Wore by a Writer’s Digest (WD) judge.  Back in March of last year I entered the 18th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards contest.  It cost me $125, plus a copy of Pearls My Mother Wore, plus shipping.  When the contest was over, I was offended that, as a non-winner, I heard absolutely nothing from them, not so much as a “Thanks for participating” letter.  Well, that changed this week.

Judge #47 read my novel and gave it some very high marks and praise.  I wasn’t aware of how the novel would be evaluated for the contest, but now I see from my WD letter that there were four categories of achievement: Plot, Grammar, Character development, and Production quality and cover design.  A scale of 1-5 was used — 1 being “poor” and 5 being “excellent.”  I was given two 4′s and two 5′s!  Plot and grammar were both 4′s, and Character development and Production were both 5′s.

Furthermore, here is what judge #47 had to say:

“Pearls My Mother Wore by Terry Sue Harms has a really attractive cover design, and although I would cut the first sentence, the write-up on the back cover is very good, giving the impression of a sensitive and intelligent, as well as poignant, novel.  On the whole, the reader’s expectations to find those qualities are met.  The author deftly intertwines past and present to demonstrate the way people never escape their pasts.  Events decades old can profoundly affect an individual on a daily basis, and in making that point, the author succeeds in creating believable characters, providing impressive insight into human nature, and evoking truth:” [a quote from the novel follows that colon, but I'm omitting it because it gives away some of the ending.]

Under “How can the author improve this book?” the judge said:

“At times, the author depends a bit too much on narrative summary to get the story told.  The novel is strongest when the author creates vividly dramatized scenes.  In general, the author should try to be more conscious of evoking sensuous details, making her reader not only see but also feel, taste, smell and hear.  Nonetheless, the author has, I believe, probably fulfilled her intentions in the novel and has reason to be proud of her work.”

How cool is that?!  Somebody at the magazine really did read my book.  This is some seriously positive feedback.

BTW, the first sentence of the back cover reads: “Pearls My Mother Wore is about loss and recovery, resentment and forgiveness.”  You never know with these things.  I thought it was a concise statement about the book’s overarching themes.  I’ll wonder about its appropriateness some more, but if anybody cares to chime in on the subject, I’d be all ears (well eyes actually.)

On to another subject.  Lutrell and I visited his aunt and cousins up in Carson City, NV this week.  Carson is about a four hour drive from Sonoma.  Along the way we stopped at Nevada Beach State Park on the south shore of Lake Tahoe for a picnic.  The sunshine was off and on, but it was lovely all the same.

One afternoon we took a hike out King’s Canyon in Carson.  There is something about the eastern slopes of the Sierras that just knocks me out.  I like how uncluttered it is.  Spare with full open vistas, the area makes me feel expansive and light.

And one final note before closing for the week.  Tomorrow will be this blog’s one year anniversary.  I’ve posted every Friday except for the one time I was on vacation in Sierra City where there was no internet service.  Although I’m now comfortable with Facebook, this blog always feels like home.

Have a great week.  Thanks for reading.  I’ll post again next Friday.  And as always, your “comments” are welcome anytime.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 21st, 2011 at 8:43 AM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.