Colin Matthews's Blog

Well, By George, George Will’s Worthy Well of Thought Will Well Up Widely, Winningly, One Hopes

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Pages 1 and 2 of The Constitution of the United States of America    (Courtesy US Archives)

As the waning calendar page days of 2013 turned over to 2014. I was putting the final touches on writing my first long piece of fiction, a novel called VICTOR’S STORY. At the time of my registering this work with the United States Copyright Office in March of 2014, it never occurred to me that someone like Donald J. Trump could ever be nominated, much less win the US presidential election in 2016. Nevertheless, that 2016 presidential election and its aftermath loom large in the fictional story I tell a few years before that event, about Victor’s life. Therein lies a president (pun intended) who represents grave danger to the US Constitution and its form of government that allowed, indeed propelled, the United States to be recognized as the most stalwart supporter and defender of democratic nations across the globe.

Jump to the ever present now, and I, among many, many others are still in utter disbelief, but also in reactive mode to the hurt that has been unleashed upon the state of the union of the United States of America, and upon the splendor of its magnificent Constitution. One of those others is a man, an extremely gifted writer and commentator for whom conservative principle mattered so much more than political party label, that he took the courageous step of renouncing membership in, and distancing himself from, the US Republican Party. And telling the world that he had done so. This party, called the Grand Old Party (GOP) from the 1870s onward and before that the party of President Abraham Lincoln, had become, with the nomination of Mr. Trump as its candidate for president, a party most would agree Lincoln would not recognize today as anything he could be associated with. By his action, George Will demonstrated he felt the same.

George Will Presents a Meaningful Way for the US Citizenry to “Quarantine” the Current US President

But even that already bold move by Mr. Will many months ago has been potentiated for me by another action he took in very thoughtfully providing all of us his 22 June 2018 opinion column in the Washington Post, entitled “Vote against the GOP this November”, and reprinted in some other newspapers as entitled “This November, vote for Democrats.” I urge all who read my post here to look at that commentary and see the brilliance of the writing, the depth of knowledge of the man, and the articulation of the argument. I disagree with what George Will has to say as many times as I agree with him, but I always enjoy how he says what he is thinking. He always has something interesting to say, regardless of topic. This particularly strong June column is a genuinely enlightening experience, rewarding to all the pleasure centers of one’s brain, and for those US citizens who weren’t already convinced, reason to vote as he says.

 

Back in September of 2016, I posted my first blog that had some words connected to thoughts of myself as turning out some interesting edibles for myself and/or my friends and family members. It was in a post entitled “Shiver”, but within that post I talked about my definitely worthwhile experience with preparing smoked pig BBQ in a special way, and about my fondness, along with others of similar bent, for eating it heartily.

I have not blogged about anything resembling foodie stuff since then; indeed, for too long I have not even posted a blog, period, until today. Well, here I’m going to break that dry spell for posting about cooking and eating — my cooking and eating.

Last night, after spending a good amount of time preparing a meatless meal based on Poblano peppers, lots and lots of cheese, and a bit of delicately spiced tomato sauce, and getting ridiculously yummy results, I thought to myself, “I bet I could serve this at my own restaurant and it would be a real hit, with folks always asking for it whenever they come for a great meal.” But then again, I don’t have a restaurant, so I figured I would share this absolutely original recipe in a blog post. I use the term recipe loosely here, as I have never really been one to use cookbooks or recipes much to get what I wanted in homemade meals. I tend to write stuff down only as an afterthought when I know I or someone else defines it as a keeper. I also tend not to be very accurate in that documentation as far as exact amounts are concerned. I mean, what is the difference between a teaspoon or two teaspoons among friends. I have been preparing this particular pepper and cheese meal at least once a year for a number of years. The first time was because I had been successful in growing a bunch of tasty poblanos. Other times I made it whether or not my poblanos grew well that year. Each year they seem to be tempermental with their successful growth in abundance. If I had to buy them to be able to make this dish, then that is what I did. I’ll emphasize here that all poblanos I have ever used, home-grown or store-bought, have never been too hot; in fact they are quite mild for a chile pepper, pretty low down on the Scovill scale, thousands of units below Jalapeno.

So, as hinted at above, keeping in mind that the format and content of this recipe might not look neatly structured or like any recipe the reader is familiar with seeing for any kind of meal up until now, here is my attempt to describe the ingredients and methodology in sufficient detail to have it reproduced closely enough to my original to end up with the right flavor and consistency, and kudos from those sampling a little or a lot of it. There will be a lot on each plate, leaving another leftover meal for those not wishing to really tear into it with gusto, and finish the individually plated serving at one sitting. Don’t let the fact that a microwave is used as part of the preparation; it still comes off as gourmet in taste and texture, and really looks good, with all the right colors for something leaning toward south of the US border. (Back pat_Back pat).

Ingredients (for 2 individual 10-11 inch plates):

4 large or 6 medium poblanos, cut in half lengthwise, seeds and white pithy ribs scraped out.

8 ounce can plain tomato sauce

11-12 oz. whole milk mozzarella cheese, grated

11-12 oz. Queso Fresco (Fresh Mexican Crumbling Cheese)

1 tsp powdered garlic*

1 tsp powdered cumin*

1 tsp powdered oregano*

½ tsp fine ground/powdered New Mexico chile (optional)*

½ tsp salt

2-3 tbsp lime juice

1-2 tsp sugar

1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

½ cup thin cut green onions

*All spices here are in powdered form so a smooth red sauce results.

Heat poblanos skin side up on a non-stick oven tray in a broiler until skin bubbles brown & breaks a bit. Let cool on tray. No need to peel. Anaheim peppers of the same size can be substituted, or a mixture of both woks as well.

Combine tomato sauce, spices, salt and sugar in microwave-safe bowl and heat in microwave on high for I minute. Put aside.

Arrange one quarter of the cooled poblanos as one layer spread across each plate touching side to side. Hand crumble one half of the Queso Fresco atop each of the plated pepper layers. Arrange each of the remaining one quarter batches of poblanos atop the first pepper-cheese layer on each plate and cover with a final mozzarella layer. Heat each plate until all cheese is well-melted and just starting to spread a bit on the plate.

Add lime juice to sauce, stir, and heat in microwave for an additional 30 seconds. Spoon onto plates around, but not on, the layered poblano and cheese. Garnish the top mozzarella layer on each plate with one-half the cilantro, and distribute the green onion garnish on the surrounding sauce.

Cover each plate and heat in microwave for ½ minute. Recipe yield: two really good size portions.

Sorry, no pictures. Everything was eaten before any thought of this blog post came to mind.

 

 

Let’s hear it for understatement! I’ve been away from my blog for a while.

But now I have something to share with any readers or followers who might enjoy a quick story of less than 1,000 words — a flash fiction piece I’ve titled FUTURE PAST. Depending on what my muse has in store for me, I could expand this to a longer piece that I have been thinking about for quite some time now. A longer, way more involved story about a young man who has a special gift that offers him very sporadic, yet unparalleled, insight into the future, but only when that future occurs in reality. Perhaps a second novel to accompany my first novel, completed close to five years ago and published a year or two later via Amazon’s CreateSpace, titled VICTOR’S STORY, a book that feels very lonely sitting all by itself at Amazon, and wanting some company.

Here it is. Hope you enjoy!

FUTURE PAST

“It doesn’t work like that”, Paul told his captor. Exasperated, he added, “I’ve been trying to tell you that all along, since you and your friend kidnapped me Tuesday night. I can’t just dial it up in my head and find out what’s going to happen sometime in the future, whether that’s tomorrow or the next day or a year from now. I’m only able to know for sure I’ve seen something before, or known ahead of time about some event, once it happens later. I keep telling you, I cannot predict the winning lottery numbers for this Saturday’s drawing.

“We ain’t takin your word on that. We know you’re lyin’ to us, and that jackpot is a billion dollars. You’ll give it up when we get to workin’ on you — there may only be two of us, but we can make you talk — we’ll beat it out of you if we have to.”

“Don’t you think if I could do what you’re asking me to do for you, I wouldn’t have already done it for myself, not just the lottery, but with lots of other stuff. Don’t you think I would have known you were going to kidnap me and hold me prisoner here, and made sure that would never happen?”

“Shut up! All your bullshit is not gonna make any difference with us. My friend and me, we gonna beat down on you hard until you tell us what we wanna know. I’m goin’ out to get me somethin’ to eat that ain’t the junk I been eatin’ here in this shithole. You ain’t goin’ nowhere chained up like I got you, so I ain’t got nothing to worry about.”

With that, the door slammed shut, rattling what looked to Paul like very weakly supported, nailed-in shelving on the wall nearest where he was restrained in an old wooden chair with two chains, each having a lock, and his feet wrapped around the front chair legs with a woven steel cable.

Other than his parents many years ago, before their untimely death when their cruise ship sank miles off the coast of Bermuda, it was only to one person Paul had ever confided his unique ability. His fiancé Janet was that person. Sharing quality time together for a year, Paul and Janet had a closeness that Paul considered extraordinarily special. It was with her alone that he felt secure enough to describe what it had been like, and was still — the reality of having what some might consider déjà vu operate sporadically at points in his life, as pre-viewed events that occur in actuality in the future. But what he experienced was definitely not déjà vu.

Alone now for the first time since he was abducted from his hotel in Armonk, a town in New York’s Westchester County, he wondered to himself, “How on earth do they know about me?  Did Janet let it slip somehow? Where am I? And what are they going to do to me? With me? Oh Jesus! They’re not going to let me live, knowing that I could certainly help law enforcement identify at least one of them for kidnapping.”

With those thoughts bouncing within his brain, and the knowledge that he might not get another shot at survival before one or both of his deranged abductors get back to the cabin, he quickly switched his thinking to how he might escape from captivity. Because even though they had him knocked into ga-ga land with some type of sedative or anesthetic, tied up, gagged and blindfolded with a flimsy bandana, and covered up lying on the floor of their vehicle, he was coherent enough to see that for the longest stretches of driving, the morning sun shone through from the right side. He figured they drove north or northeast for many hours. So, upstate New York, perhaps the far reaches of the Adirondacks, was his guess for where he was.

Rocking the chair steadily at first, and then violently sideways, he eventually crashed down along the wall to the floor, together with the loosely attached shelf. One of the chair legs had broken off completely from where it joined the seat. He hurt from the fall, and from the shelf striking his collarbone, but quickly ignored the pain to work frantically on freeing himself from the chains now that he could slip his legs from the cable around them.

Just as he worked himself free, he heard outside the most god-awful noise that sounded like a man screaming in pain. Limping as fast as he could away from the cabin, he stumbled upon the guy who went to eat, his bloodied leg caught in a bear trap. Taking his captor’s gun and phone, his driver’s license and car keys, Paul gave him two choices: “Tell me where we are, where your car is, how you and your jerk-ass friend found out about me, who he is, and where I can reach him, and I will let him know about you here; or, tell me nothing and I’ll leave you as is, no word to anyone.

From the remote heavily forested North Woods area of northwest Maine, Paul drove to the other guy’s apartment in Hartford, Connecticut and, finding it empty, to that guy’s girlfriend, the source of Paul’s now open secret. She confessed, “Janet let it slip about you after she had too much to drink one night. She’s been kept drugged, hidden and quiet somewhere by my boyfriend, to prevent her from alerting you. I don’t know where.”

Days later, Janet’s beaten disfigured body was found by city police investigators; she had been raped as well as murdered. Devastated by the news, Paul recounted his ordeal for the FBI and was cleared for his release. In his mind’s eye moments later, he saw himself exacting justified revenge. He did not know when or where that was, but he knew that it would happen, déjà vu-like, in the future.

via Daily Prompt: Recite

Whenever the news of the world upsets me, as it happens frequently nowadays, I unfurl my country’s flag and, standing at solitary attention, recite those solemn words that bind me to support of my nation’s leaders and their conduct, right or wrong. Ha! Just kidding.

There is no question that I wholeheartedly, with every fiber of my being, support my country and its constitution, and honor those long ago leaders who crafted the best form of government ever known. But current leaders, eh, not so much. And I use that term “leaders” with a heavy sense of hesitation as to the true meaning of that word, to refer to those running things in my country right now.

Well, enough of that. I just wrote those words to be able to hit all three of the most recent “One Word Prompts” from the Daily Post site: Recite-Solitary-Unfurl. I’ve never been able to do that before — three in a row. Only two, sometimes. Playing with words; always worth the effort.

Anyway, moving right along — I read today that people are getting so upset from the constant barrage of televised, streaming and social media reporting of never ending violence that they are seeking out psychiatric assistance to aid them in living their lives without anxiety and such. I wondered to myself why these folks don’t simply avoid those multiple sources of what appears to be sufficiently distressing information overload to have them turn to therapists for help, i.e., don’t make electronic devices such a large part of living, such an overpowering influence. Get outdoors and enjoy nature. Go for a walk, a drive, a bus ride. Read a book. Write some letters to someone who hasn’t heard from you in a while because he or she is not on Facebook or some other electronically supported social network — someone who is not addressable directly in the digital universe. Does such a person exist? I truly hope there are many in the circle of friends of anyone who is reading this right now.

Personally, I don’t exist for most everyone, as I don’t have a presence on social media, other than this blog site. Indeed, that is one very important reason that I am not very effective in marketing the novel that I have talked about in some previous posts. Check out those previous posts if you are interested in learning more about that situation, a situation that I find frustrating as a writer trying to say something in a suspenseful fictional biography that might have some relevance to current day politics in the United States. Or of an interesting life in general for someone whose life quite unexpectedly turns from interesting to scary.

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As a bill of Executive Branch support, successful through simple majority vote in both Houses of Congress, and as the US President’s signed executive order for National Park System policy — the Statue of Liberty was to be torn down, deconstructed for future storage, and in its place built a magnificent bronze sculpture of President Donald Trump. Already designed, and architecturally CAD-fitted to existing support structures on the old Liberty Island in New York harbor, it would be the largest, grandest, most artistically rendered statue of all time, one that promised to develop the richest patina ever seen, over the many, many years that it was expected to be viewed in awe by visitors to New York City. A re-naming ceremony, to be attended by “Invited English-Speaking Guests Only” is scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday, August 21st, from which time the Liberty Island-Ellis Island complex will be known as “Bann-Mill Island”.

 

Work has already begun inside the existing pedestal, part of which will be used for additional structural support for the President Trump statue, expected to be the heaviest such statue in the world — many times the weight of the soon-to-be-removed Liberty Statue. Activity is underway as well to repeal and replace the words from Emma Lazarus on the plaque mounted inside the pedestal. Famously made part of the plaque, it was determined by the Trump White House that, especially the last few lines of text from her 1903 sonnet, the ones that are most remembered, were outdated, and not in keeping with the new direction of the nation with regard to immigration.

 

Instead, work was commissioned for literary composition of suitably also soon-to-be famous wording for the fabulous new statue. Fox has gained an exclusive look at those words, and is able to share that news with the reader now, before anyone else:

 

With a smile. “Give me your hugely successful, your already rich,

Your powerful English speakers yearning to get more,

The aristocracy scratching an overpowering itch.

Send these, the landed and otherwise gentry to our door,

I turn my hands palm up and offer all without a catch!”

 

Stay tuned to this network for more on this exciting development.

via Daily Prompt: Foggy

Foggy, Foggier, Foggiest.

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As in — I haven’t the foggiest notion on our nation.

Some columnists have very recently expressed the view that honest to goodness members of what, in this summer of 2017, is known as the Republican Party in the United States, might wish to turn their back on that party for any number of reasons that I will not get into here, but that essentially have to do with its current nature, composition, and motivating forces. Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post is one of those columnists. Similarly, there is here in the US in fact a truly conservative columnist, with whom I disagree probably as much as I agree, but for whom I have the absolutely highest regard for his writing style and the cognitively smooth logic of his arguments, even for those with which I don’t readily find comfort. And of course, his vocabulary. The name of that columnist is George Will. He actually gave up on the Republican Party, and terminated his long-running membership, because of what he saw happening with the party as its ideology soured with an unforgivable twists and turns, and acceptance of the man who would be president. Some say the party is in need of a fix, even if that means turning out the fringe and whatever else might pull it further down, and replenishing it as something else entirely — a different party altogether, with a new name perhaps. Talk about “repeal and replace” Wow!!!

Hold on, here goes, I’m going to talk about my novel, VICTOR’S STORY, again. Only enough to say that in it, there are major political party changes occurring around our current times, and out of the turmoil arise two new and very different parties. And that makes for some surprisingly interesting politics — campaigns, elections and aftermaths included. The results of the presidential campaign creates a scary scenario. And some frightening results lasting way too long for some of the major characters. See for yourself! It’s available at Amazon as paperback and e-version.

Sorry for the marketing for those who might object to such things on a blog post, but as I indicated in my last post, I really am trying to get potential readers to know of the book’s existence, and to understand how it might relate to the awfulness of politics and self-interested governing that devolves to danger as it is left to fester.

 

 

via Daily Prompt: Lust

His lust is of a peculiar kind …

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Yes, very peculiar, because I lust after something not normally associated with serving as the object of one’s sensuous desire. Nevertheless I do passionately itch to have people become readers of my first novel, VICTOR’S STORY. And so, that is where the story of my lust currently takes us.

[Of course, there is a fair bit of normally defined lust within the novel’s story itself]

For anyone who might have noticed, I have been away from my blog for quite some time, many months actually. I have been at a definite impasse with writing of any kind as I attempted to sort out where any writing might go.

While I have been pondering the possibility of writing another novel or some short stories, I could not help but be more moved, lustfully, by the continuing challenge of how much I wanted to have potential readers at least become aware of the existence of that first novel and somehow get hooked on keeping it in front of their eyes until they dropped it, or their heads, fast asleep.

 

So I decided to run an advertising campaign at Goodreads. Privately, I named the campaign “Read Me Now”. At first, within this campaign, I did an ad or two. Then I did a few more. Finally a few more along with those. On a daily basis, the number of ads for other books on Goodreads that my ads were competing with for attention totaled more than 13,000.The in-a-nutshell type copy for these individual ads had limits imposed as to the total number of words that could be used as grabbers of readers’ attention. The six I ran over a period of about 45 days in June and July this year were as follows:

A shockingly good read. Captivating!  What dangers lurk in an up-to-the-minute modern American presidency running amok. Find out in VICTOR’S STORY. Lucky for us it’s fiction.
Suspense and surprises abound.  What can so strongly move a man to do something so alien to his character, so outside his realm of prior experience? Read VICTOR’S STORY.
A real eye-opener for current times.  Victor’s dedication and passion for life worth living. Max’s corruption. Crime. Power. Danger. Good vs. Evil. All on display — vividly!
A fascinating life lived suspensefully. An easy-going man experiences life-changing events that unfold spectacularly and grow to define his very being. See how in VICTOR’S STORY.
VICTOR’S STORY A fully-fleshed fictional biography takes some abrupt turns as suspense fills the air and Victor emerges as a champion for his country.
Could this happen? Ever wonder? With eager associates, Victor is about to launch his well-developed plan to kidnap the U.S. President. Why? Find out in VICTOR’S STORY.

These adverts were put out there for views on Goodreads over three hundred thousand times, where “views” represents the number of times my ad was shown over the 45-day duration of the campaign, which is now paused. The views were clicked on roughly 150 times throughout the now-paused campaign, yet I never saw that anyone added it to his or her to-read list. What does it take? I lust after that answer.

Living in the United States, I thought that, with way the country is being run, I would get at least a few folks who wanted to read all about the kind of fiction shown in the ads, or on the back cover copy, or in the book preview that is available when clicked. No Goodreads takers. That disappointment has not helped my motivation for more writing. Can anyone out there satisfy my lust?

I do hope to write some more. My personality is such that losing hope is not an option in any way, shape, or form. Delays, maybe.

And perhaps some more blogging.

via Daily Prompt: Aware[image error]

When I was finishing up my first novel, VICTOR’S STORY, in late 2013, I was not aware of what the future might hold for United States Government policy decisions coming down the pike in the political arena of 2017. Having pretty much completed the novel except for some editorial fine-tuning, I had it copyrighted in March of 2014. I had planned on doing some more editing before publication, so it sat for a while awaiting my procrastination to die a natural death. That took close to two years, so that final publication did not happen until June 0f 2016. Yes, I know, shame on me!

Part of the delay in actually moving determinedly to have it published finally was also attributable to my personal dithering as to what genre it should be marketed under. It was the fictional biography of a well-developed main character taking place over a long period of time. But it was written as well for folks who enjoyed political corruption and serious crime solving as part of a gestalt of suspense introduced at the very beginning of the novel. Mixing those genres is fraught with the danger of losing those readers who want their suspense to come fast and furious, and that does not happen in VICTOR’S STORY.

An acquaintance who I see only once or twice a year just recently finished reading the novel and asked me if I, having authored the story, am afraid of it all. I did not quite get what she meant immediately, so I guess I had a slightly puzzled look on my face that betrayed my getting ready to ask, right before she explained. Last week, in giving me her “Wow!” comments, she made me even more aware that finding the right genre is so important. She suggested that, with what we in the United States are all too aware of now, regarding what was happening in real life, and what she saw happening in the pages of my novel, I might better have marketed it as political intrigue. She thought that I should do that so a lot more people would get to read what was there. Personally, to be quite honest she said, because it happened to her, she thought the relatively slower-going biographical material in between the introduction of suspense in the first chapter, and the growing suspense later, in the second half, might result in putting off some readers, and that it is important in current political times in America being made great, that that does not happen.

As the author, sensitive to the dangers inherent in trying to market a genre hybrid, I see her point, but I certainly hope that combination does not put off too many readers.

via Photo Challenge: Solitude

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In the middle of nowhere, I find the solitude I crave sometimes. Or need at some other times. Walking in the sand dunes on the outer banks of North Carolina provides particularly peaceful passage to a desirable frame of mind.

Am I an introvert? I don’t believe so. At least not from what I’ve seen described in the relevant psychology literature. I rather like to think of myself as an ambivert, someone at any given time somewhere along the continuum bookended by the two states defined as introvert and extrovert. Friends who know me when I am loosened up at a gathering where I am enjoying some wine or beer or infectious camaraderie, laugh when I try to convince them I am not normally an extrovert by anyone’s definition. I like to go out with folks to do interesting things. I like to stay home alone. I like to do both in some kind of combination. The latter only looks like a contradiction when put into words.

At times like the times I spend alone with nature, I relish the thought of being alone, in my own private solitude — is that a redundancy? — left to my thoughts and the world around me. When I am writing, this is especially important, as I collect my thoughts for later outpouring for whatever parts of my thinking I can remember when I get back to civilization and attempt, in a hoped-for fit of productivity, to write it all down. When I wrote my first novel, VICTOR’S STORY, those periods of solitude were the lubricant for my wheels of creative and compositional progress.

It really is quite simple: At times I enjoy others’ company immeasurably. At other times I enjoy my solitude.

It has been a while since I posted anything to this blog. My writing seems to have come to a screeching halt in general. So it shows here first and foremost because blog-posting kind of reflects the current state of affairs in my mind, where the creative juice flow has been stoppered, temporarily I hope — pre-empted by a frustration with wondering how to proceed with another project, i.e., writing a second novel. I have been thinking about trying to put in words some ideas that I have been musing about lately, and am at a loss for how to proceed from my current predicament.

That predicament relates to the unanswered question in my mind as to whether I tell a story that has a naturally evolved tie-in to the ending of my first novel, VICTOR’S STORY, which ends in the year 2021, or I start from scratch with no connection whatsoever to that novel. Either way, the new story, at its most suspenseful moments, would have as a driving force the comings and goings of a strong female character.

I want to decide which way to go soon. There is one problem, though, and it has to do with my lack of feedback as to how readers feel about the suspenseful lead up to the ending of that first novel, and the ending itself. Do readers want to know more about the direction the country takes, and Nadia’s role in that direction, immediately following the conclusion of VICTOR’S STORY? I don’t have that feedback — the knowledge of whether readers enjoyed the book enough for me to think about a second novel that might be able to take advantage of the lack of full situational closure for Nadia at the end of the first. Sometimes I think it might be advantageous to be able to build on that.

Other times I think …

Or not. As I mentioned above, perhaps in the absence of knowing, I should just go ahead and make new fiction having nothing to do with what was going on at the end of VICTOR’S STORY. Just tell a brand new story where the only thing it has in common with that is a female character with guts and gusto that the reader will appreciate as much as, I really, really, hope they did with Nadia.

And that is what has been occupying my thoughts lately.

While the conduct of the US presidential campaign, and the results of the recent election, might have been a surprise to some few, or to many, they pale in comparison to those that unfold spectacularly in 2016 and soon thereafter in VICTOR’S STORY.

For those who might have an interest in reading a multifaceted story that is a hybrid of fictional biography and suspense, please do consider getting a copy of my novel, paperback or e-version at Amazon, and even more importantly, letting me know what you think. For those who have already read it, what do you think? I would be eternally grateful for any kind of feedback that would help untangle my writer’s brain right now. I have one five-star rating on Goodreads, but no reviews. I’m in desperate need of readers’ opinions.