Authors are not always as hardy as we look.  A bad review can be like a stake in our hearts.  So when I read a bad review on Amazon for The Hoarder's Daughter, I took it to heart. It was posted back in March, but it has stayed with me, making me feel like a failure as a storyteller.  : (

I recently had to do a very long, boring household task that took 9 or 10 hours.  Guess what I decided to have on in the background while I completed said task?  Nine or ten episodes of A&E's HOARDERS.  After that, I revisited my manuscript.

You know what?  I don't know what the Amazon reviewer who spewed such negativity wants from a short story, but what I had written was pretty true to reality.  (And I had done considerable research before I wrote the story.  While I have never lived with a true hoarder, I have lived with a person who had hoarding tendencies, so I could identify with the adult children as portrayed in the TV show.) 

Still, when given the opportunity, a writer will revise.  In fact, if I read any one of my works 100 more times, I'd still come up with yet more refinements and additions.  Guess what?  Over the weekend I read the story twice and added quite a few very minor changes.  I clarified a few points, and embellished a few descriptions, but when all is said and done, I'm proud of the story and it hasn't really changed all that much.

If you've already purchased a copy of The Hoarder's Daughter through Kindle, Nook, or Smashwords, you can download a new version for free.  (I'm not sure about Apple, Kobo, Sony, etc.  And it might take a few weeks for Smashwords to distribute the new version to those places.)

If you haven't yet bought the story  . . .   what are you waiting for?