As of...oh, I believe less than eight months ago, no one had read more than 2 pages of my fiction.

Now my pages lay naked for public scrutiny! And it IS very much like walking naked down the street...at least for me. I must say that due to the kindness of my wonderful friends it has not been nearly as brutal as I thought it might be.

My three novels, which form The Sibylline Trilogy, while still in their infancy, I entrusted to my daughter who was nine months pregnant and not doing well. She didn't. I continued to pester her about it.

Finally, after the baby was born, she asked me to send it to her in email form, so that while she was doing late night feedings she could read on her iPhone.

The next morning she said, "Send me more! I like it!". That is how she got hooked on the first novel. When I returned home from my daughters a few weeks later, I asked my husband to read it. After several requests I sat down with him...very unfair of me, but I wanted to see if he laughed where I thought it was funny and if he picked up the tension when he should.

He read the first few chapters and laughed appropriately, and appeared tense at the right moments. Then he said, "This is your gift! This is what you need to do!" He actually said much more that I won't bore you with...my husband is very expressive!

My point is that having these two people that I trusted to read my work IS the reason that I was able to write a 1000 page trilogy in less than a year when I couldn't even complete a 300 page novel before!

Having the right sounding boards help you steer characters in the right direction, even when you don't quite see it, and helps you know when you need to increase the emotion. Hopefully your sounding boards communicate with love and encouragement.

I will tell you in the early days (just a few months ago, lol), I was hyper-sensitive to any criticism! I now have some faith in my work and that has helped tremendously.

Still, I am my own toughest critic. When I received my first proof, I cried for a week while telling both my husband and daughter, "This is amateurish! Why didn't you tell me!" They tried to tell me that they thought it was fine. But I will tell you, I was sick when I read the first proof!

The good news is that finally with the hard copy I am very pleased and proud of the first book!

I now have a few other people that I permit to read my work. I have found that I need the critical reviews. I count on them, in fact! They help me know if I am on the right path. But I ONLY take those suggestions from people that I trust and who know to leave the "brutal" out of it!

In order for me to hear the criticism I also need those cheerleaders that believe in my work no matter what! God bless them! I will often run the critical reviews by the cheerleaders.

Still I find that in the end, I need to be happy with it. At this stage, I trust my evaluation, and that was a giant leap forward!

Regardless of other opinions, if I like something and want it in, I leave it there and/or rework it to make it work better.

The terror that very nearly consumed me the first weeks after the release has finally subsided, for the most part. I no longer check my book stats dozens of times a day, looking for reviews and sales. I am grateful every day for the wonderful reviews and ratings!

One last note: I had the silly idea that I needed to "learn how to write" before I continued writing my novels. I have discovered that this is bunk! Write! Work on improving what you've written. Grammar and book formatting knowledge is VERY helpful. Before submitting your book to an agent, I recommend hiring an editor, particularly if your knowledge of grammar is weak.

Read a lot. Write and edit a lot. Lastly,find a few sounding boards; people you trust that will lovingly help you improve as an author! Delia J. Colvin