On Oh No! Not Again!:

I thought I finally had a proof reader. A long ago friend I had lost touch with, over twenty years ago, and I were reacquainted. They had since become a college English Lit. prof.

They offered to look at my work and help me out in the places I was deficient. They loved my writing and called it wonderful and inventive, but they didn’t want to spend their time on horror fiction. (Frankly, it scared them.)

This is both good and bad. Good because now I know I ‘can’ write horror fiction in more than the short story form, but bad because I still ‘need’ a proof reader for my books and stories.

So, I am back to looking for an English teacher, for those years I missed out on in grade school in English lessons when I didn‘t know how to read. (Long story.) I know my sentence structure is bad. I get by here on the blog, because I can write like I talk. But you just can’t do that and get by in fiction writing.

I have been busy struggling along for the passed few weeks trying to fix my stories by myself again.

Anyone who wants a stab at it can comment on my stories over at Thrill and Shiver. But don’t do it if you don’t like horror. I really do want constructive comments I can learn from. You know like, ‘The sentence in the third paragraph is backward and it reads like the bird is talking to the boy instead of the boy talking to the bird.’ kind of thing. Or, ‘you used the wrong spelling for ‘blew’, you have the color.’

I have the trouble of knowing what I want it to say and seeing it, even if it is not there on the page, when I try to proof read my own work. A lot of writers have the same problem.

I may try to get a college student to work for me again. But I really don’t want to go that route after a bad experience with theft of my work some years ago. (I wasn’t paying them so they could turn in my work as their homework.) I just can’t bear to go through that again. It set me back years and years in my writing and my trust issues.

I try to entertain over at Thrill or Shiver while holding back my better stuff for the day I can get published and paid for it.

It is hard to ask for help like this. But I am on my knees here.

“Please help me become a better writer! I’m begging you.”
Sincerely, Lady Euphoria