Beverly Stone: Vulgar

Meet Beverley Stone, all-around awesome person. For the next few weeks, she'll be blogging about life as an author, with the same warm and honest humanity that defines her novel No Beautiful Shore. Settle in and enjoy a peek into the mind of a very talented writer.

Narcissism and the Single Novelist
IV. Provocative

Honestly and truly, send her an email.

At the end of the day I check the email address for my website. Most of the time there is nothing but spam, but sometimes someone writes me a nice note, or has a question, and I get to discuss No Beautiful Shore with a reader. A lovely thing, feedback.

Except sometimes, it’s not so lovely. A reader who shall remain nameless, but who we will call for the purposes of this blog, Mrs. Pickle-Up-Posterior (“PUP”), wrote me to tell me that she would not keep my book in her home, as it was a piece of vulgar trash.

Ouch. Gratuitous criticism goes right to your guts and settles down there, burning and making you feel vulnerable. It hurt for days, weeks. I wrote PUP back to say that I was sorry that I had disappointed her.

No Beautiful Shore is kind of like The Shipping News meets Last Exit to Brooklyn. I meant it to be that way, in all of its raw, uncomfortable, vulgar glory, but I still feel bad that I enraged PUP.

Oh well, at least she will remember my name. She will have to since she will never, ever buy another thing I write as long as she has breath in her body, or something like that.



Want more on Bev? Visit her website at www.beverleystone.com