Date: 03 Apr 2011 21:49 Title: The Irony of Sacrifice
Hi....finally realised I need to register twice...so here comes the copy review as 'requested' ;-)
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I don't seem to be able to leave a review on your featured story. I'm glad LBD chose that one - it is phantastic and I'm sure I'd not have come across it otherwise. Sorry you didn't win the challenge, that also was a very good write!
I know you won a prize with the sacrifice story, but still in my humble informal way of reading stuff it really touched me. The twist at the end is good and I also really liked the way you described how a whole life can just climax in the one second where we either stand for what is right/our belief/selflesness or live and ever regret or suffer it afterwards. That is, if we've got that spark of greatness/divinity in us.
Author's Response:
Thank you Susanne, I am so very grateful to have received your thoughtful and gracious review. I have always believed there is spark of something in all of us, something that defies naming, that connects us, completes us and fills us with joy. We feel it when we help someone or when we achieve some unexpected realization about ourselves that simultaneously frees us and binds us to humanity.
And none of this is new to us. We discovered it first as children, when we captained the USS Fascination in a bold exploration of our backyards, upturning rocks that no child had upturned before. That is where the Tomara family, and all my other work, more rightly originate.
Perhaps the role of the writer in all of this is to merely explain, by example, life to the living, I don't know. Or, perhaps it is to hold up little mirrors made of words that reflect some aspect of the universe to us, so we can see it again for the first time.
I hope I haven’t gone overly Zen on you with my comments today but, alas, your words touched me too!
Date: 05 Nov 2010 22:48 Title: The Irony of Sacrifice
Sam,
I just read your story. I am having a hard time forming any other words than - Wow!
The narrative was beautifully scripted. The twist at the end again took me by surprise - and I should have been prepared after "The Raft." You crafted the story in such a way that the ending, although it sneaks up on you, is sadly perfect.
You left the clues but wove them into the fabric of the story so well the reader only recognizes, and appreciates, them at the end. My only defense can be that I was enjoying the narrative and dialog so much that I was hypnotized.
Cudos! Now I understand why you appreciate the little bit of mystery I fold into my stories.
If this story got Fifth Place, I can only imagine how good First through Fourth are.
KayCee
Author's Response:
I’m very honored, Kaycee, thank you, but a little flabbergasted too! I’m struggling for the proper words to convey my appreciation for the great review, but even more so for my appreciation for the interesting person, and superb creative writer, that wrote that review. You’re 5 out of 5 stars in my book.
I was very fortunate to have received two invaluable critical reviews while the story was still in the early draft stage, and I feel I owe the lion’s share of whatever success this story has attained to these generous souls, who prefer to go unnamed. They had the courage to give me their honest appraisals, bare knuckles and all, and I am very grateful. The experience has left me convinced that writers can truly fluorish when they are members of an altruistic community that derive joy as much from the success of others as themselves.
Samuel.