All in the Family

"Life: It's hardest to impress those who know us best. What unexpected acknowledgment have you experienced from folks who knew you way back when?"  

by Catriona

Topical. My excuse for blogging so late today is that one of my sisters, one of my nieces and one of my great-nephews* are staying with me on a holiday. The time got away from us all.

On the plus side, I just shouted the question to my sister to get the start of an answer. She shouted back thusly:

"Is it an acknowledgement if I say 'Where did it come from and how come you got it all?'?" 
Me: "Hmmm. Not really."
Sister: "Tough. I'm going to sit in the sun and read."

But here's the thing. She's reading Scot Free. So whether she likes it or not, I'm getting validation in spades.

My friends and family reading my books and forgetting I wrote them does it for me every time.

The next best thing probably came from my English teachers. Mrs McVeigh from primary six came to a book launch and said she wasn't the least bit surprised. And the man I've had to learn to call "Stuart" (aka Mr Campbell from high school) even asked my advice about pitching a book he had written. It got published, of course. Because it was brilliant. See here. If his query had been written on a pizza-box lid, in crayon, it would have been published. 

And since things come in threes, I need to mention the fact that my oldest friend - Catherine, this means you - always asks for a time-of-day rating when I hand over a new standalone.  "Can I read this in bed at night?" she'll say. "Yep," I usually claim. "Maybe not in a thunderstorm or if Olivier's not there." Then some time later I get a phone call reporting nightmares. That's acknowledgement, right? 

I'll say it right here: Catherine, you can read Scot Free at night, in a power cut, by the light of one guttering candle, as the wind howls around the house and twigs scrape at the window. Cx

*Great-Aunt Catriona. I feel old.