Death is not worse pain than an empty life. -- Lun Tha

I finally finished Chapter 24! So I could do the Snoopy Dance, right?

Wrong.

For one thing, it ends on an uncertain note, which is good, but is it? Will my reader be more confused or will he be eager to turn the page to find out what happens in Chapter 25?

And then, I received a critique from a newer member of the Roundtable. He won't be at the next meeting, and is being responsible and timely by sending his critiques via email so that we can have them if we need them. Good of him, really.

He has only read, I believe, the last two chapters of the book. Chapters 22 and 23. So he has missed out on the all the characterization and definition that took place for 20 chapters before he came to the book. Yet he's griping that my characters are too varied, yet they all sound the same. I know what he means, but of course he thinks there are too many. By now, my readers have been getting introduced to the cast slowly, carefully, so that they are not overwhelmed...and indeed no one has yet said this was a problem (except for Husbands One and Two, but that was done on purpose).

But I'm left to wonder...DO they all sound the same? I don't think so, but I can hear the inflections they use in my mind...so is it all me?

I should poll a few of the others in the group privately...but then will this come across as paranoid? I don't need to say where this idea came from...but would they know? And then would it break the camaraderie of our group to seek a second opinion?

It bugs me. Not the critique in general, but that one comment in specific is bugging me, now. *sigh*

Thank you for letting me vent! I'm off to make copies for Career Day. Tomorrow!!