Since I don’t speak Romanian, I am not totally positive what the reviewer said. Here is the Babel Fish translation:
- schematizate characters that look more defined by the choices we make, the consequences of those choices while pursuing them for the rest of life;
- the action going on around a sundial, in a lush garden;
- epic thread also ranks among the more experienced feelings of characters, rather than a certain determinism.
- end of story, composed in the dubitativă key.
- the originality of the composition of the text;
- narrative freshness, in spite of the abundance of the elements, inspired, poetic.
This charms the heck out of me. It’s kind of like overhearing a conversation in a washroom where a stranger says “…and that awesome girl with the yellow shoes” and you are wearing yours, and you know it’s you, and you’ll never know exactly what makes you awesome, but you’ll know there is something.
This is one of the things I didn’t imagine about being a writer. I did imagine that I’d spend a lot of time awaiting responses from editors, and that feels pretty much how I thought it would, but I didn’t think I’d have access to readers’ responses in the way that I do. (For one thing, when I was a kid and first thinking about this, the internet didn’t really exist yet. I figured that when people talked about my work, they’d do so at cocktail parties in other cities, far away from me.)
When I’ve got a lot of things on submission, as I do right now, nothing makes me feel more grounded than knowing the things already published are living apart from me, with their own presence in the world, being read by people I will never meet.
I read this story and really loved it. In fact, I just spent 30 minutes looking for it again online and finally found it. I wanted to write down the author's name so I could read more–and now I've found you again! Thanks for a story I will think about for a long time. Keep writing, please! I especially love female writers who write female characters. Interesting twist on the Queen of Air. Hadn't thought of her before as potentially scary, but it worked. Thanks for stretching my brain.
Thanks so much for reading, and for commenting! That kind of feedback is one of the best things about being a writer!