When I was sitting on top of a mythical Tibetan mountain listening to my mythical mentor - One Flung Lo, I recalled something he mythically said to me.

'Lotus Blossom, never look for accolades for if you seek, you shall never find.'

I therefore never expect any of my stories to have much in the way of critical acclaim and if someone says nice things about them, I go all shy, coy and mumble something like 'Oh shucks.'

I then got to thinking again. Why do I write my stories? Is it for self gratification? The accolades of my readers or is it because I like the idea of self flagellation when my stories go down the plug hole without much input from the reader?

Who knows. When you write a story, you hope that it is received well and that your public likes it. I know that I am selfish enough to know that if my little efforts are not well received, I am A either not understood, B ahead of my time, or C a bloody awful writer. The fact that most of my stories are pretty well received here means that most of the readers are A, very nice, B very forgiving or C more insightful than I am or perhaps D that maybe, just maybe, I occasionally get it right.

I think, as a breed, writers are always hoping that the next story will be 'the one' to make them considered as being the next best thing to Shakespeare. However, the fact that there are millions of stories out there that are read by few or commented on by even fewer, is rather sad.

We are lucky enough here to have an outlet for our writing vice. It all makes it worth the effort and angst we go through to make a story come to life. For that, I thank the readers for giving the time to either vote or comment on my stories. If the comments are negative, I try to learn from them and if they are positive, I preen myself and say 'Well done Sue, got it right for once.'

Hugs
Sue