The book is here, the book is here!

Actually, it arrived on Tuesday and since then I've eyed it, stroked it, longed to read it. But I was beta reading someone else's book and therefore couldn't start with it. Tonight's the night and I can't wait to be honest. It's the first time I re-read a book I've read in my teens and I wonder if I'll feel the same as I felt back then.
It'll also be strange because I read it in German, but will now read the original title. Should be quite interesting. I'll report when I'm done.

On the subject of reading: as I mention above I was beta reading for someone and had to give up, because it became a chore almost halfway through. Although the writer had told me I should stop whenever I feel it's getting too much, etc., and I tell my beta readers the same, I still feel awful. Beta reading is about helping, not about judging, right? You know it's not a finished or polished manuscript. It only had very few errors, that was not the reason. It was the story that didn't appeal to me. Even when you read a draft of a story, you should be able to at least enjoy it, I think. No point slogging through something you can't immerse in. At least I wouldn't want anyone to read my books if they don't enjoy it and, thankfully, I never had anyone return a book. Well, okay, my friend who fell asleep at chapter four of one of the manuscripts I'm still tinkering with, and therefore refused to read more, which is fair enough. Since she has some difficulties getting to sleep at the moment, I 'prescribed' her said manuscript, maybe it'll do the job again. haha.

Funnily enough, after I did a big rewrite (another one) of the beginning, she suddenly loved it. Scary, that is. She read all my books and loved them all; even fell in love with the gory thriller, and she doesn't do gory (who can blame her? Not my thing either, but writing it, let me tell you that, is a lot of fun.). At the moment, she's reading the third book in the Branded series, which I'm currently writing. It's a lot of pressure after two fabulous first books and I already know that I have to rework the beginning, but I'm now back with Tom, Celia, Sam, Jimmy and Adam, back in the kitchen, back to deal with the dark force. It'll have the usual romance, humour, cooking and fights with the Dark Side, as well as twists and turns. The last book in the series will hopefully be as entertaining and enjoyable as the other books. I'll try my very best, I promise.