My 23-year old daughter just marched into my bedroom. She paused and looked at me, then headed into my arms for a very long hug.
She’d just finished reading the latest draft of my novel, Dog Park (in one sitting), and was feeling all the feels. The ending is kind of poignant.
It’s funny when people who know you personally read your work. They try to pick out who is who from your real life, piecing it all together and sometimes they are right. “Dad, there’s a thing about your knees in here!” she yelled from the other room earlier today.
“Why would you write that about your brother?” she asked another time.
“It wasn’t about my brother,” I replied, explaining that characters can have traits of people we know but that doesn’t make it about them. The character she was referring to was a compilation of several different people and mostly stuff I made up.
She also said, “The book was darker than I expected.”
“It was darker than I expected too,” I laughed.
We talked a bit more about it, and she said, “I can’t wait til’ it’s a movie! It would be so good on screen.”
If you know my child, you know she isn’t a good liar. This was sincere, from her heart. She may be a little biased, lol.
It’s a new territory having a grown child read my work. It feels, sweet.
From her lips to God’s ears.
Michelle O'Neil,Writer 