A.E. Bennett
  • The Serrulata Saga
  • Other Work
  • Blog
  • Art
  • Music
  • Contact
  • The Serrulata Saga
  • Other Work
  • Blog
  • Art
  • Music
  • Contact

From typos to…triumph?

2/13/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture
Ok, that title is a bit much—but I can’t help myself. The alliteration was right there!

Let me back up…

About two weeks ago, I was putting together a quick social media post for #thirstythursday and realized--to my horror—that I had somehow used the same adverb twice in one paragraph in my first book, Gathering of the Four.
(Confession: I had an adverb problem. I’ve known about it for years and still struggle to overcome it in all of my drafts.)

Y’all I was mortified!

If I had allowed this to slip through, what else had I missed?

I cringed so hard! I’ve sold my books at cons! Given out review copies! I worked so hard to get my book where I thought it needed to be, but somehow missed what I now perceived as a great error.

Ack!

I posted about this on Bluesky. I hung my head in shame. But then I decided to do a reread of the entire book. I figured this would help me in two ways: I’d (hopefully) discover any lingering typos, and I’d get reacquainted with a part of my saga that I hadn’t really sat with since 2022.

As y’all know, I’m working on Book Three, which is going to be another chonker. I adore my thick books, but I don’t recall every detail—who could?—so a refresher was in order.

And I was right! Yes, there were a few more typos and a couple of run-on sentences I wound up correcting, but I was also reminded of a few crumbs I dropped and had forgotten about. Whew!

I also experienced something unexpected.

I…became proud of my work!

Gathering of the Four was first published in 2021 and while getting it out the door did fulfill a life-long dream of mine, I did rush things and wound up with a bit of a mess on my hands. I fixed what was wrong, but the process took a toll on my self-esteem. I did my best to fake it, but I didn’t consider myself a real author.

“But Bennett!” You might be thinking, “You’ve published five books since then!”

Well, yeah. That’s true. And I think I’ve improved with each one—but I still didn’t have faith in myself as an Actual Author.

Even when I hit and surpassed 1,000 subscribers to my newsletter. Even when I was sitting at my very own table at my first con last summer.

Every time I thought about my writing, my mind returned to the same thought: Every other indie author out there is better than you. You are not the real deal.

Well, I’m here to tell you that I no longer think that. Sitting with my first book again after so much time away from it made me realize that the five star reviews I’ve gotten aren’t lying.

I am an author.

My story is good.

And I’m proud of myself!

I now have plans to do the same with my second book, Test of the Four. I’m actually excited about it.

There’s a lot of bad stuff happening out in the world right now, so it feels really, really good to (finally) have faith in my art.

It took me years to get here, but I have arrived.  

(Also, if you’re interested in a, ahem, typo-free review copy, go ahead and reach out to me via my contact page!)

Until next time…stay safe and well, y’all!
“Self-trust is the first secret of success.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
0 Comments

    Archives

    April 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Blog

Art
Music

Contact