In a previous post I mentioned that Google, Yahoo, etc. searches have found my little comments on some short stories I’ve been reading lately, and that my blog hits were hitting the ceiling from these alone.
While I may have been worried a bit about plagiarism, my mind has been relieved as an accomplice because first of all, there’s plenty of better essays out there, and mine are really just thoughts rather than the type of focused papers I myself try to strive for in my own turned-in essays. Secondly, I received just the nicest e-mail from a student who had indeed been inspired by one of the reviews, and was good enough to say so and offer praise in a personal note.
This is all good news to me because I do intend to openly publish my reactions to some of these stories. It’s just a necessary thing to do when a piece of writing hits you in the head like some of these short stories have done to me, and if I don’t get the open discussion as would happen in a classroom, at least I haven’t kept my responses to an author’s literary efforts simply locked away in my brain. Praise is good for all of us.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology