BROKEN ANGEL - Day 3, CSFF Blog Tour

Just finished reading the book, and--overall--I like it.

I might understand a little of what Mr. Brouwer must be feeling in the duration of this blog tour. His work is being analyzed, picked apart, praised or pummeled, and there's nothing he can do about it. He's like a parent who must stand afar while his child walks among strangers who may or may not accept such a creature into their midst.

As a writer who has endured my share of critiques that are more critical than helpful, I cringe inside when asked to critique someone else's work, even when it's work I like. Critiques are good--even the ones that come from hostility or envy or dislike--because they can help us sensitive creative types develop the necessary ability to set feelings and defensiveness aside and look at our work with objectivity.

(It's that skill, as well as the ability to inhabit someone else's story, that makes one a good editor.)

On the other hand, it's really cool when someone says something good about our work, the result of all our effort, blood, and ink.

So, here goes. My favorite part of Broken Angel is the scene where (spoiler alert!) Caitlyn's wings break through the skin of her back. In one respect, not much happens--she's trying to escape a baddie named Mason Lee, and the wings thing occurs at a tense point in the chase, and the chase is the story.

But, on the other hand, everything happens.

The ending scene with Jordan and Caitlyn, the damaged father-daughter relationship, that's real. It's fiction, but it's real.

And for any child who has ever felt betrayed by a parent, that last "Papa!" is powerful. Forgiveness is difficult but it is freedom.

Thank you, Sigmund Brouwer, for writing a piece of speculative fiction and keeping it real.

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Mark Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Magma
Margaret
Shannon McNear
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
John W. Otte
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Sean Slagle
James Somers
Donna Swanson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Laura Williams