OK, I know, I know. Editors, agents and publishers don’t care squat whether your child thinks your manuscript is good. But given that I started The Wolf Belt as a love letter to my boys, I very much want them to absolutely love it, even if it sits around our home collecting dust for all eternity and no one else in the world ever reads it.
But I must say my nine-year-old son’s reaction to the big climax seems promising:
Son: “Mom, I can’t believe you wrote this. This is SO GROSS.”
Me (somewhat worried that perhaps I’ve gone overboard with the gore): “Is that bad?”
Son: “NO! Just don’t say the word blood again.”
Me (substituting “B” for “blood” as I continue to read aloud)
Son (clutching blanket to neck, looking slightly distressed)
Husband (distressed over son’s apparent distress): “OK, time to stop reading…”
Son: “NO!” (hides face under blanket) “Keep going to the end!”
Son (at the end) “That story freaks me out. Can you read a book about horses and flowers now?”
