Had a good friend and writer, Doug Rinaldi, post on Facebook he wanted a beta-reader. I’ve read his work before and jumped at the opportunity. A few things appealed to me about this.
- 1 – I get to help out someone I’ve known literally half my life.
- 2 – Two, after having read his short-stories I get to read a longer work by him.
- 3 – I get to gauge how much I’ve learned since beginning my own writing journey.
I’ve learned a lot. I’m probably harder on myself that maybe I should be. As I read the work of my old college roommate, I can’t help but think maybe he and I shouldn’t have gone to the school we chose for ourselves. Other iniquities perpetrated by the defrauding, now-defunct institute aside, our collective creatives seem more aligned with literary endeavors than visual creative projects.
That’s not to say Doug, or myself, are not talented in that regard. I mean check out the art on this page for crying out loud, https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/doug-rinaldi?tab=artwork. Good stuff, that.
I am happy to read his novella and hope the feedback I give is useful to him. He’s accomplished a lot as a horror author, his work’s been published in many anthologies, and he’s published his own. Don’t take my word for it, check out all his stuff on amazon here, https://www.amazon.com/Doug-Rinaldi/e/B00LA8U4C0%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share.
Hats off to my good friend, he needs to keep at it. I want to read more.