A Royal Mess-Up

Ah yes, once again I’m clenched in humility’s badger-like jaw grip.

This time I managed to stick my foot in my mouth by posting the most embarrassing screw-up EVER in my recent FaithWriters weekly submission. At the last minute before entering the story, I combed it one last time and changed the main character’s first name…all EXCEPT for one reference! Oh pleeease – !! (See my eyes roll back?)

So the poor unsuspecting reading audience starts engaging with this atypical but winsome woman named Sue, and then wham…as the story becomes a bit more gripping toward the end, a posthumous letter appears written by some unknown person named Imogene. Really it’s Sue’s letter (her original name was Imogene before I changed it), but who would know that?

I consider this oversight radically inexcusable. One lone reader posted a gracious critique, but ended with, “Who’s Imogene?” Obviously you just don’t expect a person with a name like Imogene to show up unannounced. Goodness. Stupidity + insulting/confusing the reader = idiocy. Sizzling hot, siren-blaring, fire engine red (blushing) idiocy.

I’m trying to slither under the radar at FaithWriters this week, but the fact of the matter is I have to live with the embarrassment. And to make matters worse, the creative well has suddenly gone dry; I can’t seem to come up with a redemptive idea for an entry for this week’s topic: “black.” The closest thing that has come to mind so far is to compose something about two tiny round peep-holes…two windows-of-the-soul…two jet-black pupils of a human’s eyes. But whose eyes? And what’s the story? I have no idea.