Hello, lovely readers, from me and my welcome-overstaying sinus infections germs. It’s a tissue party over here.
But at least I’ve got something to really celebrate! As some of you might remember, waaaaaaay back in March, I sent my memoir, its ink freshly dried after a mere two months of official existence, to compete in the “life stories” arena of the 21st annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Books Award. You know, this post: https://thequillwritings.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/writers-digest-contest/
Well, the results are in! No, I didn’t win. But I did get something pretty damn cool: a FANTASTIC score AND an AWESOME review from the judges!
Books were evaluated in five different categories along a scale, with 1 meaning “Needs Improvement” and 5 meaning “Outstanding.” A 0 was given if the category wasn’t applicable.
Here are my scores:
Structure and Organization: 4
Grammar: 4
Production Quality and Cover Design: 4
Plot (if applicable): 0
Character Development (if applicable): 0
All 4’s for a first-time memoir that I wrote, edited, and published entirely on my own? I’ll take it!
But what I was even more excited about was the review:
The best part of Drop Dead Gorgeous by author Miceala Shocklee is her passion to write her own story about her eating disorder. She writes about how eating disorders hold a deadly attraction. There is the attraction of winning, of reaching “ultimate thinness” but there is also the attraction of playing. There is a seductive temptation in the eating disorder game.
But eating disorders are not beautiful. They are not pretty. Eating disorders are not just an attraction, an addiction, a disease. They are not just a way of life, they are an obsession. How could I want such a deadly disease so much? Good question. You see, it’s not the disease I wanted–it was the promises it made. The promises of superiority and power, of satisfaction and happiness.”
Perhaps one of the deadiest facets of eating disorders is that because you can always go farther and farther, there is always, always a competition going on. The author realizes how through therapy her recovery is not done.
A must read for those who are going through an eating disorder and or recovery.
– Judge, Writer’s Digest 21st Annual Self-Published Book Awards
Seriously, the only feedback I got was this amazing review, and a suggestion to possibly add pictures to increase readers’ understanding of the disease. I totally respect the judges’ feedback (have I mentioned yet how SUPERBLY GRATEFUL I am for their review???), but I don’t think I’ll be adding pictures – at least, not the kind they mean. There was a reason I didn’t include pictures in the first place. Too much emphasis has been put on the way that eating disorders look. To be sick, you must be stick thin. But that’s not true. Even technically “overweight” people can starve themselves. Some people can eat next to nothing for a week and lose three pounds. Some people can eat next to nothing for a week and gain two pounds. Sure, a lot of the danger of eating disorders is on the physical toll they take on a body. But the media, whether we’re talking tabloids or medical websites or individual blogs, have done a fair amount of showing what eating disorders can look like on the outside. The whole point of my book was to show what eating disorders look like on the inside. And that’s not easily done with pictures.
I want victims of eating disorders to have a voice out there who says, “yes, I have lived this life too,” but even more than that, I want victims of eating disorders to have something they can hand to their friends and family, the ones who never be privy to that world of eating disorder mind, and say, “this is what it’s like.” In all my years of encounters with other victims, there have been just as many ways as there were victims that eating disorders looked. For the most part, however, there was really only one way that eating disorders feel.
And besides, do you know how daunting it is to have to sit down in front of those who mean the most to you and try to explain yourself? Oh god. What are you even going to say? What if you can’t explain it right? What if they don’t perceive it accurately? What if they keep interrupting you while you’re trying to tell them things? What if as soon as you open your mouth you start to cry?
I hope that maybe, my book will take that burden from some people out there who find resonance in my words and can just hand all those loved ones my book and say, “here, read this. Then we can talk.”
So. Long story short, I think I’ll pass on the pictures.
But seriously, Writer’s Digest judges, I’m tickled pink. More than pink. I’m tickled fuchsia.
And by the way, in case you’re interested in checking out this book that I’ve just spent half a tonjillion paragraphs going on about, it’s currently available in both print and kindle form:
Lulu – http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/miceala-shocklee/drop-dead-gorgeous/paperback/product-20635940.html
Quill Aquiver 
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