The Need For External Validation...

(... and why it's going to kill us all.)

I have a new book coming out in just over a month. It’s called Kill Them With Kindness, and it’s going to be touted as a pandemic book, I’m sure, but it’s not “really” about Covid. (It’s about a virus that travels the world and makes the people it infects nice.)

Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash

I’m going to be talking about it a lot, soon. I’m filming videos and going on podcasts and doing interviews and writing articles because you have to put yourself out there around publication otherwise nobody will know that you have a book out. (Especially on the marketing budget that is allocated to me. *weeps*)

This is not my favourite part of the writing process but it is necessary. I don’t really care about the reviews any more and it is certainly possible that the book may be nominated for some award along the line - I’m only saying this because my last eight or nine books have all been up for something, so I look forward to losing again, but it’s not important to me.

I’m not out there seeking validation that it is a good book. I’m confident that I have achieved what I set out to achieve. It’s different. It’s thoughtful. It’s dark but funny in places. I’ve never written anything in the speculative genre before, so I could get crucified by the purists, I just don’t care.