I Have to Read My Own Novel

And I am dreading it

Photo by author

I have to read my own novel. And, I need to read it as if it’s not mine. As if I didn’t put years and years of revision into it, after setting it aside many times, not because I wanted to, but because I had to. Day jobs. Night jobs. Grading ten million essays. Raising teenagers. My own stuff that needed to be dealt with. Burnout from being a counselor. Raising twentysomethings…