I thought the name to be a coincidence when I read the novella, and I liked it. Had I known, I would undoubtedly have expected more from her, which would certainly have been very unfair, but nonetheless.
I was generalizing of course, and obviously *star status* is an exaggeration, but my point was that many people will still have lower expectations from an *amateur* writer than from a published writer. Not saying this will define the final judgement of the work, but it will influence it. All in my humble opinion of course <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
Alrik's poems added mood to the setting - and yes, were good. I never once got the impression they were created by a tyro, and I read a lot of them. Nobody who did not know would think Alrik's poetry was the work of an amateur, I am sure.
I agree <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> But I'd like to stress, just in case that it wasn't clear, that none of the things I said about expectations (and comparing with *stars*) apply to those poems - I was purely talking about the story Alrik has posted in this thread.
Oh and Rhi
I have to admit the 'not good enough for the daughter of TP' suggestion in your post does hurt and that's something a lot deeper to just growing a skin to protect yourself from getting too bothered by criticisms.
I think Elliot means the expectations he had *before* starting to read it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" /> (which makes sense considering the statements I made in my earlier post)
I can imagine how tough it must be sometimes to be 'the daughter of'... Guess you it must be fun to have conversations like
[color:"orange"]'My daddy's a cop!' (bobby for you englishers)
'Oh yeah? My dad's a minister!'
'Ooooh! Well MY dad is TP!'[/color]
...but I still don't envy you <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
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