February - another one almost ready!

So, a leap day here today in 2016; 29th February! It's all systems to 'coast' as my new Collection ('Empty Boats') has been finalised and is with the printers and should be delivered tomorrow for it's publishing date of 1st March 2016!
For an 'artist' (something I aspire too), the day that your current work/project is released into the wild is a fantastically exciting and worrying time.
You spend a long time creating, reviewing, refining and polishing your project until you cannot prevaricate anymore but you have to put down your tool of choice and sigh, knowing that it cannot (maybe even should not) be tinkered with anymore.
You then package it as best you can (in my case by wrapping it in as pleasing a cover as possible) and then arrange for it to be let loose on the public.
All of this has been done, and I now await the result with an eager trepidation. This is the third collection to be published, following 'Poems of the Past' and 'Silent As Sleeping' and I am as proud of this one as the others. None are perfect, but this one is, I hope, a step forward.
The next project is already underway, titled 'Reflections in the Mirror'; and this is again an evolving process, as the method of recording and presenting the poems will be slightly different. It will be published this time next year (all being well!).

On a related theme, I was distressed to see a review of my Son's first collection on Amazon recently. I won't give it's author credence by referring to any part of it directly here; suffice it to say that it was a virulent and vindictive personal attack on what Ed had produced.
Now it takes courage to record your innermost thoughts and then post them to the world in any format. To collect them together and put them into a book online or in print is something you do not do lightly. You may be of the opinion that if you make something public then you are 'fair game' for any feedback that the consumers may wish to give you. There might be some truth in this.
I believe that any constructive feedback or criticism on my work is to be welcomed. If someone dislikes your work or has a bad reaction to it and can impart that to you in a forthright and constructive way; I'll accept it without issue. Even if I don't agree with it.
But to personally attack a person in a review is not helpful and nor does it serve any purpose. Successful actors, musicians, artists and all creative people are perhaps used to this; but a young man finding his artistic 'voice' and exposing his innermost thoughts does not deserve that sort of reaction; hidden as it was behind an anonymous non-descriptive 'name'.
I was sad to read it, but proud of how my son dealt with it and that it fortunately does not seem to have soured his artistic endeavours.

So, when you feel moved to write a review; maybe think before you post anything and at least give the artist something constructive to work with an evolve from.....

Thanks for reading, stay safe.