Thank you so much for your critique! And I know, I know...I'm really struggling to end this thing properly. Hopefully my next draft will do a better job of wrapping things up in a subtle way (the first draft had a lot of sentences blatantly expressing why Essie left, what happened to her, etc...as you might assume it was really dull).

Thanks again!

Hey Aleki -- Thank you for your critique of Bob. I take your points on the symbolism -- I have to say, I made the thing up on the fly and just throwing any old thing in there, all the time trying to keep the word count down. That's no excuse, of course -- I was just enjoying myself too much!

Thanks again!

Thank you for the detailed review. I found it truly helpful in terms of learning what works for the reader and what doesnt. I appreciate the time and effort you took to do this. THe points you raised were fantastic too.

A point for you to consider...would you like to write a simple short story for an Indian audience. I could publish it in my online creative newsletter. There is no payment but the kind of helpful feedback and encouragement you get is tremendous. If you want to consider it, please give me your mail id so that i can send you a copy of the latest issue I put together. Of course, if you arent keen, that isnt a problem at all. I just suggested it as i think a lot of interaction and encouragement from a wide cross section of readers would get you going more strongly on writing.

I also suggest you visit www.lit-match.com. It worked for me. They have an amazing range of literary agents so that you can immediately get started with a novel and send it across to the reputed literary agents

Thank you for becoming my fan. I loved your story. I hope you develop a novella on those lines soon. I am sure it would definitely be great if you could. You are a natural writer. Keep up the writing so that we can enjoy! Have a great day ahead!

Thank you for reading and commenting on "A Gift of Flowers"!

Louise

Hello! Thank you for critiquing my work :]
I think I meant tar used in streets, after it dried.. I wasn't very specific.
Well, thanks again! :]