Gray Hen, what a marvellous text!

I learned some important things and I'm sure that everyone who reads it, attracted by the great title, probably has the same problem and doubts, will also have a lot to learn here.

This comment is long because I believe that showing the mistakes I made may be enother proof of the importance of your tips and comments. If you find it inconvenient, please cut what you find superfluous.

"since the weekend, I've found my mojo, seen the light and — hey presto — I think I'm almost there. I'm not quite ready to type 'The End' but it's definitely in sight".

I have a draft always in additions, cuts, corrections and improvement, "Chunks of my life"; it is also a bit of reality from my professional life, and a lot of personal memories and memories of me by my family members: they mention things I did or participated in that sometimes I don't even believe. I hope to be able to finish it by the end of this year; it will be reviewed, once again, in the light of what you teach.

I published three others only in Portuguese; I complied with all the liturgy you wrote: "I’ll have to make sure to check out the requirements of each one I decide to entrust the future of my book with​"

to each publisher to which I sent the text.

But you taught me here that I did everything wrong.

"The trick is to keep it simple — don't bore the reader to death with the minute of every twist and turn".

"​onto one A4 page, be written in the present tense, and narrated from a 3rd person (omniscient) POV. It should be in a standard format, with a 12 point font using Times New Roman or, perhaps Arial, (so it's comfortable to read)".

As none of the Portuguese-language publishers accepted it, I ended up paying a publishing company. It sold, but not enough to pay the expenses.

I thought the title would draw attention: "O Rei da maisena branca" (The King of white cornstarch): maisena branca (white cornstarch),in Portuguese, is one of the nicknames for cocaine. A silly little prank that alienated potential readers; I see that I made a fool of myself; the story and characters are much more likely to give a good title to the work.

The Synopsis doesn't seem too long and I don't think it to bore who read it (for those who are curious, here's the link to the English version (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w2iz6GsdRx8GK42tszzLF_3YUjdZoHV0/edit?usp=sharing&ouid =114540767088890527147&rtpof=true&sd=true).

But the biggest sin I committed was that, instead of starting the book's index with the synopsis, I started with a long and boring explanation of the title!

I pride myself on knowing how to write my native language perfectly; in addition, it was revised and reformatted by Josué Machado, my friend linguist, writer and Portuguese teacher.

I believe it would have been well sold if I had received this lecture of yours earlier.

Thank you and congratulations for publishing it.