Crosstimbers Review Forum

To start, thank you so much for the time and effort you've given in your review, it is greatly appreciated! And before I say anything else, this actually started as a suspense story project in my senior year in highschool, where the majority of the above was written; I've just kind of edited it here and there as I caught something I didn't like, but I decided that it felt like it could come to better use as more than just a short story, so the plan turned into creating a book based around it, with this as the epilogue (which, this is just the standalone version, although there are definitely things I need to change to better highlight that, and things I need to change to better mesh the epilogue with the story. I just haven't gotten far enough in the story to decide precisely how I want to). My goal was to highlight the confusion and detachment Vladimir consistently felt, meshed with the worldly need to survive. In what I've written in the book, the relationship with Vladimir and Dmitri is much further highlighted, whereas in this it's left largely to assumption that they are close, and although that is one of the driving reasons for Vladimir's will to survive, it is not the explicit reason, which is only really demonstrated in the rest of the work. As for the point by point, I feel as if my reply would become excessive and redundant if I responded to each here, but in synopsis, thank you so much for the advice. Most of these had never once crossed my mind, even after my dozens of rereads of this; although I'm sure I won't follow every point to the tee, I'll be certain to make changes for the better based on the above. The piece I actually think will change the story itself the most is the part where you mentioned his diagnosis: I think that working it in from the beginning, both in the standalone short story and book, will be much more helpful to understanding the development and understanding of the story and Vladimir. Your critique is incredibly helpful. Thank you so much again!