Finn, to be honest I appreciate the negative feedback just as much as the positive, for exactly the reasons that you put forth.
First off, I don't have an ego. I'm not a 'tempermental artist', I am by nature a humble guy.
I don't think Gypsy's Kiss is great by any stretch. I don't think I'm a great writer. I don't even think I'm a writer at all, though I have some aspirations to be one.
However, I think Gypsy's Kiss is a pretty darned good little story by a non-writer, and it thrills me that some people enjoy reading it. Kind of like when I used to play in a garage band, and the other neighborhood kids would come around and listen, and tell us we sounded great. That's a nice feeling. Were we great? No, but we were good.
But I know that not only is Gypsy's Kiss not up to professional level, it has huge faults with mechanics, and scene shifts, and pace, and dialogue.....and I could go on and on.
I know all of that. That's why I would welcome any comments concerning its faults just as much as I appreciate the positive.
In fact, when it is completed I was planning to find some literature grad student somewhere, and pay him or her to read it through and red line it for me.
For me Gypsy's Kiss was an excersize in writing a novel. But I don't think I'll write another Indy novel. Indiana Jones is great, but he's not mine, and there is no future in Indy fiction. I have ideas of my own for novels with my own characters.
So don't worry, the Monkey's head is not going to swell from the positive comments, and he's not going to turn into a gorilla if there's negative feedback.