Circle of Empty Arms, the second novel from author LaShaundra Seale arrived in my mailbox a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to like this book - I really did. African-American literature was my specialty in college and infertility is so close to my heart. I was really hoping that this would be an artful combining of the two. Sadly, the combination of cliches, two-dimensional characters, and really, really bad editing made it a harmless diversion, not a compelling read.

Circle of Empy Arms focuses on 4 women, all members of a Dallas-area infertility support group. This very short novel is also short on narrative, short on descriptions, and short on depth. Because the novel is so short, the vignettes about each character are sometimes only 2-3 pages. That makes following it very difficult. Jennifer is vey rich, we know this because she drives a "2009 BMW" 700 series. Her husband is "gorgeous." We know this because we are told he is, over and over again.

Three of the women are African-American, one is white and blond. In an apparent misguided effort to rebalance the overwhelming stereotyping of African-Americans in so much literature, the author pushes too far into the opposite stereotypes.

Guess which woman is poor and married to the uneducated guy who refuses to go for infertility treatments because he believes they will magically have a baby one day? We know he is uneducated because he is the only character whose grammar lapses when he is angry. Even better, guess which woman does the unthinkable to get a baby? Finally, guess which one provides the dramatic but less than convincing ending? If you guessed the blond for all three, you get a gold star.

Circle of Empty Arms is self-published. Another reason I really wanted to like it. As the author of several self-published books, I really give the benefit of the doubt to others who self-publish. Unfortunately well-edited self-published works are rare. It has often been said that there is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting. An editor's job is to notice what the author can't see because they are too close to the work. Too many self-published authors do not properly edit their own books (a difficult task, at best) and do not hire an outside editor.

The first half of the book would have benefitted from a great editor. The second half would have benefitted from any editing at all. The characters are, on the whole, fairly likable. I did want to know how things turned out for them, but hearing about everything they did was tiresome. I wanted to "see" what they were doing, not hear about it in the third person. Although, in places, I got to hear about it in the first person, second person and third person all in the same sentence.

There are some good bones to the story, and it may bring comfort to those who are in that stage of infertility where the pain is so intense that reading anything infertility related helps. Overall though, my impression was that this is an excellent first draft that would benefit from another hundred pages, a rewrite, and an editor.