Sunday Update 10/27/24

 :blink blink: I just woke up, so bear with me.

Still not writing.  In editing news, I finished the first round of edit notes on Friday - 21 pages worth of single spaced notes on college ruled paper.  Not the most notes I've ever made on a book, but still, that's lots.  Yesterday, I sat down and started inputting those notes. Then I had to refer back to Rumor Has It about something and I discovered, to my dismay, that I wrote the entirety of TTW in the wrong person.  Should've written in first person.  Wrote it in third.  Derp.  Much swearing occurred and then much laughing because really, how silly can one gal get?  Sooo... I need to fix that, too.  I did manage to get one page of edit notes entered and five pages edited for notes and POV.  

I almost forgot... SLEEPING UGLY is free starting tomorrow.  Kind of a Halloween thing.  

I read a book this week.  Unfortunately, it doesn't count toward my goal because it was a book I volunteered to proofread for the author.  It's now out for sale, and I bought a copy, so I'll read it again and then count it.  The book?  Oh, it's Silver James' Moonstruck Mafia: Boston.  It's wicked awesome.  Pick up your copy today.

This week in cooking, I made a vat of chicken soup, a crockpot worth of pulled pork, and applesauce bars.  Oh, and I used leftover pulled pork to make Cuban sandwiches, which is no small effort.  (I mean, if I had a panini press, it wouldn't be hard, but I don't, so it is.)

On the activity front, well... you see... Falling on my ass in the woods and twisting my knee kinda put the kybosh on that.  I did get into the woods once and I went for one walk, which wasn't far and I had to turn back for home because my knee was being a whiny little bitch.  Sitting on my butt and eating copious amounts is not helping my overall physical well-being.  Weight: 175.2

The reason I went into the woods is to start putting my 'grow your own trees' scheme into motion. I've been researching what needs to be done to grow these trees from seeds, so I'm working on that.  I gathered seeds from the redbud in our front yard, a couple of spicebushes along the side, the buckthorn up front, and then went down into the woods to gather dogwoods seeds.  Yesterday, I separated all the redbud seeds from their pods, put them in a coffee mug, and doused them with boiling water.  They need to sit in that for 24 hours and then I can hit the next step, which if memory serves is to put them in dirt.  The other seeds all require different magic, so I could be remembering wrong.  Dogwood seeds need to be cleaned and scarified (i.e. the process of artfully damaging the seed hull to allow for germination), then they need to live in the fridge for 3-4 months.  Same with the buckthorn seeds.  The spicebush seeds just need to be cleaned, I think, and then chilled.  As I do this, I'll make sure to apply the right method for each seed.  Should be fun.

I'm also thinking about doing wood carving in my spare time.  Right now, I'm researching the tools and trying to see which ones to buy.  We'll see if I keep at it or get bored before I even start.

Oh, we went fishing this week.  It was only for a couple hours and I only caught one fish, but it was good to get out again.  And now I have nightcrawlers, so I can go whenever and not have to worry about waiting for my bait shop to open up.  

While we were driving to the fishing hole, we saw two bald eagles flying low and dancing in the air around each other.  It was AWESOME.  We also saw yellow-bellied sapsuckers this week, so yay!  I love fall migration.

Okay, that was a lot of read, so thank you for getting all the way down here.  Have a great week!  And feel free to drop a comment to let me know how your week went.

Sunday Update - Week 9

It's been a week and I am toast.  

I got the edit round finished last Sunday and sent the manuscript off to beta readers on Tuesday.  Thursday one of the betas was already finished, saying that she couldn't put it down.  Yay.  But I will wait until all the notes are in before I start entering them.  It makes it easier for me to sort through them that way.  

In reading news, I finished two books and DNF'd 3 others.

Last Sunday, I made cake cookies in bar form.  Yellow cake with chocolate chips and walnuts, so they're like blondies.  Kinda.  No other baking went on and all the cooking was simple stuff.  Today, I might make pumpkin bread.

On the activity front, I took two walks and did two sessions with the gardens.  Then yesterday, after my walk, I also helped Hubs with the home drainage system.  Basically, we're creating a new way for the water to go around the house to help ease up the erosion we've got going on in one place.  I didn't weigh myself at all last week, so your guess is as good as mine.

Today it's supposed to rain a lot, so we'll see how yesterday's work actually works.

I played a lot of poker.  It's good for taking my mind off everything, ya know.  Anyway, I've been doing tournaments.  My best finish this week was 28th out of 450.  Top 7% at least.  I've also been finishing in the top 10% on a regular basis.  I wish I played this well when I was playing for money.

Another notable thing... I filled my car's gas tank.  It was $3.15/gal when I stopped, and when I went to pay, the cashier told me I got in under the wire.  Gas was going up as soon as the truck got there.  Another local station was already at $3.29, so cha-ching for me.  With as little as I've been driving, a tank full should last me about a month.  

And I stopped at the thrift store.  In case you missed yesterday's post, I didn't get any books because they'd jacked the prices up on me, so I said screw it and moved on.  I did pick up a nice metal baseball bat for $2 - for home defense purposes.  The thought of hearing that PING as I wallop a burglar fills me with glee.  Sort of like this clip from 50 First Dates.  ROFL.   I also found a cute metal wall hanging for $3.  It's geese in flight.  So pretty.  

Okay, so I think that's about all.  Not the most exciting of weeks.  At least not on my little patch of ground.  The world?  Well, that's going right down the crapper, but there ain't a damn thing I can do about any of it, so I'm muddling along in my life the best I can.  

How are things with you?

Sunday Update - Week WTF

Okay, so it was Week 8, but I think you'll agree there was a bunch of WTF in it, eh?

For me part, I spent a lot of this past week editing again.  I got 125 pages done.  And as of last night, I am 38 pages from being done with this edit round.  Right now the book is 377 pages and just under 110K words.  I've been thinking about the next book and, yeah, the amount of work this one has been is scaring the crap out of me.  But let's take this one day at a time, yeah?

I still haven't done any marketing or reading of other people's books.  I've got tunnel vision for this book.

I did do some more baking/cooking, though.  This week, I made a vat of chicken soup and biscuits to go along with it.  I did French bread pizza.  And :drumroll: I made my own homemade hamburger buns.  Those totally rock, so the recipe is pasted at the end of this post.

On the activity front, I only got 3 days with something active.  One day, I did some woods work.  Another day, I vacuumed.  And finally, Hubs and I worked together to cover the car ahead of the approaching ice storm.  (Which we didn't get, by the way.)  Other than that, I've been a lump and I'm paying for it.  In case you're wondering what I mean by that, I hurt when I don't move.  So I am hurting this morning from my lack of activity.  Anyway, despite the inactivity, I lost a pound.  Weight: 181.2

A little while back, I talked about cutting the budget.  Well, this week, I went ahead and cut Anthem.  I went with a United Health policy that cuts my expenses by over $400 a month.  And it still covers everything I need, with a lower out-of-pocket.  Nothing irritates me more than paying for something I don't need, so yay.  Don't get me started there, okay?  Unfortunately, we also got the bill for our homeowner's insurance this week.  Yep, they jacked it up again.  If I can find comparable insurance there for less, I'm telling State Farm to kiss my wide, white hiney, too.

In weather news, we got sleet.  Enough sleet that it looks like a winter wonderland out there.  But the second you go to step on it, you know damn well it ain't snow.  It's inches worth of tiny ice balls that have now melted sufficiently to meld into a big block of ice.  It's hard to walk on, a bitch to drive on, slow to melt, and generally a pain in my ass.  But the temps are supposed to slowly rise from 50 today to 70 later in the week.  

As for the elephant in the room, or the WTF I alluded to above, I'm sure you've all heard about the Russia/Ukraine thing.  Thanks, Sleepy Joe.  Appreciate ya.  (Note sarcasm.)  After spending my formative years as a Cold War kid, and seeing Reagan set things on the course to right, this all depresses the holy hell out of me.  And I just have one thing to say in response to it all... WOLVERINES!

And on that note, back to regular life, such as it is.  I have a book to finish.  The plan is to have this edit round done today or tomorrow, do another quick read-through for typos, and call it good.  I'll be looking for beta readers shortly, so if you're interested and have some spare time in March, let me know.  I'd like to be able to get this sucker up for sale by April Fool's Day.  Maybe on April Fool's Day, since it's an important date in my life anyway.

How was your week?

The Groove, The Path and a Hint of Disappointment

Okay, so yesterday I was really in the groove.  Sure, I woke up at 3am and ended up taking 3 short naps throughout the day, but I also wrote 2K words, did some writerly work on the query process, and read a bit more in Le Morte d'Arthur - taking notes for my super sekrit project.  It felt good.

Hubs and I have been talking about stuff - trying to figure out how to get ahead in our chosen endeavors.  We hashed some things out, which is what led to my renewed commitment to resolution #2 - take my work more seriously.  As well as leading to yesterday's groovy-ness.  It's time to walk the path and not just talk about it.  So that's what I'm going to do - hit both the writing and the business aspect of publication with renewed vigor.

Which led me to a hint of disappointment last night.  I had the opportunity to beta read a new book for an author I love (who's also a really awesome person), but I had to be honest with her about these commitments I've made to myself.  I mean, part of me wants to drop everything and just read her book.  Cuz like damn and whoa how awesome would that be??  But tanking on my goals the day after I make them and actually did what I said I was going to do would unravel everything.  On the upside, she said to get back to her when my schedule frees up - and I agreed because she really does deserve my full attention.  And as I was apologizing and admitting my regret, it occurred to me that if I had gotten off my ever-widening ass and worked last month, I would've had this rewrite knocked out by now and I would have the time I need to beta read.

Let that be a lesson to me - do your work when you have the time so you can grasp opportunity when it shows its handsome face. 

Yeah, pretty much what my mom told me years ago about my procrastinatory behavior.  Mom always was right.  Why I couldn't see it back then is beyond me.  ;o)

Best Laid Plans

Okay, so maybe I jumped the gun thinking now that Ki's off to school, I could have all this free time to write and clean and generally get stuff done.

Ya, right.

I'm still in the thick of things with the kid.  (I know you're reading this.  Don't apologize.  It's my job as 'the mama'.)  We've talked via phone or chat several times a day, burning through cell minutes like they were peanut M&Ms.  I don't mind, really.  I'd rather take a few hours of my life to make sure she's getting what she needs to succeed than not.  (After all, that's why I went with homeschooling.  Yep, I'm the mama.)

Anyway, I did manage to get pages back to my crit partner (yeah, we've gone past beta reading into critting) and look through the notes she sent me.  BTW, I'm loving what's she's pointing out.  This book will be so much better because of her.

I also managed to get some words re-typed into UEQ.  So it's not all bad.  It sure as hell better than I've done since June.  So, I'm calling it a win.  (Okay, maybe an honorable mention.  LOL)

What thing hasn't turned out as well as you'd hoped, but that ought to be a win anyway?

And, btw, nothing's a fail if you keep trying.  I may not be doing the schedule I posted earlier, but I'm not giving up.  As I told my CP this morning - Never give up.  Never surrender.*

*Shameless stolen from Galaxy Quest.

The Benefits of Non-Writing Beta Readers

Yesterday, Lydia Kang asked the question: "Have you had your work read by non-writing members of your target audience?"

I do.  I try to get a few writers to read and also a couple non-writers to read for me.  But I never thought about the whys of it until I answered Lydia's question in the comments. 

I mean, sure, you should have writers read for you.  They're in the trenches and if you're lucky, they know what works for the publishing world, so they can help you polish your work to get it into that world.

But I don't think you should rely solely on the opinions of writers.  We're all so deeply entrenched in the trenches, I think sometimes we're looking at manuscripts differently than you average non-writing reader.

I don't know about you, but when I read a book without purposely critiquing it*, I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the writerly aspects of it.  I want to be entertained.  I want to be so lost in the story I don't notice typos, adverbs, devil words - like 'it' and 'that', or passive voice. 

I think having a beta who isn't concerned with the mechanics of a story can provide you with a pure reader experience.  After all, most of the readers in the world aren't writers**.  They're just average joes trying to escape the real world a little in some nice fiction. 

Now, I'm not discounting the importance of all those things I don't pay attention to as a reader.  I think if you write the best book you can write, those things stop jumping out at even the most non-writerly reader.  And that's where the importance comes in.  Writers are automatically tuned to see those errors.  Readers aren't.  So when they stop seeing them and just enjoy the story, you've done your job. 

At least, that's what I hope is happening when a non-writer tells me how much they enjoyed my manuscript.  And if nothing else, it just feels good to hear someone outside the community say they loved what I wrote.  (Especially since I can't seem to get anyone inside the inner circle to give me the time of day.)

I know it was kind of a rambling post, but what do you think?  Do you have non-writers beta read for you?  What do you think the benefits are?  And if you don't have non-writing readers, why not?


*Okay, so I can't read any book without critting it a little.  The better the book, though, the less I find myself critiquing because I get lost in the story.   I want that for my readers.


** Yeah, I can't prove that most readers aren't writers.  For all I know, the majority of readers these days are writing something somewhere - even if it hasn't been published yet.  I mean, look at me.  For that matter, look at you.

Finding the Right Group

In real life and online, locating a group of people (or even just one person) with a similar mindset seems damn-near impossible.  I mean, it took me 17 years of dating to find my husband.  It's a perfect fit there, and I don't mean to imply I'm looking for the same perfection in a friend or a beta reader or a crit group.  In a friend, I'm just looking for someone I can have a rational conversation with.  In a beta reader, I'm just looking for someone who is rational and likes to read what I write.  In a crit group, I'm looking for a set of individuals with similar goals and work ethics, who write what I read and read what I write.  It shouldn't be that hard.

When I first started, okay, it was probably that hard.  Looking back, I see now that I wasn't in a place where I could take criticism, and the book is probably something people would be critical of.  I tried, though.  I joined an online community and posted my first page.  The other people promptly ripped it to shreds without so much as a compliment sandwich.  (You know, where they tell you something bad between two slices of something nice.)  And walked away - okay, I ran - feeling like I fell off a motorcycle wearing nothing but a bikini.  Road rash, anyone? 

After a couple years and a thicker skin, I joined another writing community.  They were pretty damn good.  Hell, they must've been because I stayed almost a year.  When I left, it wasn't because the writing part of the community sucked, or because they were mean to me.  I left because at some point I realized that intertwined with the non-writing parts were things I didn't want to have my name associated with.  I deleted all my posts and walked away for real this time.

Flash forward another year or so, and I tried again.  This time, the community was good - both the writerly and non-writerly parts.  I didn't stay long, though, because the majority of the members there wrote romance, and I felt like an outsider.  You know, since I don't write romance.  (Unless you count very slight romantic undertones here and there.)  I slipped away from there with a sad sigh.

A few days ago, Andrea suggested a place called Litopia.  Thanks, but after researching the place, I don't think it's for me.  Something about having to submit a piece so that a few people I don't know from Adam can choose whether I'm good enough reminds me too much of choosing teams in gym.  Getting picked last for 6th grade dodgeball was scarring enough.  (Well, picked last until I started kicking serious dodgeball ass, and then I was the one choosing teams.  Of course, then I got picked last for every other sport, but that's neither here nor there.  Or maybe it is.  I can't tell anymore.)

I guess what I'm saying is that I need to find the right group of kids - ones who are good at the same games I am.  So, if any of you know of a group of people who write suspense/mystery/urban fantasy/speculative fiction, let me know.  I don't mind standing on the sidelines and watching for a few days, as long as I eventually get in the game. 

Weekly Update

Howdy.  It's been a helluva week.  I finished the edits on DLN (or Djinnocide - or maybe The Third Wish - I haven't decided) and worked on the blurb.  I'm still looking for readers if any of you have some free time to read a book and make notes about what strikes you.  Please don't make me beg.  It's unattractive and I just don't like doing it.

Anyway, now that I'm at a stall point in my writing (i.e. experiencing PMMD or post manuscript malaise disorder, as I like to call it), I've been doing other things.  For instance, I've made 4 batches of zucchini bread in the past week.  Yesterday, I started cleaning and ended up rearranging the living room furniture.  Today I'm deep cleaning the bathrooms.  (Thank goodness nothing to rearrange in those.) 

I've also been keeping up with grading homework for Daughter.  So far, so good.  The worst grade she got so far was in Economics and that was 87%.  Her first English assignment - final draft - is due today.  The drafts have been awesome, so I expect a good final grade on this. 

In other news, I have to pilfer through the photo albums today and find some good baby pictures of Daughter for a super-secret project.  I'd say more, but someone would definitely kill me. 

What's new in your life?  What do you think I should do now that I'm waiting for readers to give me their opinions - write something new, re-re-re-edit something old, or finish a project I've never quite finished?

Here's Blurby!

Dear Agent Type Person:

After wrangling a scimitar-wielding nutcase, Josephine Mayweather’s self-appointed mission to free her fellow Djinn feels more like sprinting through a psych ward than a waltz in the woods. The night some thing starts killing her brethren, though, her job of running a halfway house for the supernaturally challenged becomes more difficult than she ever wished for.

Of course, life would’ve been easier if her brethren weren’t playing ‘I’ve got a secret’, but no one promised her easy. Now she has to break through some damn conspiracy of ignorance just to find out she’s facing an Efreet, and she has to shatter some stupidity if she wants to stop this super-dude before he commits Djinnocide again. When her best bets for help come in the form of a ex-lover, an aging pirate, and a fluffy dog, Jo’s going to need a boatload of luck if she doesn’t want to end up dead—or worse. Too bad for her, she hasn’t been lucky since the night her third wish got her into this mess.

DJINNOCIDE is an urban fantasy complete at approximately 93,000 words.

(Personalized bit, and short paragraph indicating what I’ve embedded in the email – or put in the envelope.)

Thank you for your time.
-------------

So, that's the latest (and I'm hoping final) draft of the query letter I've been working on for what seems like ever.  Daughter has pronounced this the best version she's read - out of probably a dozen or so - and doesn't think I should change a thing.  (And no, she hasn't read the book yet, so she can't tell me how well it describes what I actually wrote.)

I'm telling you - the best critic / beta reader / proofer is one you grow yourself.  ;o)

Also, if you're a regularly visitor or a blog follower, are a fan of urban fantasy, and would like to beta read this for me, drop me an email and we'll talk.  It was a fun book to write - despite the length of time and number of drafts it took - and I hope you'll find it a fun book to read.

Here's hoping an agent thinks it's fun and SELLABLE.

Tada!

I'm done! Woohoo! I woke up with three chapters left to do, and I did them. (The end chapters barely needed touching, but it still took me from 7-10am - with frequent breaks.) Pardon me while I now do my happy dance.

Once I get the blurb hammered into some workable form, I'll send out a notice for beta readers. If you've got the time and find the premise interesting, feel free to jump on board. Daughter's already got a copy.  Now I just have to be patient... Isn't she done reading yet???  Sheesh.  ;o)

THE END is near

No, that's not some kind of prediction of the zombie apocalypse.  It's just my way of saying I wrote the climax last night.  All that's left is the denouement and I can put this puppy in the 'finished' column. 

I'd tell you which book this is in the scheme of my work, but truth be told, I've lost count.  Let's just say I've written a lot of books since late January of '04.  And this one doesn't even really count as a 'new book', since I wrote this one already and this is the total rewrite.

You know, I've been to other blogs where the writer can guesstimate his total word count.  Ugh.  Mine's got to be in the millions by now.  Right?

:shrug:  Not that it matters.  I'll just keep writing and keep writing and maybe someday someone will want to buy something.  Anyway, enough about that...

It's definitely a good thing. And it means I should have this draft done sometime today or at the latest tomorrow. Yay me.

And then will begin the process of tidying up this manuscript so I can start querying again.  Wish me luck.

(BTW, I'll be posting another request for people to beta read this, so if you're interested, feel free to email me via the link in my profile - or comment here and I'll contact you.  I'm hoping to be ready by the end of July.)

Weekly Update

It's a rainy day here and the cat is obviously too bored to look out the window.

This week in my life has been pretty much the usual.  I finished the polishing of DLN and gave it to a couple beta readers.  (Whereupon I learned that I might have some major work to do.)  I also went back to RTL and started re-polishing that manuscript - because... wait for it...

I might have located a publisher to send it to.  Time will tell if I've chosen the right place, but hey, it's progress.  (Thanks again for everyone who commented and nudged... or kicked... my butt into gear on that.) I'm only 38 pages into the reading, but I'm still loving what I wrote.  Only a few tweaks here and there so far.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the publisher will love it, too.

I've also been working on plotting out the sequel to DLN, and I think it's finally coming together.  I know where the first third of the book is going to go, so it's ready when I'm ready to start new writing again.  Additionally this week, I've got the first bones of a query letter on paper for DLN.  I guess all I needed was a swift kick to jumpstart my gumption.

In reading news, I just finished an awesome book by a debut author - Embers by Laura Bickle.  Interesting and sympathetic characters, kick-ass MC, intriguing plot with delicious twists (at one point I thought Ms. Bickle was going to piss me off to no end, but she pulled it out just in time and that made the book all the better).  I'd tell you more, but I hate spoilers - and there's really no way to talk about this book in depth without spoiling some surprise.  Suffice it to say, I can't wait to read the next book in this series. 


How are things in your world?  Read anything interesting lately?  Does anyone else have a special stool set up just so the cat can look out the window, or is it just me?

I Love This But...

My first reader is done.  She inhaled the book in a few two hour sessions and we talked about it afterwards.  Her take on DLN was "I love this, but..."

And all her 'buts' were dead-on.  They were things I was concerned about, but had glossed over in my mind. 

1) There's too much backstory, which she said was understandable considering what I'm trying to do - you know, world building and trying to work this into a series - but really... too much backstory distracts from the main story.
2) There aren't enough bodies.  More people should be dying.  There ought to be more destruction.  (I think her exact words were 'more blood' but even the people who do die in the book aren't really bloody - just dead.)
3) And that part where I strayed from the secondary plot?  Well, it sort of seems like I forgot about it until almost the end and then wrapped it up too quick.  (Of course, she also said she didn't notice this until about pg 313 - out of a 318 pg book - so it's not as tragic as it could be.)

As always, my first reader is none other than Daughter.  LOL, I didn't know when I started homeschooling that I'd be training my own beta reader, but she does a damn good job.  Of course, since she mainlines paranormal, I'm just happy she didn't make up some excuse to get out of reading this book.  She's a member of my target market, after all.  (No, this book isn't YA.  Even though Daughter is 16, she doesn't really read much YA.)

So, what do I do now?  I still have one person beta reading for me (Hi Natalie) and I'm at a point where I'm considering a rewrite to fix the above.  :heavy sigh:  I really don't want to do a total rewrite, but if that's what this book takes, then so be it.  We'll see what Nat has to say and go from there.

Time will tell, but I'm guessing that I won't be ready to query by the end of next month.  :shrug:  C'est la vie.

Well, I'm Done

With this draft, that is.  And only 3 days past when I said I wanted to be finished.  Of course, this means it's time for the beta readers to have at it.  I've already got one person reading it chapter by chapter (:waves:), and Daughter is inhaling it (but she's so wrapped up in the story, she's not catching much for me to fix).

As always, I'll put out the call for additional readers here.  If you're interested in beta reading an urban fantasy (paranormal suspense?) with Djinn as the central species, send me an email or leave a note in the comments and I'll contact you.  I was shooting for a similar flavor to The Dresden Files, and since I just read the October Daye series, I think I can safely say it's similar to those, too.  If you like either series, I'm hoping you'll enjoy beta reading this.

Daughter is really enjoying the story and she mainlines paranormal anything, so I must be doing something right.  About halfway through, she stopped and told me that when she heard I was doing a paranormal, she didn't think I could pull it off.  (Thanks for the vote of confidence, kid. =op)  But she also said I surprised her and did it.  Yay me.

Anyway, I'm hoping to be ready to start submitting before the end of May.  So, if you've got the time and the urge to beta, let me know.  

On tap for today?  Well, I really don't know.  I have several possibilities in mind.  1) Work on a general outline for the next book in this series.  2) Start writing a completely different book (already in the works on paper, btw).  3) Work on the blurb for DLN.  4) Go back and edit a previous manuscript.

If you were me, what would you do?  What do you do after you finish a round of edits?

Oh.  Sorry for the double post today.  I already had that one scheduled before I thought about the fact that I'd finish DLN today.  If you're interested in talking about banned books, scroll down.  =o)

Who Reads Your Stuff?

Strolling through the blogroll this morning, I noticed the crew at Romantic Inks had an interesting post about CPs and BRs and crit groups. I'm not going to rehash what they said, or what I said in my comment (or what I've said in previous posts on the subject over at my old blog), but it did get me to thinking about the people who read our work before it gets published.

They say you should'n't have family and friends read your work - at least not for any real opinion on its quality and/or saleability. Except for my daughter, I don't really have that problem. She's the only family member who reads my stuff, and her opinions aren't hindered by any need to save my feelings. (We don't work that way.)

My mother hasn't read anything I've written since I was a kid. I know if she read any of my WIPs, she would either give me an honest answer (if she liked it) or she would avoid the subject (if she didn't).

My husband only read the first book. He really liked it, but then he got irritated that I edited it after he read it. Now he says he'll wait until my books are published, so he knows he's reading the FINAL draft. (And before any of you gasp over this, it works for me. He doesn't want to interfere with my writing, and since he's an Alpha, he can't help but try to.)


I let my best friend read one of my books (RTL) last fall. Or rather, she asked me to email it to her, but she's so busy that the last I heard, she was only halfway through. (Seriously, she's busy. 50 hr workweek usually, two kids with lots of activities, family obligations... We only see each other about once a month, and that's because she works with my husband.) On the upside, she really likes what she's read so far.

Other than family and face-to-face friends, I do have my beta readers (and I love them all). Some of them I've never met, but each of them is important to me. They're the ones who give me feedback I can really use. Of course, one of them is my daughter, but for all intents and purposes, I can forget the familial connection and look at her like any other beta. They all read my stories with the idea of pointing out flaws, so I can craft the best book possible. And in most cases, I do the same for them. One of my betas got an agent a while back and should be going on submission soon. I can't wait to see her in print. My daughter beta just entered a college scholarship contest with a grand prize of $2K. I beta read the essay, and provided suggestions for improvement. I really think she has a shot to win money this year. (Which is good since she wants to go to college out of state. Ack.)

Anyway, I lost the point of this post somewhere along the way. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think it's valuable to have others read your pre-pub work. If only to get another set of eyes when you can't see the forest any more. It doesn't matter who these people are - friends and family, if you encourage them to be brutally honest, can be just as helpful as your published acquaintances. Sometimes it's important to just have someone else read your writing, if for no other reason than it helps shake out the fear of what'll happen when strangers read your work.

Who reads your stuff? Can you count on family and friends to give you the skinny, or do you have to look outside for an objective eye?