Monday, October 15, 2012

Wanted: Readers

Okay, so much for follow-through. You may recall, at the end of June I had taken down my copy of "The Other Lessons of Phaedrus" and was about to transcribe the story into this space. At that point, for all intents and purposes, I dropped off the face of the blogosphere.

Sorry.

I dropped the ball.

Sort of. Actually, while I was preparing to transcribe the story and reviewing possible title change, my mind kept wandering. I'd had a dream the night before. It was a recurring dream but one I hadn't had in over a year. As I started rethinking the dream and rearranging scenes in my head, I started thinking of variations on the dream. Next thing I knew, I was writing a novel. I had spinal surgery scheduled for August 7th, but I really wasn't thinking of that when I started writing.

Suddenly, the end of July was approaching, and I had over sixty thousand words. I had out-written the NaNoWriMo requirement in less than a month, and I still wasn't finished with the novel. I finished the rough draft on Saturday (right around 72,000 words), August 4th, the weekend before my surgery. After a week in the hospital and another in a rehab hospital, they sent me home—sorer, straighter, and taller. I asked my wife to read the rough draft. She did. She was brutal.

Now, two months later, I've almost finished revising (I have two chapters I might want to rework still), and the novel, The New Girls, is just shy of 100,000 words. I think I've corrected the problems my wife identified. I've asked my daughter the budding author in the UI creative writing program to read it, but she's pretty busy. I know she's read a couple chapters, but I haven't heard much from her. I don't want to turn it over to my wife again so soon. I want to pass it by a few more readers first. My friend Jan has nearly finished reading a copy, and a friend at UT has agreed to read it and has provided one additional reader.

So, before I get around to reproducing "The Other Lessons," I need to get some closure on this novel. I need more readers. I especially need male readers, but I'll happily share the novel with anyone who will read the novel and offer an honest assessment.

The New Girls is a contemporary, urban fantasy novel about gender change: four very different men wake and find themselves female, and there's a little matter of a curse.

Act now while it's still free (essentially—it'll cost you sharing your email address with me and a promise of a written response of whatever size and detail you can manage).

2 comments:

  1. Oh, man! I would've loved to see this a few years ago. I came in late. What a bummer, haha

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  2. Well, Santiag, if you're still interested, I published the novel as "Gifts" on Amazon for kindle. It's also available in paperback. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1499133138

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