So…a couple months ago, I took the plunge and started doing Critters.org, a semi-professional online critique/writing workshop. Basically, it’s a group of amateur-hoping-to-turn-pro & pro writers looking to get feedback on their writing in order to improve. I submitted a couple chapters of The Severed Earth through their queue, and got rather complimentary feedback (including a “Why isn’t this published yet??”).
So I finally gritted my teeth and asked for Dedicated Readers.
For Critters, DR’s dedicate themselves to reading & critting your novel as a whole, rather than getting it piecemeal through the queue (where you take your chances with whoever decides to crit that particular chapter for that particular week).
I’ve got 2 dedicated readers now working their way through Severed Earth…
…and yesterday I found out that one of them is a musician…
…named Neil.
And his favorite character (as in “OMGZ THIS GUY’S GOT ME HOOKED!!!”)? Rafe, the mainstream analog for Neal Schon (for those who’ve only read the fanfic version), with Jonathan running a close second.
“Eeerie” doesn’t begin to describe that.
My problem, though, is the other DR…who through the course of his crits, has let slip that he’s just out of high school…and who’s last crit stated that he thought the character of Steve was “gay” because he HADN’T DONE BETHANY YET (he’s just past the scene where Darkwater calls Steve “Faolan”, the confrontation in the salle), and that Rafe & Jonathan touching hands during one of the geas-leasson scenes is also “gay”.
Oh dear gods, and all I can think of are the scenes coming up.
Across The Shadows 