Hi, all! I disappeared for years, but here I am again, many books later and a few pounds heavier (thanks, pandemic curbside pickup).
I am searching for critique partners in the contemporary / upmarket / book club fiction genres. I'm also interested in beta readers (and CPs) for a new book I'm whipping into shape.
I'm happy to swap!
Thanks for considering it!
- Genres: Historical, upmarket, commercial, mainstream. I'm not an avid sf/f reader and erotica isn't my thing. Light romance is good. (Bridgerton is a no. Colleen Hoover is great.)
- Method: Google Docs, please.
- Style: I like a compliment sandwich both in giving and receiving. Harsh crit has its place, but it's good to know where the strengths are, too, so you don't burn down the whole house to kill a fly.
- Timeframe: I read pretty fast. A few chapters a day.
- Street Cred: I've seen A LOT of CPs move on to trad pub journeys. I've probably beta'd 20 books a year over the last five years. That's a lot of opinions.
The Not-A-Blurb:
BICENTENNIALS (78,000 words) is multi-POV contemporary fiction.
On the eve of America’s 250th anniversary, seven old friends turning fifty seek independence from their sins and freedom from their past.
Nicole loses her Washington press office job and comes home to nurse her wounds, but a youthful indiscretion and her lust for life chase her down and force her to realize she's fifty now. Both work and forgiveness are harder to find.
Cameron is a glutton for punishment who chases the wrong clients and the wrong women because they’ll never ask him to stick around. But something about Nicole makes him realize what he's missing and what he was trying so hard not to find.
Evelyn was once a literary novelist. After a devastating divorce, she picked up a pen name, a penchant for romance, and a lot of debt. On the eve of her fiftieth birthday, she's racked by jealousy for her old friends’ achievements and dives back into toxic relationships just to feel something again.
April owns a bookstore, crippling secret debts of her own, and a twin sister with a hoarding problem. She could turn to her wealthy wife, Sandy, for help but it would come at the sake of her pride.
Sandy inherited mountains of cash from parents who never taught her what love was. People say she's lazy, but all that money makes normal jobs and a simple life so hard. Worried her wife, April, is keeping secrets and being distant, Sandy sets out to win her back with a surprise vacation. But the spontaneous ill-conceived scheme could upend everything with her soul mate.
Ava was the smallest twin and, as April likes to remind her, a surprise. She inherits her mother's hoard and adds her own flair: furniture she vows to refinish and art supplies that bring her joy. But the house is in April’s name. When Ava’s neighbor calls the authorities to report her, she faces losing her sister’s help and her home.
Randall spent eighteen months as a prisoner of war, tormented by rats after tending burn pits in Afghanistan. He spends his life absorbed in predictable video games. When the nest of rats in Ava’s hoard comes knocking, he must overcome more than his terror to fix it. First he loses his head at the town hall and falls into running for office. And then he loses his heart and falls for the woman who scares him the most.
