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74K Memoir, "Too Young to Save," seeking betas

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eruthford

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Hi there, this is my first time seeking a beta in here, so (gasp) here goes:

I have just finished proofing my non-fiction memoir, Too Young to Save: Our Premature Baby, My Weakness and God's Strength, which is 74,000 words long and is about our son, born at 22 weeks of gestation. It's a memoir of trial and growth, specifically with growth in faith as a major theme.

To give you more of an idea of what you're getting in to, here's the query that I use on agents:

Our first baby is about to be born, but he will likely live only a few minutes. The doctor says he’s too premature to save as he’s coming four months early.

We love our baby, but is it love to “let him go” to spare his suffering? Or to fight the hospital policy and push for treatment and risk a future of pain, suffering, and disability?

Fear of making a mistake paralyzes me – if Gabriel dies because of our choice, can we see each other in heaven again? Fatherhood forces me to confront my immature expectations of God and my own fallibility.

Too Young to Save: Our Premature Baby, My Weakness, and God’s Strength is a 74,000-word memoir of tested faith at the beginning of parenthood. As Juniper: The Girl Who Was Born Too Soon by Kelley and Tom French (2016) brought to life the struggles of preemie parents in a shaky marriage, Too Young to Save will inspire readers who are interested in the power of faith in the face of a major setback.

This experience has turned me in to a preemie advocate. Our story was featured on the front page of the Sunday Seattle Times on Nov. 1, 2015. The Associated Press picked up the story, which was reprinted by newspapers in Boise, Honolulu, Wisconsin, Florida and Vancouver, Wash. The Journal of Pediatrics recently published an essay I wrote encouraging doctors to be better listeners to families having a crisis birth. I am the only Dad blogger on the popular preemie-parent Web site PreemieBabies101, where my posts have received 20,000 views since they began in 2015. I regularly speak at university schools of nursing and caregivers’ conferences about our experiences.
 
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