Beta Readers for Draft Novel
I have been very remiss and not updated my website for a while. Apologies for that. I’ve been busy in 2024 and early 2025 revising and editing a draft novel. That’s also why I haven’t had that many short stories published in 2024, I’ve been busy working on my novel.
However, I’m now at the stage of having beta reads. A beta reader is “a test reader of an unreleased work of writing, typically literature, who gives feedback to the author from the point of view of an average reader.” At least, that’s Wikipedia’s definition and who am I to argue with that?
So, I’m (not that) patiently waiting for the comments from my beta readers and hoping that they won’t tell me that they hate it and it’s the worst thing they’ve ever read. (Yes, being very positive.) Of course, they could tell me that it’s the best thing since sliced bread!
2025 London Book Fair
Oddly enough, my last post was after I’d just been to the 2024 London Book Fair and I’ve just been this year too. Sadly, I thought it wasn’t as good as last year for a number of reasons – space given for author events and the quality of the talks. However, I did enjoy the reception given by ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors on Wednesday evening. It’s always fun to talk to other authors.
Short Story Published
I have actually had one short story published this year, a cozy fantasy although it was published in an urban and dark fantasy anthology -go figure. “How Hamesh got her wings” is in Rum and Rosemary by 6th Element Publishing.