A Pseudo-Writer's Musings

I'm a bit weepy about my poor novel today.

I love them so much, both Jonathan and Melissa, and I feel like -this is silly- I'm failing them with my inability to figure out a plan to get this book published and out to the world, so I can share my beloveds with everyone. I love them both so much and I really want others to love them too.

Let's be very clear: I'm failing fictional characters in a book I wrote. I mean, really, self? I should laugh, because it is objectively ridiculous, but instead I find myself very sad.

I was going through my other journal looking for something and found this small tidbit. It's an outtake from the other novel I wrote, that also doesn't have a title, because I'm terrible with titles. I figured I'd post it. ( Read more... )

I'm about ready to post a request on goodreads for a beta. I'm just... terrified of doing that. I was going to use the description of the book a friend of mine wrote me, lol:

Jonathan and Melissa have a major case of not seeing their own special qualities. She's a renowned scientist and he's a child prodigy turned pediatric oncologist at the age of 24. But neither of them thinks the other deserves each other. Their attraction is instant but she's 13 years older and fears the condemnation that will come from the outside world. He doesn't care about the difference - he is madly in love with her - but fears he can't get her to see how a life without each other is unbearable to imagine. Can they overcome all of this to get the life they deserve together?

Later, I hope to get more chapter-by-chapter beta work (probably paid, LOL) but I just want a sense, right now, if this book is interesting enough to hold anyone's attention for the number of pages. Which is a lot. My only reader so far, as I said above, is a friend, so totally 100% lovingly biased in my favor. ETA. I did it, I posted a request for a beta. Ugh. Now I'll probably just be ignored, LOL.

When I was a kid, I really preferred books to have chapter names. As an adult... well, I don't mind if they don't, but often, I like if they do.

So.

Wondering if I should try to add chapter titles.

Also wondering how fixated people are on chapters being more or less the same length? I had a wide variation here (the geek in me says: average length is 11 pages with a standard deviation of 5, so pretty variable) but there were scenes that were long and impossible to interrupt. So it'll have to do, I think.

Anyone have a small score to settle? I need a name for a whiny, annoying bit of a loser character in my novel and can't think of anything. LOL. It has to be unique and not the same of someone I do like, but eh.

Only other requirement is no J names. Have too many of those already.

You'll always know that whiny XXXXX was named for why person who annoys you!

I try to make sure my annoying/icky characters don't have the names of people I like, or even people I don't like but know, but for some reasons, this dude's name is eluding me.

He's not mean or evil just a whiny mama's boy.

So here I am. I have another unlinked journal on this site, but this is the place where I pretend to be a writer.

I am not. I never have been. My high school focus (French baccalaureate) was math-physics. I went on to two physics masters degrees, and after a hiatus to raise kids and write a bunch of fan fiction, started writing original fiction and went back to school for a masters in biology.

I've published one novel on amazon. Of course I'm going to link it!

Yellow Card. It's, needless to say, not very popular.

But I wrote two other novels, both untitled. Both, like _Yellow Card_ fall under the category of, I guess, romance. But. With a lot of background and other themes and relationships. So even if the romance is the major categorization, anyone reading for just the romance is going to be annoyed in all probability.

The first novel is m/m and while at times clear, is not too explicit. It started out as a techno thriller, but I quickly found out that my thing, the part I enjoy, is writing relationships between people. Which amuses me to no end because I absolutely suck at real life relationships. So it's a book about relationships, and not just romantic ones.

The one I just finished is m/f and I love it. Again, no tile yet. I suck at titles, clearly. One of my two bffs read (most of) it and described it as such:

Sexy Book with no name yet
by bestselling author Aster Alison


Jonathan and Melissa have a major case of not seeing their own special qualities. She's a renowned scientist and he's a child prodigy turned pediatric oncologist at the age of 24. But neither of them thinks the other deserves each other.

Their attraction is instant but she's 13 years older and fears the condemnation that will come from the outside world. He doesn't care about the difference - he is madly in love with her - but fears he can't get her to see how a life without each other is unbearable to imagine.

Can they overcome all of this to get the life they deserve together?

Available now for free on Kindle Unlimited

She makes it sound so much better than I ever could. Also, she's my friend, so totally exaggerated the "bestselling" part. I had to copy this from a text so typos mine.

Right now I'm doing a full read-through to check for plot holes. I'm going to need beta readers. My next little project is going to be to figure out how to recruit beta readers.