Not a Regular Blog Post: Help Me By Reading/Giving Feedback on Short Stories (Please?)

Sooo… this is turning out to be a super-busy time of year for me. I am privileged to be working on something really cool, and also to be working on something a little more ordinary but really cool nevertheless. However, working on both those things and at the same time recuperating from whatever the heck this illness is has left me hardly any time to write a blog entry for this week.

On that winning note, allow me to post instead something I’ve had up my sleeve since last weekend: a desperate plea for YOUR, yes, YOUR help.

You may recall that getting others’ reactions and criticism is an important part of my writing process. I am currently working on a series of urban fantasy short mysteries set around Toronto (mostly the university). My hope is to have nine stories that work both as individual stories and together as a novel — think of my goal as being like a TV season. Only, you know, of a good show.

I’ve finished polished drafts of stories 1 through 3: “Speak of the Devil”, “On the Side of the Angels”, and “Devil in the Details”.  Each story is about 25 pages long. The protagonists are adults, and there’s some swearing and violence. I could really use more eyes on them, whether those eyes are linked to hands that then type out a detailed analysis of every word choice, grammar problem, and plot hole or to ones that type “yep. that was a story.”

So, pretty pretty please wanna take a look for me? On one or some of the stories *?

Or, if you have something you’d like to get feedback on (writing is probably your best bet, but, hey, if you want my even more uninformed opinions on other stuff, I’m game), wanna trade?

If so, then please comment, message, or email me.

But before you do, I want to make crystal clear that just agreeing to receive one or more stories entails NO COMMITMENT ON YOUR PART. You can read them. You can let them sit on your hard drive. You can print them and burn them if you hate me and/or the environment. Although I appreciate any and all feedback (even/especially negative feedback), once I hit that “send” key, it will be as if I have completely forgotten that any such transmission of stories ever existed, and I will not think of them and you together ever again unless YOU choose to bring it up.

The only two things I ask you to agree to are the following:

1) Please don’t show any part of the stories to anyone without my permission, because such things can interfere with seeking publication.
2) Please understand that if you give feedback that I don’t use in my revision, this doesn’t mean that it was bad or that I didn’t read it or that my feelings are hurt. It just means that I have to tell my story, even if it doesn’t match up to the awesome one you can imagine.

Thanks, and hope everyone’s new year is starting off great!

* Some of you who have read “Speak of the Devil” have asked me to let you know when I’ve continued the series. Consider this to be letting you know. :)