Finally!

A round of applause, please — I have sent the manuscript to my critique group. And it was only one entire week late!

(That should be fine. It's a short novel.)

Anyhow, I fixed some continuity issues, added a few references where they were needed, and then split the whole thing up into chapters before sending it out. Does the manuscript need work? Undoubtedly. But it's at a stage where it will help to have other people read it and look for problems.

But why?

Maybe it's worth explaining here what my critique partners are good at pointing out?

• Plot holes. Hey, sometimes I've seen so many versions of the story that I can't remember if the bad guy stole the car in this version. Having someone read it with fresh eyes is extremely helpful.
  
  
• Character weirdness. If a character suddenly starts speaking in New Zealand slang (because I rewatched The Brokenwood Mysteries), I might or might not notice.
  
  
• Humor that doesn't work. There's a fine line between funny and a-hole. That's really all I can say.
  
  
• Dropped threads. That dog that ran off at the end of chapter two and is never mentioned again? That's a problem.
  
  
• General confusion. "I got lost in chapter four" is a valid thing to say.
  
  
• Pacing issues. Usually this takes the form of some section being waaay too slow. Slow sections lose readers. That's the kiss of death for a novel. Readers will accept confusion and weirdness and plot holes and all sorts of problems, but if you bore them? No.
  
  

Now I'm going to take a couple days off and then it will be time to pick up Dragon Fortune!

Memories of Kittens

These goobers have all been adopted, but I still have pictures.