Queen of Souls is FINISHED!

[annathepiper]

Those of you reading my annathewriter journal have already seen this, but for those of you who aren't, I am delighted to announce that as of tonight I have FINISHED Queen of Souls!

Not unlike Faerie Blood, this is a book I owe to mizkit--because the idea for it arose in my brain when I was brainstorming with her about a Luna thing she was participating in at the time. She came up with a different idea she wanted to use instead, so I called dibs on this one. And it grew into the tale of Korinne/Persephone and Aidon/Hades, a sequel, if you will, to the original myth.

And, with this post, I am officially throwing the book open for beta reading. I am particularly interested in beta readers with high Greek mythology fu. I consider mine fairly decent, and what I didn't remember I double-checked on the redoubtable theoi.com--but please, if anybody out there wants to double-check my double-checking, I want to hear from you! I have made some deliberate changes from the original myths, but aside from things I'm specifically doing to serve the greater purpose of my story, I am trying to hold as much as I can to the canon of the mythos. If one can say that Greek mythology has a "canon". ;)

Anybody interested in beta reading who isn't already reading annathewriter and/or who isn't already on my readers mailing list, talk to me and I'll get you set up. Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer help!

Comments

[grian-ruadh.livejournal.com]

I would love to beta for you, darlin', but I have no time.

Go you on getting it done though! Anna FTW! \o/

[annathepiper]

No worries, hon! And thank you very much. ^_^

[risu.livejournal.com]

Yay!

Get me a printout and I'll read it!

[risu.livejournal.com]

(I suppose I should rephrase that as,

"I would genuinely love to read it! Please let me know if you ever have a printout handy to satisfy my eccentric and silly requirement for real paper when reading. ^_^")

[annathepiper]

*grin* Will do! I don't know how likely I am to actually print off the first draft, 'cause that does consume paper, but we'll see what happens!

[peregrine-ek.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on finishing a 2nd novel! What an accomplishment.

[annathepiper]

Thank you very much! (Though actually, depending on how you count, this is either the third novel I've finished or the fifth. Third if you count things I've written since trying to do this on a professional basis--the two previous things were Faerie Blood and Lament of the Dove. Fifth, if you count the two short and godawful things I wrote in school, which have turned into backstory for Lament. *^_^*)

[starfallz.livejournal.com]

Woooooo! I like Greek mythology. :) I'm wondering if I have time to read it though.

[annathepiper]

Totally cool if you don't have time. Also, if it helps, differing degrees of beta reading are also quite cool. Some folks who have read for me in the past have gone through my work with a fine-toothed comb and found lots of things I needed to tweak; others have taken the broader route and just read through the whole thing, with occasional brief but nonetheless very helpful comments. :)

[starfallz.livejournal.com]

I'm more of the latter, I think. I'm not a very sophisticated critic of words, but I can note any thing that made me irritated, lost, confused, empty, etc. :) Do you have any kind of deadline for comments from betas?

[annathepiper]

I don't have a hard and fast rule about this. I've only done this twice so far, with Faerie Blood and Lament--and so far the only deadlines that have been applicable have been based on when I start editing any given chapter, and when I plan to start querying.

Right now, I plan to give it about six weeks until I begin an edit pass for the second draft, so that'll put us pretty much at "end of year". If you think you might be able to read the whole thing some time in the next six weeks and give me general overall impressions, let me know anything that confused you and such, that'd be awesome. :)

[annathepiper]

Yeah, I just got into work today and saw the blurb for the Beowulf review on our index. "Oh dear" was my immediate reaction, and snickering out loud came next. I (heart) Moira Macdonald.

Meanwhile, YAY and thank you in advance for any beta work you've got time for. If you're interested, you might consider jumping onto my annathewriter journal and/or joining my readers list, but that ain't required. Fling me an email and we can talk about how best to make this work.

Congrats also to your friend! Yay for public readings!

[stealthcello.livejournal.com]

Yay for finishing your new book, and (with ref to another post) yay for no more surgery too!

I have limited time, but would nonetheless be very happy to beta-read your book. My knowledge of the Greek mythos is probably better than the average otter, although I'm no expert. (Nor am I an otter. :-)

I am perfectly fine with reading in electronic form -- I do it all the time. Also, I'm a writer/editor by trade, so if you would like any (free) copy editing, just let me know...

[annathepiper]

Oh wow, I'd be delighted to take any help you can give me. :) Thank you very much!

If you're cool with electronic format, fling me an email (my email address should be visible to you on my LJ profile page), and we can talk about how to make this work. (Also, if you're interested, please feel free to peek in on annathewriter or my readers mailing list, though this is of course optional.)

Whatever you have time for is absolutely cool. I've had previous beta readers just go through the other two things I've finished so far and give me a broad reaction. Others (amazing people like oh, say, kisanthe) have gone through a few chapters line by line and offered a huge ton of suggested copy edits. And I've gotten still others who have fallen between these two ends of the reading spectrum. :)

Re: huzzah!

[annathepiper]

RAR! :)

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Oh, bravo, Anna! YAY! *cheers wildly!* YAAAAAAAAY!

[annathepiper]

*huggaKit!* Thanks babe! And hopefully some time early next year I can actually fling this thing at Luna, as a followup to that offer to send them more stuff!

But I gotta bang it into queryable shape first. :)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

'Scuse me, is this a group huggaKit?

*joins in randomly*

[annathepiper]

Hee, I'll have to defer to Kit on that one. ;) But I owe her bunches of hugs, as she is arguably the person responsible for pushing me into my current effort to turn myself into a writer!

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Group huggaKits are good! *HUGS*! :)

Sadly, Adam Wilson's not working with Luna anymore, but fortunately that doesn't mean you can't tell them it's a follow-up to a request to see more. Just don't address it to Adam specifically. :)

[annathepiper]

Awww, darn! This is what I get for writing so slow. ;)

We'll see what can be seen when I get this thing into queryable shape then!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! And yay on the no-more-surgery too! Great day...

[annathepiper]

Thank you very much! It's a fabulous day indeed. :)

[jessicac.livejournal.com]

I'm embarking on a week-long business trip to Europe and will have plenty of time to read between Saturday and Saturday. Please sign me up and pont me in the direction of the words!

[annathepiper]

Oh wow, thank you very much. :) Since you're not on annathewriter or my readers list (you're welcome to join either if you like), I'll email you a copy of the note I sent to the latter.

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Are you still taking readers? I'm way behind on my LJ reading...

[annathepiper]

Yes I am! Book's sitting on the back burner until at least mid-January, while I work on other stuff.