#test readers

The manuscript is very close to being complete. I need some test readers to read the book and give feedback on its quality. Sensitivity readers welcome!

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Kinda like beta readers. but even earlier. Rachelle and I are still working on outlining the first book and there are a few spots that we're having trouble with because I think we're cursed with the knowledge of knowing what happens next so all the little clues and details feel really obvious to us but might not be for the audience.

So if anyone is interested in being a fresh pair of eyes, drop your discord below if you've got it [if you don't, just comment below, and I'll work with you individually, discord is just the easiest way to collaborate]

Please rb to signal boost :)8

Project Gemini Information🔥

Disclaimer: This book is still being written so any information here is subject to change

Title: Deviant

Series: The Zodiacs Book 1

Genre: YA Dystopian

Tags: Enemies to Lovers, found family, dystopian, queer romance, hell queer people in general, slow burn romance

I’m hella new to the idea of tagging my story so apologies if I don’t really know what to tag my story with/I do it wrong

If you liked… you might like this: The Lunar Chronicles, Arc of a Scythe, Uglies, The House of the Scorpion, The Red Queen Series

Trigger warnings: This story deals with an oppressive government which includes things like police brutality, gaslighting, mental and physical abuse, and general violence as well as PTSD

Would rate PG-13 ish? Uncertain.

Synopsis:

Deviants are born different.

Caspian is a deviant. More than anything he wants to be a doctor. But the laws against deviants prevent him from being able to take on medical training beyond being a nurse.

Adrian is a deviant. He has spent his entire life struggling under the weight of government expectations and military power. He has spent the last five years conspiring with others to put an end to deviant oppression.

When an accident at the hospital gets Caspian arrested, he is thrown headfirst into Adrian’s revolution and discovers who he really is.

I’m working on my revision of “The Dragon Lord” for Venture Press.

Mostly it’s the usual tightening of dialogue from prepared speeches to realistic conversation, the removal of ellipses and en-dashes which younger Morwood used by the unnecessary bushel - and in this book, some heavy rewriting to remove Tuckerisations of character and quote that not merely break the Fourth Wall but shatter it.

I’d included Anne McCaffrey as a fairly identifiable character (she had just introduced me to @dduane, with all that followed after. There were quotes, all used with permission, I still have the letters, from “Dragonflight”, “Stormbringer”, “Bridge of Birds” and “Conan the Conqueror”. All of this seemed like a good idea at the time – they make sense in context, and certainly nobody objected either then or since – but older Morwood thinks they have no place in a much more rounded secondary world, so out they go.

(This is a bit like using German and Italian HEMA terminology in fantasy: the moves may be authentic, but if there isn’t a Germany or Italy in that fantasy world it’s best to think up other names for the moves.)

I’m also correcting continuity errors that have been in print for 30+ years (yes, really – unnoticed by me, my agent, and at last count two English-language editors and four foreign-language ones…)

Mostly it’s objects and people in two places at the same time, or at least within a few paragraphs of each other and no linking action to indicate how they got there, but today I’ve reached the bit in “Dragon Lord” where Gemmel the wizard Summons an icedrake near the end of a chapter, uses it to defeat his enemies and makes his escape.

End of chapter. Next chapter is at a later time in a completely different location.

There were a couple of paragraphs describing how Gemmel did the Summoning of the icedrake, but there isn’t a single line describing how he Dismissed it. I’ve just done a Search through the entire book and Gemmel never Dismissed it.

That icedrake, like a supernatural stove, tap or faucet, has been “left running” in six languages since 1986…

So if any test readers take you to task for significantly opening a door and forgetting to shut it, look on the bright side: that’s an error which has been caught. And rest assured that professionals have done something similar. They still do…

Heya friends! I have finished the edits on my 2nd book and I am in need of a handful of test readers. I have for you a synopsis and a content warning list because Moonlit Memories is a *heavy* book.

If you're interested, please send me a DM! I'd like to get this book out in January. Thanks!