I met with the book club yesterday and it was an extremely positive experience. Given that I feel the work has only honed in and improved from Listen Closely I was pleasantly surprised by what they had to say.
A few key takeaways:
Some of them were really rooting for Andrew.
They felt the blue-collar male POV was fresh in a genre crowded with unreliable female protagonists.
One reader said Andrew’s grief hit very close to home and made her emotional.
Another said that her ‘bs’ detector for bad books is high, and will DNF bad books but found this to be a page turner.
They complimented my effort to write the women, and said it did not seem like that common ‘men writing women’ trope applied here. Huge praise since I tried hard to accomplish that.
They actually wished it burned a little slower and that you got to know Andrew and his past a little longer before the plot took off. Really interesting since all I hear in the industry is ‘push the pace’.
There was a split on the ending, and they were debating the nature of it and what actually happened. They all had wild theories and interesting takes and it landed exactly as intended. Ambiguous and debate generating.
Overall I was very touched and please by the reactions. I did put a lot of effort into that one. It certainly will make the silence and form rejections easier to deal with in the long run here. I know the trenches are brutal but I will keep on writing.
After Image is nearly done. November Sunrise is still out in query and more betas will be getting it soon. I have two more book ideas ready to go. Just need to keep on pushing.
More to come.