The Reviews are In

I received reviews of my latest manuscript this past month, but before I share, I have to thank my reviewers profusely. Not only did these gals take the time to read over my work, but they truly critiqued it like pros. I have notes written all over the print versions plus five pages of recommendations. They truly worked on these reviews, which I greatly appreciate.

The story I gave them to review was my experiment into a new subgenre, a paranormal romance where the characters come from other realms. Not only was it a new topic, but I wrote it in first person without plotting or outlining it. I created my character and setting notes as I wrote the story.

As I said there were pages of notes, so I'll only post a few comments.

- "Let me begin by saying, I'm excited. This story has tremendous possibilities and there were parts of it that had me riveted to what was going on. And I think with some 'cleaning' up you should send this one off ... You did a good job and I'm looking forward to seeing an entire series. I think you have created a good idea that just needs to have a few tweaks. This should be the one that you ship off."

These were amazing words from someone who maintains a popular book review site.

- "Your changing from one scene to the other was pretty smooth."

Loved hearing this since there are flashbacks and dream sequences throughout the story. It does not flow in a straight line.

"As I said before, the story really kept my interest and the pacing was very good. Just enough information was revealed to keep me going without telling the whole story at once."

I had worried about not revealing enough and holding back.

- "I wanted more of your other world ... and that means you created a fascinating place."

- "When do I get book two?"

Not only did I enjoy the positive commentary, but was pleased with their critiques and recommendations, which included a misunderstanding of the ending scene, which needs to be rewritten; more hints leading to the big reveal; more of the other realm; and flesh out the two secondary villains.

Then there were the discrepancies between my reviewers, who each read different types of subgenres. One reviewer said, "The intimate scenes were hot and well written," while another stated, "I think there may be too much sex, unless you are going to send to an Erotica publisher ..." I asked my reviewer who regularly reads paranormal for her opinion and she said it was the right amount of sex. Two of my reviewers thought I should tone down some fight scenes, but another thought they were required to show how volatile the other beings behaved.

Right now, I plan to set this story aside for a month and think on it. I plan to jump on some of these recommendations in February, but I need to think over the others. For January, I plan to start cleaning up the first half of my Nano 2010 project, which is book two of this story. I hope that by working on the next book and paying attention to the direction it is heading, I will know what to fix in book one.

So my many thanks and love to my reviewers for your support and guidance through this harrowing experience. I plan to make the necessary changes, ask for your reviews again, so I can send this story to several agencies and begin the next phase of this adventure.