beta readers – Neve Maslakovic

A neighborhood lake with lily pads, two swans, and leafy trees beneath a partly cloudy blue sky. Houses line the far shore. — One of Minnesota’s ten thousand.

Minnesota basically has three seasons—white, green, and the red/orange/yellow of autumn—and we’re deep in the green. The picture is of our neighborhood lake; the dog’s favorite walking path goes all the way around. There are birds, turtles, and squirrels to see. The mosquitoes haven’t been too bad this year (they seem to like me for some reason so that’s a big plus), maybe because we’ve had fewer thunder-hail-downpour storms than usual. It doesn’t feel like autumn is just around the corner, that’s for sure.

Writing Update

The prequel novella to That Murder Feeling is nearing the finish line! After some back and forth, I’ve settled on a title… Ta-da:

One Feeling After Another: A Soul Garden Mystery Novella

The manuscript is scheduled for a copy-edit in late September, but I’m hoping to get some reader feedback first. Which leads me to the next section…

Call For Beta Readers

Since One Feeling After Another is a prequel (Book 0.5), I’m looking for a couple of beta readers who haven’t read Book 1 yet (That Murder Feeling) so they meet the world of the story with fresh eyes. The beta readers would be asked to provide short feedback that essentially boils down to: Could you understand and enjoy this story without having read Book 1?

Some quick info: One Feeling After Another is a speculative mystery novella of 30,000 words—roughly a hundred pages, or about a third of the length of a typical novel. Cracking the case, one emotion at a time. Small town PI Rod Gray sees people’s soul gardens—and this time, he’s tracking greed. Two Lakes resident Millie Barnhill has died, a million-dollar inheritance has gone missing, and Rod’s been hired to find the money. Someone knows more than they’re saying—but greed never lies.

If you haven’t read Book 1 yet and would be interested in providing feedback on the prequel novella draft, please respond to this email (or drop me a comment below if you’re reading this online). I’d email out the ARCs on Friday, September 4th. Feedback requested by Friday, September 18.

What I’m Reading

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Sci-fi thriller. This one has been on my TBR list for a while. It turned out to be somewhat darker than what I usually read but I quite liked it. Fast-moving, twisty and clever, with quite a taut writing style. There’s also an Apple TV series based on the book, but I haven’t tried watching it yet.

The Moon-Spinners by Mary Stewart. I haven’t read this 1962 novel since I was a teen but recently happened to come across it. Back then I didn’t pay much attention to the vividness of Mary Stewart’s descriptions of the Greek island of Crete—the vegetation, the scents, the heat, the sea—but this time around they jumped out at me. I’d always thought of the book as an adventure story, but nowadays it would probably be marketed as New Adult romantic suspense. Or maybe a beach-read, if you’re looking for one.

Promotion Corner

That Murder Feeling is $1.99 in ebook on all retailers until the end of the month, which means it’s a good time to grab it if you haven’t done so yet! Read more about the book here. Full list of retailers can be found at this link: https://books2read.com/thatmurderfeeling

My books are also in a couple of promotions this month, one for mysteries and thrillers, and the other for speculative fiction. Clicking on the two images below will take you to the promotions.

That’s it for August and thanks for reading!

Neve

Welcome, 2023

Happy New Year! For me, January 1 always brings with it the feel of a crisp new notebook. Pages yet to be written. Moments to be grabbed, new things to be learned, adventures and struggles awaiting just around the corner.

Blue skies ahead, what’s over the horizon as yet unknown.

The ocean water picture is one I took from my cabin on the Writing Excuses Workshop and Retreat cruise, this past September in the Western Caribbean. It was an extraordinary experience. I’d never been on a cruise before, or the Caribbean, or a writer’s retreat. I can happily report back that I met and got to converse with some wonderful people, attended group dinners in a grand dining room, sat in on lectures by authors Brandon Sanderson and Margaret Dunlap and agents DongWon Song and Seth Fishman, went on three lovely excursions, watched a nighttime lightning storm from the ship’s railing, visited Rose and Jack’s “I’m king of the world” spot on the bow, and never got seasick!

I had planned to do a full edit of Book 1 of the new mystery series on the cruise, somewhat optimistically in retrospect. With all the other activities, I managed to get through about 150 pages, so just about half. I did attend an “unlocking” session, which helped clarify some issues I had been struggling with, mainly having to do with the big arc of the series.

By mid February, there should be a near-final draft of the book. The working title, Dogwood, is not here to stay, alas, but I’ll leave the unveiling of the new and improved title for a post down the road. When I’m happy with the manuscript, I’ll send out a call for beta readers. I’ll give out more details then, but basically the way it would work is I’d provide a Word document (or other format) with the 300-page manuscript and brief guidelines as to the type of reader feedback I need. In return you’d get a deeper look into my writing process than this newsletter, my eternal gratitude, and a copy of the book upon publication in your preferred format, ebook or print. Be on the lookout for the email if you’re interested!

On a social media note, going forward I’ll be taking a break from the merry-go-round that’s Twitter. I’m trying out Mastodon — you can find me in the Wandering Shop, a community of science fiction and fantasy readers and writers. I’m @neve there (@neve@wandering.shop). So far I’m finding it welcoming and less adversarial than the ‘birdsite’. I’ll still be on Twitter, just not as much.

May this new year bring you lots of good things!