Hilariously, there is a part of my author brain that insists that my book is AMAZEBALLS and will be deeply beloved by anyone who reads it. It is clearly untrue that my book is for everyone and this is okay. (So far, my book seems to be for people over 30 who love cats and have a keen interest in religion and/or the politics of religion, as well the history of marginalized people in Europe and classical music. My parents met singing opera, yo. I started going to choir practice with them when I was six weeks old.)

That said, so far my new readers have been SUPER USEFUL for fixing my foreshadowing. My writer’s group has seen it twice, so they know all the reveals and can’t tell me if my foreshadowing is enough for a new reader. These readers seem to have helped me fix my foreshadowing! which is huge and OMG THANK YOU. I, er, have a recurring problem in which I think I am being BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS and instead am being ludicrously obscure. One of my early short story critiques from a friend included a stern lecture about “WHY ARE YOU SO DEATHLY AFRAID OF PROVIDING ANY INFORMATION TO A READER? YOU’RE GOING THROUGH THESE BIZARRE CONTORTIONS IN ORDER TO AVOID GIVING THE READER EVEN THE TINIEST SCRAP OF INFORMATION! THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF SUSPENSE!” while my response was “I thought I was being sledgehammer obvious.”

I’d like to say I’ve moved past this, but no. 😉 I have a weird brain and need the eyes of normal people upon my work from time to time. 😉

Current comps, btw: When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Cohen, Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco, and A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. Er, mostly the first, but it does have vampires and queer like the second and a vampire married to a witch with lesbian moms like the third. (Resemblance was coincidental but I’ll take it.)