Looking for Beta Readers

Hello all,

A little more than a month and a half ago I sent my book, "Dancing with Dragonflies" to a few friends and family members, I think there were around 10 people I sent to? Anyway, I've only heard back from two of them and I'm running out of time for peoples' opinions on it, so I will be finding three more people to send to.

This story is finished, however, it is not completely ready for publishing. I will go through another round or two of proofreading and editing, but before I do that, I would like some more feedback on it, from the readers. Why? Because I have my reservations about this book. I spent eight years (or more?) off and on writing it because I was bored with it a lot of the time and I didn't think it was going to be a good story.

Those thoughts have changed. It's now one of MY favorites, but I need to know if other readers feel the same. I think I thought it was boring before because it was taking me so long to write--it had always been a "back burner" story, you see--so I wasn't seeing it as what it really is, which is an exciting adventure.

I had originally planned on Cole, a teenage boy, to be the main character and protagonist, but somewhere along the way, another character stepped up and took that position (I did not have that planned, but sometimes our characters take over a story and make us write things we had no intentions of doing). I need to know if that's okay. I need to know if that's going to bug the readers. I just want to know if it progresses smoothly or if it's kind of a mess.

I also intentionally added some cliches to this story because I wanted it to have an old fairy-tale type feel to it. I need to know if readers will be rolling their eyes at this or if I balanced things all right.

I need several opinions about these issues, of course. I can't just take the word of one person (my editor), which is why having beta readers to give me feedback (brutal--but constructive--honesty) is so important.

I'm not going to bother leaving a link here because, to be honest, I don't think anyone reads this blog (lol), but on the off chance there is someone reading and that person is interested in being a beta reader, you'll find more info on my Facebook account (Author Sara Hogan).

July 17th

Hello world,

I took a little over a week off from writing because my BFF was down here for his yearly visit. Now that he's gone (*sniff* *sniff*) I'll get back on track ... once the house is clean. We partied hard while he was here ... well, as hard as you can party with a 3 year old. To him, it was nothing. To me, I'm thinking I probably won't be drinking or having any movie fests until 2am for a while. Ha!

It was so much fun. We went to the lake with the kiddos, he and I took my daughter to the zoo, and we went on many Pokemon hunts. I was never on the Pokemon scene, but he and my two sisters (twins--fraternal) have been into it since they were all little kids back in the late 90s. They convinced me to download the Pokemon Go app and we have been "going" all over the place. Friday night, my husband, my BFF, and I even did some bar hopping while Poke-hunting.

Last weekend (a little over a week ago), I got super drunk for the first time since having my daughter (don't worry, she was safe), played some board games with my BFF, husband, and other 2 good friends. At 2am, we searched the neighborhood for Pokemon and I had my first hangover in about four years the next morning. Last night, we did some more drinking with said friends (and one twin sister this time) and played more games. Didn't get near drunk, but had a nice buzz going most of the night.

And today, we said goodbye. It's always a sad time for me because I know I probably won't see him for a year again (although there are some other plans to hopefully have a few more random visits; I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they pan out), and this kid (kid ... he's a grown and successful man now) has been one of my closest friends for 12 years. He's helped me with so much and been there for me countless times. In short, he's an amazing person and I'm so glad he's still in my life after all these years.

Though I'm sad he went home today, it is nice to get back to our routine. I'm looking forward to having a clean house again, and FINALLY finishing "Dancing with Dragonflies." I will be taking another short break in two weeks because I'm going to visit my favorite cousin for a few days. Once I'm back, I won't have anything until a family reunion in October.

I'm hoping DwD will be finished before that reunion. Fingers crossed.

Well, time to clean up after the week and a half long party :-).

Take care, friends,
Sara