Looking for beta readers for 12k fantasy story.

This is draft five of this @#$!! story. I’d forgotten what it was like to not outline first. Blargh. Anyway, I’ve done a heavy rewrite of Ina’s Spark, which involves a new scene and a totally different ending.

IF you were in one of the earlier rounds of readers and are curious, it is at the same link as before. Please don’t comment on it though, because, sadly, you’ll be comparing it to the previous draft and/or have information that’s not on the page.

If you haven’t read it yet, I could use some help seeing if this version is more coherent. It feels better, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

The teaser.

INA’S SPARK

by Mary Robinette Kowal

If Evina waited much longer it would be full dark, and the tavern would almost certainly have a godforsaken bard by then. As if that weren’t bad enough, by the pricking of the hair along her arms, there had to be at least five other mages in easy walking distance. No surprise, really, given King Redinado’s annual quest. That’s what forced her to the capital, after all.

A pair of drunk men staggered out of the door, golden oil light spilling out onto the rutted city street. They wandered away, singing a ditty about a wench with hair the color of the moon. But not that song, thank the Savior Mother.

She swallowed trying to dislodge the knot in her throat. If she couldn’t even walk into a tavern, how the hell did she think she was going to survive the quest to become a King’s Wizard? Savior Mother and the Multitudes… all she wanted to do was survive. She could give a rotten fig about working for the King.

I’m looking for 5-10 new readers. Just raise your hand in the comments below.

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51 thoughts on “Looking for beta readers for 12k fantasy story.”

  1. Hmm. Reading and commenting on your story is probably an excellent way to procrastinate edits to mine. 🙂

  2. I’d be happy to help. I’ve beta read before, and I was a gamma for the writing excuses anthology. (In case it matters to you to have fresh eyeballs rather than experienced betas for reaction purposes.)

  3. If you would like somebody for whom English is a second language (actually fourth (de,fr,es,en) , but that’s another story)… I would really like to read and comment from a non native speakers perspective.

  4. Hi Mary! I’d be happy to help if you still need it.

    (sorry if this is double posted — I didn’t see the first msg. go through)

  5. Hi Mary, I’m a bit late to the party but I’d love to take a look if you still need readers. I beta for Brandon Sanderson if name-dropping would help my case at all. Thanks!

  6. Volunteering as a willing tribute! Found you through a friend’s fb post, and oh man, that teaser made me fidgety for more. BIG fan of sci-fi, fantasy genre, and any and all combination thereof and inbetween. Please lemme know if there is a way for me to join the beta reader group.

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