Ronn aka “Blue” Aldaman via Compfight
This week I’ve started sending out copies of my second draft of Starforgers to Beta Readers. Beta Readers are an important part of the writing process for me. Not only do they catch some of the little errors in a manuscript, they also point out where I lose the reader and whether the story is any good at all. If their feedback is good, it makes my Editor’s job that much easier.
I usually pick a mix of different folks to be my Beta Readers, from fellow writers to ordinary readers. Sometimes I even get readers who don’t ordinarily read SF to get an idea how much of the story stands apart from the conventions of the genre. I always get at least one fan to read the manuscript, because they are familiar enough with my novels to spot where I stray from established canon.
I’ve also started hacking on the first draft of The Rising, book two in what will become the Starforgers Trilogy. The Rising takes place a few years after Starforgers and deals with the Silicant uprising. If you loved Starforgers, this book will carry on with some of your favorite characters, both human and Silicant.
For the writer nerds out there, The Rising is my sixth book and the first to be written in the new writer program that I’m testing called Plume Creator.