Reader Invitation

There's one thing about fiction writers that almost always holds true, and that is that they have story ideas constantly flooding their minds. In fact, most writers (barring Nora, who can write a book a day) will never be able to write a book for each story idea they have.

For those who've visited my website since my last update, you know the next month will find me devoting most of my time to the kidlings, the yard, and fixing up my house (aka the "money pit"), in the hope that by mid-June I will be able to focus almost solely on my writing so that I will have another completed book by the end of the summer.

Sounds simple enough, but it's really not. See, here's the deal. Remember those story ideas I mentioned earlier? The way I handle them is that I will write the story idea down. Not an outline, not a paragraph, but a few hours worth of writing (translated, starting a new book) so that I can preserve the "feel" and "mood" I have at that electric moment, as well as getting the characters and the beginning of their story from my imagination and onto paper.

Then, during periods that I need a break from my WIP (work in progress) but still find a need to write, I fiddle with one of my "story ideas" (translated, I work on one of those new books I started).

So now what I have before more are 3 different books, in various degrees of progress, and I cannot decide which of these should be my "next book".

This is where the invitation to readers comes in.

I am going to post the beginnings of each of these 3 books - a little at a time - and ask for reader input. Basically, I want to know what readers like about each excerpt and don't like about each excerpt (ie "comments"). Then, after all three of the books have been showcased, I'd like readers to tell me which of these books they enjoyed reading most and why.

In other words, I want to see these books through readers' eyes - something exceedingly difficult for a writer to do when it comes to her own works.

One thing to remember before you begin reading: these are NOT polished works. These excerpts are "first draft". So please focus on the story and the characters ONLY (spelling, phrasing and other technical aspects may be rough, but will get "fixed" and "polished" when I do the edits -- which comes after the 1st draft is complete).

I'm going to try to post an excerpt every day over the course of the next month, and hopefully, by mid-June, with readers' help, I'll know exactly which book will be my "next book".

I'm looking forward to what readers have to say:)