{"id":1119,"date":"2014-10-08T20:54:38","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T20:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/?p=1119"},"modified":"2014-11-28T15:42:06","modified_gmt":"2014-11-28T15:42:06","slug":"the-fire-mages-beta-readers-wanted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/2014\/10\/the-fire-mages-beta-readers-wanted\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Fire Mages’: beta readers wanted"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another book, another step on the road to publication. Yes, \u2018The Fire Mages\u2019 is critiqued and revised, and now it\u2019s ready for beta readers. But here\u2019s the problem: only two people have read it from beginning to end so far, and they both loved it. My daughter loved it so much that when I told her I was revising it, she said: \u2018No! Don\u2019t change anything.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n

So now I\u2019m looking for readers who will tear it to shreds and tell me everything that\u2019s wrong with it. I want people who will find the plot-holes, the implausibilities, the continuity errors. <\/span>Because nothing\u2019s perfect, right?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018The Fire Mages\u2019 is quite different from \u2018The Plains of Kallanash\u2019, being a much more conventional fantasy work. It\u2019s about a young girl with an unusual ability, a coming-of-age story. If I knew how to define the YA genre, it might be that, too. There\u2019s plenty of action but also a strong romantic element. It’s a stand-alone work, with no connection to the previous book except that they are both set in the same world.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to help, all you have to do is read the book and let me know what you thought worked and what didn\u2019t work. It\u2019s about 150,000 words (approximately 450 pages), and I can supply it in mobi, epub or pdf format. If you\u2019d like to beta read it, email me<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the detail:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Kyra has always been drawn to the magic of spellpages. She is determined to leave her small village far behind and become a scribe, wielding the power of magic through her pen. Halfway through her training, she has a mage as patron and her ambitions are within her grasp. But a simple favour for her sister goes disastrously awry, destroying Kyra’s dreams in an instant.<\/em><\/p>\n

Devastated, she accepts an offer from a stranger to help her find out what went wrong. The young man sees growing power within Kyra, potentially stronger than spellpages or any living mage. The answers to unlocking that power may lie within the glowing walls of the Imperial City, but its magic is strong and the unwary vanish without trace on its streets. Thirsty for knowledge and desperate to avoid another accident, she feels compelled to risk it.<\/em><\/p>\n

While she focuses on controlling her abilities, a storm of greed and ambition boils up around her. Kyra is a pawn in the struggle for dominance between unscrupulous factions vying for rule of her country. Trusting the wrong side could get her killed–or worse, the potent magic she barely understands could be put to unthinkable evil.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another book, another step on the road to publication. Yes, \u2018The Fire Mages\u2019 is critiqued and revised, and now it\u2019s ready for beta readers. But here\u2019s the problem: only two people have read it from beginning to end so far, and they both loved it. My daughter loved it so much that when I told her I was revising it, she said: \u2018No! Don\u2019t change anything.\u2019 So now I\u2019m looking for readers who will tear it to shreds and tell me everything that\u2019s wrong with it. I want people who will find the plot-holes, the implausibilities, the continuity errors. Because nothing\u2019s perfect, right? \u2018The Fire Mages\u2019 is quite different from \u2018The Plains of Kallanash\u2019, being a much more conventional fantasy work. It\u2019s about a young girl with an unusual ability, a coming-of-age story. If I knew how to define the YA genre, it might be that, too. There\u2019s plenty of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1119"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1273,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119\/revisions\/1273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}