Three Things to Never Do as a Critique Partner

 I'm engaged in a project this year to promote my backlist more. (*cough* AT ALL *cough*) So today I'm featuring EXACT WARM UNHOLY. This story originally appeared in THE DEVIL'S DOORBELL anthology and it's one of my favorites. I adored writing this troubled, but super smart heroine. So much smexy in this one.

Tonight my name is Mary…

Or is it? Sometimes she’s Tiffany or Syd or Bobbi. But whatever face she wears, she returns to the same bar, to find a new man and seduce him, safe in the knowledge that no one will recognize her. Until one man does.

“And I was ... Stunned by the originality of the concept of this story. Stunned by the emotions it made me experience in such a short expanse of time. Stunned by the beauty of the romance in it that ran parallel to the overwhelming sadness throughout. I mean, seriously. If you don’t fall in love with Peter, you have a heart of stone.”

~ Kristen Ashley on Goodreads

      

This week at the SFF Seven, we're giving tips on How to Become a Better Beta Reader or Critique Partner. As with many skills, this is one that is acquired over time, through extensive practice and lots of trial and error. In fact, learning to become a better reader for others, with useful feedback to give, is largely a case of figuring out what NOT to do. So that's what I'm offering today.

1. Don't tell the other writer how to change their work. Focus on what isn't working for you and, if you can, do your best to articulate why it's not working. But resist the temptation to suggest rewrites or any kind of specific plan. Those kinds of feedback move it into the realm of how you would write it, not them.
2. Don't get emotionally involved. So you hate the protagonist? Maybe you hate the premise? Doesn't matter. Separate your personal reactions from legitimate reader ones. If you can't step away from your personal buttons being pushed, then recuse yourself from reading.
3. Don't argue with the writer. It's their work. They get the final say. Give them your honest feedback and let it go. 

The Key to Being a Better CP

 This Week's Topic: Tips for being a better Beta Reader / CP

Hahaha. OMG. {hangs head in shame}. Lo, I raise my face to the heavens and confess my sins. When I started being a CP I hadn't learned the most important thing about constructive critique:

 Tell 'Em What IS Working and Why. 

As a CP, I'm a stronger developmental reviewer (which is an Alpha Reader/CP thing) than I am a line or copy reviewer. My analytical brain overreacts to Where's the Plot Ball, That Shit Makes No Sense, and Failure to Meet Genre Minimum Expectations, so I bleed Add Comments all over the doc. As an author, receiving dev edits is usually the greatest cause of bourbon binging because fixing developmental issues usually means rewriting whole chapters and/or morphing plot threads throughout multiple arcs. You can bet the author is desperate for at least one (if not a dozen or three dozen) callouts for something that is working well. Big or small. 

As a CP or Alpha Reader, the last thing you want is for the author to change something that moves you or crystallizes a character conflict or plot challenge, etc. Alas, sometimes, to fix the larger issue that Really Awesome Scene has to go. Thus, it's important to say why that moment works for you. If you can articulate what moved you, then the author can either salvage or make a point of hitting that same note in a different way or at a different point. It's not uncommon for one of my comments to be "love this section and these (specific) lines that show them laying bare their heart but it kills pacing; could work better if moved to ChX after the blahblah conflict."

Line edits and copy edits carry less sting, but still need to be balanced by positive comments. Is there a line that made you literally LOL? Add that LOL as a comment. A scene move you to tears? Tell 'em! Dating a new book boyfriend now? Yessss. Say so! Those smexy times get you hot and bothered too? There's no shame in tagging it as hot, hot, hot. Catch an Easter Egg? Teehee. Give 'em props. 

It's too easy to think that as reviewers we only provide value by pointing out what's wrong, when, in truth, highlighting the really good stuff is just as important. 

To my early CPs, I apologize--profusely--for being an asshole. 

For the love of fantasy romance

 

I've always been drawn to writing the books I most want to read. I grew up immersed in the worlds of Terry Books and Piers Anthony, while also devouring Sweet Valley High books. Even then, I longed to find the perfect cross over. Naturally I was a huge fan of Mercedes Lackey and Anne McCaffrey, who at least touched on the kind of emotional arc I craved, though they weren't as spicy as my ideal. Because I found it hard as a teen to locate books that really scratched my fantasy romance itch, I'm thrilled to be part of a growing subgenre of fantasy romance writers. In my stories, I’m always trying to  hit the sweet spot for readers searching for emotionally complex characters, a satisfying love story and all the wonder and magic of a fantasy world.

I love the creativity and possibility in good speculative fiction, and the way the big sandbox of world building allows us to think about the real world in a new way. There is a wonderful freedom to writing fantasy and science fiction, especially in the fantasy realm, where the broad expectations of the genre mean the only limit is your imagination. At the same time, I'm a character first writer so the emotional journey is where the juice is for me, particularly when it comes to the plot and story arc. I wouldn't know how to shape a novel without a satisfying love story at its center. While I still read contemporary romance and a wide variety of speculative fiction, I can't imagine writing anything but in that crossroads niche where my two favorite genres meet.

If you are interested in exploring the fantasy romance niche, an anthology from 20 authors is available now for a reduced price. Once Upon a Forbidden Desire (https://books2read.com/forbiddenfairytales) is a collection of completely original retold fairytales--since many fairytales are iconic tales of magic and romance! With a wide variety of settings, steam levels, and characters, it is truly a lovely sampler pack for fantasy romance. Try it out, and maybe you’ll fall in love with the subgenre as much as I have!

Jaycee Jarvis is an award-winning fantasy romance author, who combines heartfelt romance with immersive magical worlds. When not lost in worlds of her own creation, she lives in the Pacific Northwest with her spouse, three children and a menagerie of pets.

Find her at http://www.jayceejarvis.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJayceeJarvis

Twitter: @JayceeJarvis

Spoutible: @JayceeJarvis

Fantasy Genres - the Creepier, the Better

This is going to read rough. I'm coming down off a weird viral thing (not Covid, believe me, I tested more than once) that had me asleep for 36 hours straight. Today is the first day I've been upright without tipping over. No warranty express or implied, I'm afraid. I have the mental acuity of a lettuce.

Genre Love

How am I supposed to pick my favorite fantasy genres? I like them all. I grew up consuming mostly epic, other worldly fantasy. You know the kind. Knights, horses, swords, vast spooky forests to cross before the evil on the other side can be conquered. Sprinkled into that were the contemporary world colliding with inexplicable bits of magic. These were usually YA books.

Interestingly, there was no urban fantasy when I was reading in my youth. If a fictional world spoke of the future near or far at all, it was in terms of science. I don't know where the switch in the zeitgeist came about but I know that urban fantasy hit my radar while I was still in high school in the early 80s. Charles de Lint introduced me to the bare edges of the urban fantasy map. Then through an odd confluence of events, strange brain chemistry, and neurodivergence, I slid from my intended life path into working in technology. And I slid more firmly across the threshold into urban fantasy.

I don't know what it is about those of us who were born into a world well before personal computers and cells phones. I find a startling number of us still harbor this sneaking suspicion that our world is held aloft by  tenuous threads woven by a cabal of technowizards somewhere. More than half of us admit to talking to our technology - and I don't mean Siri. We speak to our machines as if they held some sentience. Some of us of pagan persuasion insist that all objects, animate or inanimate, contain a kind of spirit even if we wouldn't entirely call it a soul. I say this not so much so you can worry after my sanity (far too late, y'all) as to say that perhaps you can see how the world of technology melded with the fantasy world of curious magics and curiouser sprites, Fae, and spirits.

Urban fantasy seems to happen at the point where humanity risks being subsumed by everything humanity has wrought - whether it's technology or an unfeeling city that's threatening to swallow up the main character. Magic in an urban fantasy context seems to either act as a flicker of hope, or yet another dehumanizing obstacle to be overcome. I think, though, that I like urban fantasy for the experience of marking out the people who can see what lies underneath and those who can only see what's presented on the surface. There's a story Charles de Lint did called Crow Girls. One of his characters can see the young human sisters in the crows who come to the yard every day. Everyone else just sees ragged crows. Eventually, the girls shapeshift for the POV character and everyone helps solve everyone else's issues where they can. There's a story about perception being told there and it feels familiar to me.

Not to mention that I get the chance to play with creepy imagery. I might not have the chops for horror and that's fine. But I do love a good skin crawling creep out and it's in fantasy - especially urban fantasy - that I get the chance to play with giving myself the heebie jeebies.

Fantasy Romance: My Niche and I Love It

THE ORCHID THRONE, book one in the completed Forgotten Empires trilogy, is on sale this month! A great time to escape from winter and revel in this enemies to lovers (she imprisons and plans to execute him!) epic fantasy romance set in a tropical paradise. 

This week at the SFF Seven, we're talking about finding your niche. We're asking each other, what subgenres speak to you as an author?

This is an easy one for me! My niche has pretty much ALWAYS been epic fantasy romance, even before anyone knew what to call it. That's just how the stories came out. Which is not a great thing, if you're writing in a niche before the niche exists. It's like being a creature ahead of the evolutionary curve, ready for that climate change that has not yet occurred. You can survive (maybe), but not necessarily flourish. 

That history makes yesterday's news particularly exciting for me! Tor Publishing Group announced that they're kicking of a new romantic imprint! I love that this is clearly publisher Devi Pillai's baby, as she truly loves to read this sort of SFF/R crossover. Monique Patterson will head up the imprint, and she is a much-admired editor who comes over from the SMP Romance side of Macmillan. Exciting times!

Twu Wuv: Beloved Fantasy Subgenres

This Week's Topic: Finding My Niche.
What subgenres speak to me as an author?

Aww, what a great topic for Valentine's Day. 💖A topic about wuv, twu wuv. Subgenre wuv. 💖 The depth of subgenres of Fantasy can only be contained in a Bag of Holding. The endless niches are portals to worlds coming into existence. I could wax on (and off!) but, to answer the question my top 3 would be:

Contemporary Fantasy -- It's happening in the here-and-now, just not in a world with a world order you're accustomed to seeing.

Urban Fantasy -- Gimme your cities run by Others. Put forth your orc mayors, your dryad landscapers, your shifter soldiers, and your golem construction workers. Why yes, I will take a unicorn Uber. Ah, no Fae barista, you cannot have my real name.

High Fantasy -- These worlds ain't a European history AU. They're weirder. They're mishmashes and hodgepodges with settings and social structures that make sipping deliriants seem de rigueur. Buckle up for a journey to the 4th sun's moon where time is told by what cities are visible. 

What's your favorite subgenre of fantasy? Are fantastical creatures involved? 🐉 

Reader Investment

What makes readers invested in a story? I’ve seen writers stress over this question. With good reason, because it is important. But I also don’t believe it needs to be over complicated.

First: acknowledge that you will never ever get every reader to become invested in your story. 

Are we good? You’ve all acknowledged that perfection in storytelling is pure, unadulterated fiction? Great. Let’s move on!

Second: you read, right? Think about the books that sucked you in right away, the ones that you couldn’t stop thinking about after you hit The End, the characters that you possibly consider friends. 

Some books carry a certain magic. And no, I’m not talking strictly fantasy reads. I’m referring to the magic that invests your heart and/or mind in the story. And like any magic, or cake, once you understand the components you can make your own.

Ingredients to Hook a Reader:

• an Irresistible Plot. Think of the kinds of cat-nip tropes that appeal to the greater population, like enemies to lovers or heists!
• an Intriguing Character. If you love them, or love to hate them, then it’l likely that your readers will to. Don’t write wishy-washy characters!
• an Unforgettable Location. That spooky house on the hill, the abandoned space station, or the cottage in the woods—you’ve read about them and fallen in love with them…now write one!
• a Compelling Problem. What seemingly insurmountable issue is at the heart of your book? Who can put down a well-written mystery or thriller? Who can resist reading about a dominating, immovable force being taken down? Not me! 

Magic needs a reason to show up, and if you start with the right components your chances go up. For me, that list contains the main ingredients. For different flavors, there are countless combinations you can try. And for that sparkling incredible success, you’ll need a healthy dash of luck.

May your writing be irresistible this week!

Three Simple* Steps to Entice Reader Engagement

 

Exciting day today! For today only, 200 of the most amazing books in Fantasy Romance, Gaslamp Romance, Monster Romance, and Paranormal Romance are FREE! Go load up your eReaders by clicking here https://farofeb.com/freebooks/ Below are some samples of the books available, including my own DARK WIZARD. 

This week at the SFF Seven we're talking about what makes readers invested in a story. It's an interesting question, really, and the subject of much debate. I think every author would love to know the "magic formula" for making this happen in every book. Sometimes, though, it can be a real surprise what readers latch onto. There's always an element of unpredictability there that's part of the joy of creating and storytelling. (Which is one reason why I believe Artificial Intelligence (AI) will never supplant human creativity, but that's another discussion.)

So, my thoughts on ways to engage readers and entice them into being engaged in a story?

1. Give them characters that feel like they could be best friends
   Whether it's found family, besties, romance, or a protagonist we fall in love with, readers want characters who feel like real people they know and care about.
2. Give them a world they want to live in
   We read to live in other worlds, even if they're a simulacrum of the world we live in. Readers love that opportunity to step outside of their daily lives.
3. Give them a story that inspires emotion
   Happy, sad, tragic, romantic - the feeling of a story is what lingers after we close that final page. Even if a reader can't recall plot details, they'll remember how a book made them feel.

*Of course, none of this is actually simple. It takes craft, talent, and lots and lots of practice. Read widely. Re-read your favorites. Observe how other authors accomplish this and emulate shamelessly!