Patience is a Virtue.

So, my plan was to spend much of the time I could allocate to writing this week on developing relevant questions to follow every chapter. As it turned out, once I’d got the questions for the Prologue ready and had made good inroads on Chapter One, I changed my mind. This is partly because I ran the risk of giving some of the story away by asking questions that were clearly tailored toward trying to make sure I was giving nothing away, but mostly because at this stage I’m more interested in a critique of the story as a whole. It doesn’t do me much good to fine-tune my spelling and grammar if the story itself is broken and needs major surgery.

Trust me, I’m enough of a pedant to try to polish up my spelling and grammar as I go through each revision and edit, although I’m not good enough to have a third draft completely devoid of stupid mistakes.

More Questions Than Answers.

Since I wasn’t going to hit my Alpha Reader up with questions after every chapter, which is my plan for Beta Readers (if you’d like to be one, I’ll be looking for some after the next round of edits, so feel free to contact me) I had the problem of exactly what questions to ask. A little research found a good starting point, and while I don’t intend on treating my Alpha and Beta readers in quite the same way, Shawn Robinson’s list of questions was a great inspiration.

If you’re interested, here are the questions I came up with…

Post Reading Questions .

• Who was your favorite character and why?
• Was/were there any characters you really didn’t like? Did I set them up to be disliked?
• What was your favorite part of the book?
• Were there any parts of the book that were funny? Were they inappropriately so?
• Was there a part of the book that you really didn’t care for? Why
• Did you expect what happened with Little Jimmy Doyle? Was it believable and/or relatable? Was it effective or over the top?
• Did you expect what happened with Kate? Was this believable and/or relatable? Was it effective or over the top?
• Did you expect what happened with Bessie? Was this believable and/or relatable? Was it effective or over the top?
• What did you think about the ending? Did it show Mr. James as a human being with feelings or a weak man trying to run away?
• Did the prologue effectively set the scene for the main story without getting bogged down or boring? Was it a waste of text that you think could have been incorporated into the main story?
• Did you lose interest at any point? If so, what lost your interest?
• Was anything confusing or was text clear and concise?
• Was any part of the story, in your opinion, fluff that slowed it down or wasn’t interesting at all?
• Do you have any questions about the world Blackwater exists in that you think should have been answered in this story?
• Is the title ‘The Old Man’ worth keeping or changing, in your opinion?
• Do you have any questions about that world which you think might be better answered in another story set in the same world?
• Do you have any other observations or criticisms you’d like to share?

I’ll obviously be waiting on tenterhooks for any feedback.

Meanwhile…

We got a couple of kittens a while back, in the hopes that we could raise them and convince them to live out on the property giving us some free, or almost free, pest control. Last year we had a major issue with rats that were living under our rabbits and getting into their food, which is the biggest reason we’ve pared down our animals, for now, to the original breeding stock.

The girls named them both, but the smaller female, her name was too much of a mouthful for me. I started calling her Whiteface and it seems to have stuck. Her brother’s name, Sandstorm, wasn’t such an issue.

We let them out on Wednesday evening, now that the overnight lows aren’t bound for freezing any more, and after a couple of days hiding from everyone, they’re happy to come out, play with the girls and, more importantly, get some food and water.

Black Box Factory Update.

While I’m waiting for feedback, I’ve started research work on the first Black Box Factory story, starting with The Jews of Warsaw, by Yisrael Gutman.

This story is going to be a much bigger effort than The Old Man, not just because there’s going to be a lot more research necessary, but because it’s a much more complex story.

I’ve seen a Youtube advert for Margaret Atwood, where she explains how she only included things in The Handmaid’s Tale that had some historical precedent. I’m fully on board with that, but for potentially different reasons. Not only do I want to make sure that everything I put in the story comes from human history and not just my imagination, but the central message might be too easy to dismiss without some serious glue that cements the message and the story together.

Up Next…

This week is fairly straightforward. At this precise moment, I don’t have any set plans, but that won’t last past post publication. I have cars that need their oil changed, raised beds to work in, plants to put out, cats to convince to go to the toilet somewhere other than my raised beds, research to do and, if my Alpha Reader finishes the reading, some feedback to discuss and plan on implementing with some upcoming changes.

I hope everyone has a great week and gets to enjoy some pleasant spring sunshine.

Categories: Alpha Reader, Animals and Pets, Barn Cats, Black Box Factory, Research, The Old Man