I’ve had a few beta readers look at parts of God Shuffle and they’ve had some good feedback for me along with an overall positive vibe for the story, dialogue, and the characters. Today I gave it to my wife to look at and hilarity ensued.
“Did you purposefully make your city name sound like Trash?”
“No, that never occurred to me, I was just trying to keep it from being Tar and Ash.”
“Does your main character have something against kids?”
“No, why do you ask?”
“He keeps beating up kids, is it because he’s not really tough so he has to pick on juveniles?”
“He doesn’t beat up any kids. What made you think he did.”
“The first person he arrests is one of the Fireside Boys.”
“So you thought they were all kids?”
“Well, you didn’t say they weren’t. Hey, why is it called Fireside anyway, you don’t seem to get into that.”
“The structures are super temporary and it gets burnt to the ground every year or so.”
Hilarious laughter
“Trash Fires, oh God….”
“You focus on smells a lot you know.”
“Oh, I didn’t notice.”
More laughter
“She couldn’t wash the smell of Trash off of her.”
“That’s not the name of the city.”
“It is for me, this book is so funny.”
I’m pretty sure Murphy has a law about your wife finding all of the most interesting mistakes you make.
I guess whatever it takes to keep her motivated to read the book, right?
Dan Desilets - Author 