I just finished reading the first draft of Jessie’s first novel, and I’m going to reveal everything about the novel against her wishes say as little as possible to avoid her furious flailing.

Jessie, in advance, I apologize. I knew you would not let me do this without your prior approval, so I had to be sneaky.

Also, I apologize for the tabloid-y headline. Much like a tabloid, this post will make up for a lack of substance with steaming piles of hype! [cue rimshot]

On Sunday, I finished marking up Jessie’s manuscript with angry red ink, typed up answers to her critique questions, and shipped it off to Denver. I would like to extend a third apology to Jessie for the amount of red yelling at her from the pages of her beloved manuscript. You knew what this was!

There is very little I can actually say about Jessie’s novel, because she herself has said so little.

It is definitely alternate-present, and it is definitely science fiction.

It is also chock-full of great character work and dialogue. My biggest critique of her manuscript was the lack of world building. That can partially be attributed to a difference in style.

I write fantasy. I enjoy world building. Jessie… not so much.

At this point, the one thing I can say with complete confidence is that with my acumen for world-building and Jessie’s knack for developing unique and engaging characters, we probably add up to one competent author.

But I’m excited to see where she takes this story. Hopefully, she doesn’t burn the manuscript to spite me… maybe I should have saved a copy…

She’ll be fine. The point is, I’m proud of what she’s accomplished and will happily broadcast it to the blogosphere, even if she won’t 😛

Steve D