Looking for UF/Paranormal fan to trade 1st 50 pgs

[LurkingVirologist]

I'm ramping up to query time, and I'd like to swap the first 50 pages (roughly 15K-16K words) of my MS for critique with somebody who enjoys reading Urban Fantasy and/or Paranormal. I've already had positive feedback from two people on this section, but neither were fans of UF/Paranormal, so I'd really like to get input from somebody that reads in the genre. I'm specifically looking for how effective the first 5, 10, and 50 pages are (since these are the breakpoints requested by various agents), but I'd certainly take more detailed notes if you care to offer .

I'd like to do this on a fairly short turn-around (1-2 weeks). I'm a good editor with a background in technical/scientific writing and two bookshelves overflowing with door-stopper fantasy series, crime novels, and science/skeptic lit, and I can give pretty solid feedback on both wording/sentence construction and character/plotting. I may not be the best person for historical romance, inspirational, or kid/MG stuff, but I'd be willing to give it a try. My MS is pretty polished, but I'm happy to critique either a polished section or a 1st draft "in-progress." If you are interested, please drop a reply here or PM me. I read fast, so I can probably exchange with several people if there's interest.

Content warning: The story is fairly dark (esp. the beginning), with some violence, drug use, and a healthy dose of profanity. A teenager gets murdered off-page (inciting incident), and a bad guy gets killed on-page. Nothing beyond what you might see on an average episode of Criminal Minds or Sons of Anarchy (I didn't go all Takashi Miike or anything).

[oliviasomeone]

Hi,
I'd be happy to read your pages, I like paranormal and urban fantasy so I think I might enjoy it. In return I'll send you 50 pages of my futuristic YA dystopia if that's something you might be interested in reading/criting.

Olivia

[chrissicollins]

Hello, I enjoy reading the urban fantasy/paranormal genre and have written a novel in this genre myself. I have a revised young adult science fiction novel that I need help polishing and would love to trade the first 50 pages of the manuscript with yours. I will be able to read your manuscript and send my critique within that turn around date.

Christina

[CFraser]

I'm happy to read through the first ten thousand or so words if you're still looking for feedback. I'm still editing my first story, which is a supernatural thriller that is aimed for adults (profanity, drug use, violence, dark and unpleasant imagery) and would like to exchange the first few thousand words with you? The book is split into three parts.

Blurb (still in its first draft):

"An Angel with no memory. An ex soldier who can't let go. A patient at a mental health facility.

When Mary preaches the end of the world, she is quickly sanction. Years pass and she is adopted by a family who harbour old secrets, causing what she thinks is a relapse in her psychosis.

Gary is an ex-special forces operative, dishonourably discharged for shooting his wife in suspicious circumstances. Now he is tasked by Her Majesty's Paranormal Counter Insurgency Unit with catching a Serial Murder who has a penchant of mutilating his or her victims and leaving them in religious poses, dubbed the "Crucifix Killer".

On Christmas Eve, John Simmons receives an unexpected visitor at the end of his midnight mass; a man, burnt and cracked from an unknown fire, with a mind shattered and vacant. Taken in by John and his wife, the young man soon demonstrates abilities no human could possibly possess, leading him down a road that seems to be spiralling out of control.

Unforeseen circumstances forces these three individuals together as something from the shadows watches and waits."

Callum.