A Classroom Visit/Beta Reader

 I recently had the pleasure of speaking to a group of students about writing. You'll have to forgive my pleasure in this. It was the first time I've ever done anything like that.

 I went into it with a few goals. I wanted to shock them, give them something gory to sink their teeth into, in the hopes of eliciting some kind of reaction. So, I picked one of my short stories, Revenge and Redemption, which appears in Horror Murder Life War, my collection of short stories. I chose that story because it's my first short story, and it's rough and unpolished and showcases enough shortcomings to give me some talking points.

The kids were awesome. They picked up on a lot of the shortcomings, but to my surprise, they uncovered some things even I hadn't considered, and I wrote the damn thing. I was able to get them talking and the whole thing was way too short.

My main goal was to get across the critical thinking that goes into writing anything, including the value of time and rewriting and especially the work that goes into it. If you believe writing is easy, God Bless You, you've been given a gift I haven't. Anyway, the whole experience was great and it highlighted the need for beta readers. I've got a few but probably not enough. If you're interetsed in becoming one, drop me a line.