Babylon Tales | Nathan Weaver, author

I've been on a great writing journey of late. I've been writing the first in a series of detective novels with my favorite heroine, Mercedes Masterson. I'm about to wrap up a beta readership this week, the first I've ever done, and I feel like there might be a bit more to this book. But I am so excited. SO excited to unveil this to a readership. I can't wait to have this one done and dusted, ready to read. Keep writing! 📝

I've been thinking a lot lately about how social networks have become hotbeds of hostility and how new networks are trying to position themselves to answer actual and perceived problems. I want to talk a bit about that.


But first, a true story!
Several years back, I created an online community for writers. It was an odd system, it didn't quite work perfectly, but it was fun while it lasted. At its peak, we were just under 100 members as I recall.



I had a single webpage for simple, no nonsense rules about how and how not to behave. Behaviors, or writing, that could get you banned. I wanted it to be simple, so when a person read them it just made sense. As I recall, it was one page long. Because, honestly, it doesn't take much to spell out what kinds of behaviors or posts you don't want on a platform. They were called Da Rules—here's a snippet of those rules:





Things were smooth. People respected Da Rules. And each other.



And then... I got an email.



One of our female member…

Been doing some mid-summer night's spring cleaning, and found something I probably wrote in high school. It reads:







It is probably a given, but it isn't said enough: Life is [not] about being the best, but doing one's best. One should always strive to do his or her best at whatever he or she may do, and one should always be content with his or her best. Contentment is happiness, not success.

This month I've been participating in my first ever beta readership. It's something I've been curious about lately, but had never done. Since I've been working on the first in a series of books, I figured now would be the best time to tap into that feedback machine. Learn a little something about my first book before trotting into other books in the series. Maybe learn a few lessons before I get too far.

It's been a curious journey so far. I set basic rules, as it's my first time and have been pretty lax. So far I've gotten back some responses with the rest coming later in the month, I hope. But I totally understand if people can't complete, life is busy.

I'll break down my setup and share how I went about it after it's over. Let me know in the comments if you want to hear about my first beta readership.

In the meantime, I'm just sitting here with bated breath.
Time for a new logo, me thinks


In June I decided to change things up logo wise a bit. …

Oh snap. I forgot the "Cupid" idea.

I've gotten in the first 2 of my 9 feedback responses from beta readers. Exciting, exciting. Also, it really makes you realize you gots work to do. Just when you think you had it written already. Jeepers.







#amwriting

If you reshare an Instagram post... is it called a Latergram?

Holy crap. I just sent out a beta reading email to my lovely readers. They now have the files. Including Azlin Bloor and Elizabeth Hahn (check those inboxes). This is my first time doing a beta readership, and I'm now just gonna sit on my hands and wait impatiently until the feedback comes back. How do writers do this regularly? Maybe it's because I'm new?







All I know is I'm gonna be refreshing my email like a crazy mamajama for the duration of the reading period. Excited. So excited. But also scared. Excited?