Hi, everyone -- I've spent a few weeks poking around the site, reading up on the discussions in the various forums, and have even posted a couple of times, so I suppose I really should introduce myself.

Once upon a time I was a freelance court reporter, but for the past six and a half years I've been a stay at home mom.  I've started a few novels over the last couple of decades but always lost steam somewhere around the 200-page mark.  I have one novel, currently titled The Lesser Evil, that I'd worked on off and on for over a decade that I got to about 250 pages with but didn't really know where to go so put it away for several years until I started beta-reading novels for a friend who's been published.  It took a couple of years talking about the ins and outs of writing, the philosophy of the whole thing, before I finally became inspired to pull mine out once more and see what could be done with it by applying some of the knowledge I'd osmosed.  I started the rewrite of it in January of 2013 and am up to about 235K in terms of word count.  My big goal right now is just to finish a first draft.  Finishing has always been my bugbear.  Hopefully I will achieve that sometime this year.

I'm looking around for some books to review, though I have to say I'm kind of dreading putting TLE up here, simply because I cannot really figure out what genre it is.  I think Urban Fantasy probably comes closest, but I've been told it has a lot of Lit Fic elements, too, since I tend to go pretty deep into my characters' points-of-view.

Looking forward to the experience of critiquing and hopefully getting to know some of you and making some connections.

~Kimberly

Hi Kimberly!

Thanks for the nice intro! Love when members do that, it so helps us get to know you.

You and I should start the 200-page club. I have four -- FOUR!!! -- novels that have stalled at the exact same place. It is exhausting to think about. Since coming to Book Country in June I have found myself rededicated to finishing one of them, and have found that the discussions about writing and publishing are DEFINITELY help me to move my book further along. So I hope that you will find the same.

I'd like to recommend some other members to you, and also point you toward the Urban Fantasy page (a good spot to dig around and see if that's where your book will be a good fit) and the Book Country Books page, where you can see a bunch of stuff we are featuring right now. Take a browse and see if something reels you in!

Let me know how I can help you on Book Country!

Lucy Silag

Book Country Community and Engagement Manager

I'd join the club. I have so many novels stalled at the exact same place. Right now I'm forcing myself to work on four of these, and only four. It's so hard though. I'm just going to try and plow through so I can finish more than five novels, because I've been stuck at that number for two years now.

Welcome to book country and I can't wait to see what your book has to offer!

~Linnea

Welcome Kimberly! I get stuck at that same point in my novels too, so you're not alone. It's frustrating and I find myself wanting to push on with them but not knowing how. Anyway, I hope you find people here helpful. I certainly do. And you shouldn't be afraid to post your novel on here. Most folks give good advice.

Isabell