11 Comments
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Jeremy Harshman's avatar

I enjoyed this! It’s rare I drag myself away from scrolling notes, but I’m glad I did. I don’t read much horror or YA, but this strikes me from first impression as a solidly Gen-X story. I feel like school-as-prison, outcast stories are a signature of that generation. I will try to read more!

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K.Lynn Grey's avatar

Thanks, Jeremy 😀. And yes, guilty as charged. Definitely Gen-Xer. We're angsty all the way.

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Kiff Joshua's avatar

Just a really solid read overall. I wonder what's the reasoning behind calling your readers "Penguin People".

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K.Lynn Grey's avatar

Thank you. The answer to that is in Chapter 4, though I haven't decided if I'm going to post the other chapters or not. It seems that readers lose interest in serials and chapter books and I would hate to fill someone's inbox with posts they don't want.

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Kiff Joshua's avatar

There's always options. If you want, you can submit your manuscript to a publication! Some even self-publish on eKindle

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Bill Ferguson 🇨🇦's avatar

It may be ya or adult fiction. Having read many ya books I feel that a large number are superior to most adult books. That being said a book is a book. If it is good it will get published. This story is engaging. Max is well defined and interesting in her thoughts and reactions. I am looking forward to reading more.

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K.Lynn Grey's avatar

Those are kind words, thank you :)

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FranB's avatar

To me this reads like adult literary fiction. it’s very innovative and unlike anything I have read before. I wonder if it might be worth targeting a different audience? The Last House on Needless Street comes to mind as a comp which I think was Head of Zeus. Maybe check which agent represents this author also Bunny by Mona Awad.

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K.Lynn Grey's avatar

Thanks Derek 🐧💖

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K.Lynn Grey's avatar

I love The Last House on Needless Street :)

I had a horrible time classifying this. I thought it was adult, too.

My first Beta readers were my son's 6th Grade teacher and one of her students, a 12 year old. The student made a point of telling me that she was glad that I didn't "dumb it down" because of her age. Her teacher agreed that it was young adult.

The developmental editor that I used (Bookfox) also said it was young adult but adults might enjoy it. The issue being that my protagonist is 9 years old which made him lump it into a younger category.

As far as publishing it, I think I'm going to go the self-publishing route after I get a good editor to fix my million mistakes.

I'm glad you liked it :)

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Seema Nayyar Tewari's avatar

It is an interesting read, just like some of your other short fiction stories.

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