I'm looking for Beta readers to review the first 10,000 words of novel in progress that looks like it will be 60-70K. I would send a Word Doc.
This novel is an exploration of how a squiggle on a map becomes a place in that ephemeral way that has come to define stories written about the South.
It's 1990 and Frankie is a 15 year old African American girl living with her family in Macon County Alabama and her love of Danny a White boy that also attends Notasulga High School with her. Macon County Alabama is a place steeped in historical significance for African Americans and the Civil Rights Movement. The story ends in 2000 when Frankie and Danny return to the place that came to define their love, Uphapee Creek (the Creek).
The body of the novel covers a period of about 4 months in the late summer and fall of 1990. Frankie’s beloved but mysterious Uncle comes home suffering from full-blown AIDS. His process of dying is contrasted with the patients that Frankie’s grandmother provides care for as a private nurse.
Another subplot in the story involved the real-life efforts to close the county’s only fully racially integrated public school which Danny and Frankie attend. This action threatens the delicate racial balance that has existed in this town. Only 30 years earlier there was a bitter and violent battle to integrate the school.
I am inspired by the themes dialogue and characterisation of Chimamanda Ngozi, Jesmyn Ward and of Zadie Smith.
I would be most interested in Beta readers with some experience/appreciation of the genre (Southern Fiction).
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This novel is an exploration of how a squiggle on a map becomes a place in that ephemeral way that has come to define stories written about the South.
It's 1990 and Frankie is a 15 year old African American girl living with her family in Macon County Alabama and her love of Danny a White boy that also attends Notasulga High School with her. Macon County Alabama is a place steeped in historical significance for African Americans and the Civil Rights Movement. The story ends in 2000 when Frankie and Danny return to the place that came to define their love, Uphapee Creek (the Creek).
The body of the novel covers a period of about 4 months in the late summer and fall of 1990. Frankie’s beloved but mysterious Uncle comes home suffering from full-blown AIDS. His process of dying is contrasted with the patients that Frankie’s grandmother provides care for as a private nurse.
Another subplot in the story involved the real-life efforts to close the county’s only fully racially integrated public school which Danny and Frankie attend. This action threatens the delicate racial balance that has existed in this town. Only 30 years earlier there was a bitter and violent battle to integrate the school.
I am inspired by the themes dialogue and characterisation of Chimamanda Ngozi, Jesmyn Ward and of Zadie Smith.
I would be most interested in Beta readers with some experience/appreciation of the genre (Southern Fiction).