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Thank you for your interest and support!

My upcoming novel, Henderson House, is the May 2021 Break the Bechdel with Strong Female Characters Syndicate pick at Inkshares. This group celebrates female characters who are well-crafted and multi-dimensional. I’m thrilled for Bessie, Florence, and Mrs. Henderson to be recognized! There’s a wonderful new badge on my Inkshares page.

I read the entire novel as an e-book, making no notes whatsoever. I read it like a reader. Trust me, it’s hard to turn off your writer brain AND your editor brain and just read the darn story! The good news is, I really liked it!

After the read through, I wrote notes like I would if I had read someone else’s book. Notes about weaknesses in the plot, character development, and pacing.

Next, I printed out the entire manuscript and divided it by Point of View. I read all of Bessie’s chapters as if they were one story. Then Florence’s and then Mrs. Henderson’s. What a wonderful editing technique! This time through, I made and editing marks in the printed document and marked sections that need work.

This week, I will begin making changes to the manuscript. Inkshares has said they won’t have time to get started on my project until the end of the summer, but my goal is to get my revised manuscript to them by the end of June. I’d love to be first in line when their work load eases up.

I started the sequel to Henderson House! I shared the first chapter of the next book with my writers’ group last week, so Book Two is underway.

Thank you again for all of your support. Here’s hoping we’re reading Henderson House on the beach next summer.

All the best,

Caren Simpson McVicker

...OH MY GOODNESS YES THERE I AM. *flails a lot*

Specifically, among the finalists for "Sexiest Consent," for THAT scene in the first Character Bleed book. (You know the one. The one I’ve described to people as "the best sex scene I’ve ever written in which no one physically touches anyone else" and also "THE VERY MUSCULAR TEA IS A METAPHOR".)
 

The overall winners will be chosen by the judges, but you can also vote - there’s a Reader’s Choice award in each category! So...er...go and vote for me and Jason and Colby, if you would like, by June 20? I will be very happy and also our fictional Jason and Colby will be happy and probably ramble a lot about tea or baked goods or how much they love each other. As they do.

(I’m so glad it’s that scene. Authors or their publishers could submit up to two, and I put the other one in the LGBTQI category, but this one was so much about consent, and also it was one of the first scenes I ever wrote for this whole trilogy, in some ways the core of these characters, so I’m just thrilled!)

Thanks for the support, and for being here for all these stories and characters - this wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without all of you!