Seeking CP for adult women's fiction novel

[Greta Ford]

Hi!

I'm Greta, a first-time novelist, with a 90K word coming-of-age, women's fiction novel completed. I don't have an agent, as I am still polishing this book. Thus the need for a fellow writer to partner with! Ideally, we would provide honest feedback and encouragement to make our novels the best they can be and ready to query agents.

Books I loved recently: The Grace Year, Writers and Lovers, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things, Nothing to See Here, The Children's Bible

Book that epitomizes me as a reader: The Bell Jar, or Girl, Interrupted (I love dark, quirky, smart females dealing with the heavy issues of mental health and just being female.) 

Blurb : 42-year-old tattoo parlor/book cafe owner Britta Larsson has always been good at running away from her problems. Whether it was her toxic parents, the married man she thought she loved in her teenage years, or the heartaches of her early twenties. When she expatriated to Stockholm, Sweden twenty years ago, she left behind the only man she’d ever loved, all her family and friends, and her long-held dream of a writing career, with zero explanation to anyone why. Now a man from her past shows up at her door wanting answers, and Britta is forced to look back on her childhood, her lovers and inner demons, the literal and figurative cuts that she made, and how much life has changed since then. Can she risk letting this man back in?

Respond here if interested in exchanging the first 50 pages to see if this could work.

Thanks! :) 

[Amita Basu]

Dear Greta,

I'm responding to your message on the Critique Partner Matchup Google mailing list.

Your novel sounds interesting to me. Growing up at midlife by taking stock of one's past. I'd love to see if a partnership works. 

I'm working on a novel, a political literary novel. It's pseudo-historical, set in a fictitious past. I've drafted the first third of it a couple of times; I've got substantial edits to make so nothing's ready to share just yet. This time I'm going to finish drafting it all before making revisions. It will be some months before I finish drafting then go back & rewrite Book I'm ready to share. My novel's -- three books, each around 90k. I struggled hard & several times not to make it more than one book, but it resisted. Maybe after I finish it & set it aside for a bit it'll shrink down. I know a series is a bad idea for a first-time novel, & I've read very few series myself. 

Do you read short fiction? I'm also working on short fiction for a couple of collections, as well as other pieces as & when they occur to me. Perhaps for now we could exchange your novel for my short fiction?

I began submitting my short fiction two years ago & have published a handful in various lit mags. Here's my portfolio:

https://amitabasu.com/home/

I've been working towards writing more plotted pieces, more proper stories; my earlier work is more vignettish. Currently I write everything from micro & flash to novelettes. 

If this sounds interesting, do send me your first 50 pages as proposed. For a sampler, I've emailed you two short pieces I'm currently seeking feedback on. My email ID is eltumb...@gmail.com. In case it's landed in Spam.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards.

Amita