Alpha reading is at the centre of the Circle, where our regular Monday Manuscript Meetings facilitate constructive critique from members on all kinds of writing. We also have a number of more specific groups too, meeting for the purpose of critique, allowing members to share and develop pieces of writing, receiving detailed feedback from one another.
Beta reading is a little different. It’s relevant to a finished piece of writing, a novel or short story that’s already been alpha-read by a number of people, to a point where the author is happy with their manuscript and wants to test its appeal for a wider audience. Beta readers approach the story as a general reader, looking to read for pleasure while monitoring the reading experience along the way: the tone, the pace, the mechanics of the plot, character arcs, how the ending lands. A writer looks to a beta reader to get a feel for their overall impression, essentially an honest review. Was it a satisfying read? What worked well? What didn’t? Would you recommend it to a friend?
We have some very talented novelists and short story writers in the Circle, several of whom have achieved publishing success, with many more aspiring to join them. This is a chance to read some interesting work and perhaps have a role to play in their journey to publication.
This list below will be maintained and updated regularly. If any of the pitches are of interest, just respond using leedswriters@gmail.com and you will be put in touch with the author. It’s then between the two of you to make your own arrangements. As a fellow writer, you can well understand how much that would be appreciated. And please consider putting something up here yourself. If nothing else, it’s good practice for writing a compelling pitch. Enjoy your reading.
Providence Terrace
Author: Pat Pickavance
Length: 80,000 words
Genre: Literary Fiction, Thriller
The Pitch
I used to live in a ramshackle Victorian Terrace in West Leeds. In this story it becomes Providence Terrace: the locale almost a character in itself, inviting the reader to wander down the ginnels and listen to the voices. Full of dramas and dangers both big and small, real and imaginary. Many of the conversations and scenes almost wrote themselves – the tribulations of inner-city life. When I moved out of the area, it felt urgent to finish something while the experiences were still alive in my mind!
There are two central protagonists whose voices alternate through the story:
Sixteen year-old Emma, wayward, imaginative, negotiating entry into a chaotic new step-family. Her alcoholic birth mother (Ma), has disappeared without trace at the start of the book. Meanwhile her father, Rick, has begun a new relationship, hoping to provide a more settled life for Emma. Who struggles to form appropriate relationships with new siblings Lennie and Janie and their mother, Kath.
Outside (in every sense) sits the second protagonist, unnamed except by little Janie as “Tinker Man”. He’s a rough sleeper, an elective mute, growing old hiding in plain sight on the street. He scratches a living almost invisibly round the shadowy areas of the city. In the night-time gardens of Providence Terrace he is terrorised by another rough sleeper, ex-squaddie Vince. Vince becomes a threat to Emma following an early morning encounter almost directly outside her new home. Slowly the drama building between the outsiders intrudes upon the lives of the fragile step-family as the central mystery which preoccupies Emma draws to a close.
A central theme is homelessness and the significance of home; the experiences of the characters are distorted by social instability, the invisibility of the homeless. To the extent that the adults in the story believe Tinker Man is an imaginary friend of little Janie’s.
As a reader I enjoy a good thriller and the compulsion of an unfolding mystery, which definitely coloured my writing of Providence Terrace. A central influence was The Night of the Hunter by the American writer Davis Grubb, magically translated into a fifties film (directed by Charles Laughton.) Set in the American South during the great depression, it explores poignant issues through irresistible, immersive storytelling. Which is what I aspire to as a writer.
Undying
Author: Selso Xisto
Length: 130,000 words
Genre: Speculative Fiction/Mainstream Science Fiction, Thriller
The Pitch
London, 2030. Stellan is part of his brother Adam’s grand project: to cheat death at any cost. His friends want to use immortality’s gift of boundless learning to enrich the world. His brother wants to be its sole gatekeeper, a path to power and wealth. All Stellan wants is to rediscover the man he was before his accident––the man Aurora loved before she married Adam.
Adam’s research teams will spend the rest of their lives in his floating city––Adam’s own sovereign nation, ruled by his laws––searching for solutions to death before it claims them. But Adam’s time is running out and the immortality he chooses comes at a terrible cost––an innocent life. So when Stellan’s team create their own, miraculous form of reincarnation, they keep it secret. Stellan escapes with his friends and goes into hiding, taking Aurora with him––a betrayal Adam will never forget.
The five friends begin their new, unending lives. Patiently sown over the centuries, the seeds of their work grow: from curing diseases and relieving oppression, to discovering––and creating––new forms of life.
But eternity isn’t for the faint of heart. They must sacrifice family and mortal love. Above all, they live in fear of Adam’s vengeance and evolving, increasingly parasitical power. They must use the only weapon they have––time: learning to become spies and assassins to stop him.
Metastasising over centuries, Adam’s grudge will exact an unspeakable price on the world––unless Stellan can find a way to make a god mortal again.
UNDYING is a speculative thriller that will appeal both to genre and mainstream readers. It blends science fiction themes and a high-stakes, fast-paced plot with an intimate, character-focussed love story. Altered Carbon as written by Andy Weir, with a splash of The Passage, and a sprinkling of Highlander.
Iudicium
Author: Scott Callum
Length: 90,000 words
Genre: Crime Thriller, Mystery
The Pitch
When Detective Lieutenant Moorland’s nemesis escapes from the LA penitentiary, their paths soon cross again, but this time, they’re entangled in a deadly game with a killer and a deranged group immersed in the interactive world. The mysterious group known as the Consortium takes a keen interest in these events, thrusting Moorland into a perilous journey from which he desperately needs to escape.
His understanding of entertainment is forever changed when he witnesses a gruesome murder firsthand. This horrifying event takes place during an augmented reality show at the Wrose Interactive Theatre in New York City, sparking his immediate concern for the actress’s safety.
As he searches for the young woman, Moorland discovers that the killer is mimicking the murders depicted in the show. The investigation reveals that the murderer is targeting people intent on completing a sinister end game. As the case unravels, Moorland learns of the extreme measures this people will take to fulfil their goal, with no one being safe from their wrath.
Can Moorland stop this madness and bring those responsible to justice before it’s too late?
Note: The story is violent and does contain themes associated to suicide.
Picasso Among the Pigeons
Author: Gemma O’Carolan
Length: 98,000 words
Genre: Bookclub/Historical Fiction
The Pitch
A journalist must redeem her career by saving Picasso from cancel culture, but this raises uncomfortable personal dilemmas forcing her to confront whether it is still possible to love our fallen idols.
Picasso Among the Pigeons has a dual timeline and dual point of view.
Picasso’s life is told in a series of vignettes, setting out the autobiographical references in his paintings.
Martha is battling a defamation claim from a modern-day celebrity, after exposing his mistreatment of women in a national newspaper. She returns home to Sheffield to seek comfort from her ailing father.
A local man shows her a drawing of a dove, from when Picasso visited the city in 1950. Intrigued, Martha sees parallels between Picasso’s life and the celebrity pursuing her.
Martha’s search for answers raises more questions and she is forced to confront difficulties from her past. Can she resolve these personal struggles to redeem Picasso’s reputation and save her career, and does she still want to?
This story will appeal to fans of Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Wifedom by Anna Funder, and Monsters by Clare Dederer.
Aratus
Author: Ibrahim Knight
Length: 257 lines
Genre: A pastoral elegy in iambic pentameter
The Pitch
Ibrahim was encouraged to post this here after reading the first part on a Monday Manuscript evening. Despite the musicality of his theatrical delivery , this is a piece that needs (and deserves) to be read off the page, and repeatedly, in order to be fully appreciated.
At its heart, Aratus is a piece about the loss of a loved one, about fond memories of times gone past, ‘Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower’. It is also a poem about deception, treachery, and how true love fares after ages gone by, and what any of it means.
The bar was originally set at 194 lines, the length of Lycidas—Milton was the dancing partner—but on reaching 100 lines Ibrahim thought he was done. But then he returned to find that he wasn’t and it was only after he’d written another 100 lines that he fell fully into the process. In the end, it took 257 lines of iambic pentameter to say “I miss you”.
Every Cloud
Author: Alex Affleck
Length: 50,000 words
Genre: Contemporary psychological fiction
The Pitch
Every Cloud is a contemporary, psychological novella/novel exploring the long-term effects of the choices we make.
It follows the parallel narratives of Kaz and Lottie over a twelve-month period: two seemingly unrelated women, coming together only in the final chapter. At the opening of the novel, Kaz is living on the street, isolated and desperate. As she begins to rehabilitate herself, her backstory unfolds, gradually revealing the downhill spiral that has brought her to this point. Despite the traumas she has experienced, her innate optimism and re-surfacing sense of humour help her to find a way to move forward, first into a hostel and then back into the world of work and independent living. She seeks out and takes advantage of opportunities, eventually taking back control of her life. Her counterpart, Lottie, chose to harden herself against emotion and focused on her career, opting for the tough corporate world of high finance. She has ‘settled’ for the equally ambitious and, ostensibly, safe Tim, convincing herself this is what she wants. Pursuing the lifestyle she feels entitled to, she is confident in her ability and secure in her position. Until Tim’s secret gambling addiction emerges, leaving her alone and deep in debt. Further challenged by her mother’s sudden illness, she again has to make difficult choices. As the peaks and troughs of their lives overlap, it becomes apparent that they must each take responsibility for their own destiny, regardless of what brought them to their current circumstances. They grapple with the concept of the relationship between conscious choice and pre-determination as they find their way to their eventual intended life.
Please email leedswriters@gmail.com to be put in touch with any of the above authors and get a copy of their work to read. As fellow writers you can well understand how much that would be appreciated. And please consider putting something up here yourself. If nothing else, it’s good practice for writing a compelling pitch.
Leeds Writers Circle 