Hi, guys. Can you help me out?

See, since I proved to myself that I can actually finish a novel (or a trilogy, as the case may be) by completing The Demon-God of Jubagh, I'm looking to up the ante this year. I have a list of projects that I want to finish. Genres range from high fantasy to sci-fantasy to science fiction. Though I set reasonable goals for myself, it's still waaay more than I've ever done before; even if I fall short, I'll still have done a lot.

When I finish these projects, I am going to need people to thoroughly review and critique them, because my goal is to self-publish them through Lulu.com (much like I'm doing with Jubagh right now!). Critiquing takes a lot of patience, a love of reading, a great eye for detail, a solid knowledge of the English language, and the ability to constructively criticize something you may either hate or love - and remain objective. You'll need to tell me if I leave loose ends, if I don't explain something enough, if I have too much unnecessary detail, if my characterization is too flat or too cliche or too complicated, if the pacing is too slow or too fast, if I've gotten something entirely incorrect (as I might well do when trying to be technical with sci-fi; I am no engineer!), if something is confusing, and, of course, what you feel is good and original and doesn't need changed.

It's a tall order. I'm picky and will have flea-combed the manuscript(s) before I ever send it/them to you, so hopefully the really obvious stuff, as well as the grammatical things, will all be taken care of well before you open the file. It's up to you to catch the subtle things that I can't. And each manuscript will probably be anywhere from 50-70k, with one in particular tending towards 90-100k.

It's also worthy of noting that any and all reviewers get a free copy of the published manuscript, if/when I finish revising it post-reviews and publish it through Lulu.com... as well as a mention in the book itself under "dude, you rock, thank you so much."

Interested? Speak up! And please, mention which genres you'd feel comfortable tackling; be as specific as you'd like. ("I can critique steampunk fantasy, but not technical science fiction" would be useful to know, for example! Yes, there will be steampunk, and yes, there will be tech scifi. No, they aren't in the same story. ^_^)

On that note, for your reference, a tentative list of my projects includes:

• an expanded (unabridged) version of The Demon-God of Jubagh
  
• a second trilogy set in the Jubagh 'verse*; there will be steampunk, magic, critters/aliens, disc-shaped worlds, and intersun travel in giant freaking boats
  
• an action-packed science fiction story that involves Terole and Drakka
  
• the first in The Panthera Walkers trilogy; this is the high fantasy one, folks - shapeshifting, magic systems, nature gods, and culture-clash galore
  
• a mostly-fantasy werewolf/shapeshifter novel with references to a parallel but modern-day Earth; it's ... kinda sci-fantasy, mostly beastie-based

*Yes, I could not leave well enough alone. You know you couldn't get enough of your favorite characters from Jubagh, anyways! The fun starts in February, if all goes well; keep an eye on jubagh! Oh, and for those going, "What do you mean, a second trilogy...?", keep in mind that The Demon-God of Jubagh was split into three Books ... and since I'm doing the "unabridged" version, each of those Books will be made into a more complete, mostly-stand-alone novel with a lot more flesh and depth, hence forming a trilogy, rather than an inherently omnibus novel.

[disclaimer] In all honesty, life is crazy, and I fully expect something to come up and bring my head outta the clouds. All the same, I will do my best to get these done before 1-15-2009, and even if I don't manage all of them... I will finish some or most of them. (I also reserve the right to exchange projects if some new plotbeasts snatches my jugular and demands to be written. It does happen, you know. *points at Jubagh and grins*) So, while it's entirely possible you might volunteer to critique a story that I don't finish, please realize that I'm going to do my best, and that at least some of these will need folks willing to help out. [/disclaimer]

Thanks in advance for your comments, guys. It'd be awesome to have at least three folks critiquing each manuscript; and, of course, the more the merrier! If I have to send out ten free copies of each book because that many people pitched in, I'd be so delighted.

...and now, since it's 1h20 AM here, I might want to sleep. G'night!