Word Count: Almost 30,000
Almost every high school has the popular kids, the athletes, the nerds and the outcasts.
Some kids have issues with hygiene or physical issues like weight or acne. Others have problems communicating due to language limitations or overwhelming shyness or fear of certain social situations. Self-confidence is a major problem in high school children as they learn to build different relationships.
Other students look at it as an opportunity to pick on others and they gain satisfaction from the humiliation and demeaning of other students.
In this story, we have an outcast who has been bullied by other students through his entire freshman year and it is now continuing in the start of sophomore year. Drew, the outcast, eats alone, seldom talks to anyone in or out of class and hides from the other students whenever possible.
Since no one interacts with Drew, students assume he must fall into one of the common groups like being overweight or shy. No one really knows.
An accident will throw Drew together with another student who will inadvertently learn his secrets.
It turns out that Drew not only has problems at school, but he also has problems at home. Like many teenagers, his parents seem out of touch and uninterested in his day to day life. They don’t see things that are right in front of them. Due to this, Drew feels abandoned.
Lacy and Drew will team up and maybe they will find a path out of the shadows for Drew.
Thank you for reading on,
Daring Diane
US Link Refers from Big Closet: https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?tag=dopplerpress-20&keyword...
UK Link Refers from Big Closet: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?tag=dopplerpress-20&keywo...
Comments
Hmm
If it's bought with Kindle Unlimited, does the money still get there? If so, this may be part of a one month KU book spree.
KU pay
Yes, if you read the book with Kindle Unlimited, the author gets paid based on how many pages it is, about $0.004 a page. That does not earn BC a commission but if it is a DopplerPress book, we get our share of the royalty. KU pages are an arbitrary measure, and a story will have slightly more of them than if it were printed as a paperback.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
It was really good
I hope you continue with the story. Drew and Lacy are great.
Some impressions
I bought and read the story.
It was done ok but there were a few bumpy spots.
It flowed well but it was rather predictable (at least if you're a seasoned TG reader).
I found it a bit short, though the open end was chosen at an adequate spot. Do you plan to continue the story?
I also wondered about the biological background of Drew's condition. One doesn't have high estrogen levels out of the blue and I was a bit disappointed that a full body scan was made but it wasn't even clearly stated nothing out of the ordinary was found. I would have expected some kind of (mild) intersex condition.
I'd read a followup of this story.
Response to your impressions.
First, Thank you for buying the story.
I hope it was not totally predictable.
My goal was to target the family and student interactions more than the biological issues. I was also going for a shorter story. I wanted to get past the year or two of changes and say, hey here we are and oh my god what are going to do now?
How does a high school boy who suddenly has breasts deal with the world? He did not ask for this. It wasn't what he wanted. He had a bad two years as the changes happened but that was before the book.
How will he and those around him deal with this unusual situation in a day to day environment. What are the risks or ramifications? Does he have to tell the school? Why are his parents so detached that they are unaware of this situation? How will the decisions he and Lacy make and have made effect things in the future?
While dealing with this, I tried to in a shorter format develop characters the reader might like and want to know more about.
When I read books, I love finding characters I like and seeing how they develop and change as a series progresses. Not just in specialized fiction. Take Alex Cross a James Patterson Detective or Lee Child's Jack Reacher. Poirot or Charlie Chan.
Hopefully you like the characters and want to know more about them.
If so, then there is a reason to write more.
DD
Decent
I enjoyed the storyline and like others said it mostly flowed well. I would liked it to have been a little more extensive with development when his dad was told. It worked though. My real criticism though is the title... It's wordy and makes it sound like a very low class story like a lot that are on Amazon in the category. If I hadn't enjoyed your other recent works so much I would never have read it just because of the title.
I look forward to whatever is next on your plate though!
Alternative title suggestions
I'm wondering what you might have suggested for a title.
I wrestled with finding a title that would be appropriate.
DD