Novel critquing

Last night, I put something through my critique group for the first time since we restructured it. It was also the first time the new group used our novel critiquing system rather than the short story system. We read the first three chapters, then decide if we think we can tackle the whole novel. I think it worked really well. My group rocks.
I'd already given kehrli the full novel, and he printed it out at work in two neat, coil-bound volumes with laminated sparkly gold covers. <3

I got a couple of moments of, "you know that thing you always do in your books and that everyone yells at you for, but you've actually not done in this one? You should do that here." (Specifically, I always throw out too many characters and plot information at once. In this book, the start's more leisurely, but the plot doesn't really get going for two chapters. I'm pretty sure I can find a way to have it both ways.

We talked about using clothing descriptions to relay the technological level of the society. I've done my best to downplay the generic medieval fantasy-land stuff in my story, and as a result, I think my world-building's lopsided. As in, all my details are of non-generic stuff, but if it's generic, then I don't mention it, even if it's something important like the tech level.

My roommate's big news!

From Publisher's Marketplace on the 27th:
Chelsea Campbell's debut THE RISE OF RENEGADE X, pitched as KING DORK meets The Incredibles, in which a sixteen-year old boy's plans to become a professional evil genius just like his supervillain mom are derailed when he discovers the dad he never knew is actually an irritating, good-deed doing superhero, to Elizabeth Law at Egmont, by Holly Root at Waxman Literary Agency (World English).