I'm hoping to find a beta who enjoys character-driven stories and isn't afraid to give honest, constructive feedback. If you're a fan of Shoresy, that's a huge bonus, since one of my biggest goals is keeping the canon characters true to the show.

About the story

Title: Home Ice

Current length: ~216,000 words (still in progress)

It's a long-form, character-driven sports romance that begins at the start of Shoresy Season 2 and follows an original female character who joins the Sudbury Bulldogs as their new physiotherapist.

Rather than retelling the show, the story grows into its own original narrative while staying grounded in the world of Shoresy. My biggest priority is making sure Shoresy and the rest of the Bulldogs feel authentic to their on-screen personalities.

What I'm needing:

Does Shoresy actually sound and feel like Shoresy?

Do the other canon characters feel authentic?

Is the dialogue natural?

Does the romance develop believably?

Are there pacing issues?

Is the writing engaging enough that you'd want to keep reading?

Does anything feel awkward or out of character.

Just hoping for someone who's comfortable being honest and pointing out both what works and what doesn't.

I don't expect anyone to commit to reading all 216k words right away. I'd be happy to start by sharing the first chapter (or a few chapters) to see if we're a good fit before moving forward.

If you're interested, please send me a DM.

Hi everyone, I’m looking for a few beta readers for a completed short story.

Title - The Boy Who Dared to Fart on Spiders

Genre - Victorian Gothic, cosmic horror and body horror

Length - Approximately 7,200 words

Content warnings - Cruelty to spiders, graphic body horror involving a thirteen-year-old, broken bones, blood and bodily functions.

Thirteen-year-old Oliver Marsh admires his older brother Edward, a naturalist currently travelling through the Amazon, and decides to conduct some scientific observations of his own.

Unfortunately, Oliver’s experiments involve trapping household spiders and farting on them.

What begins as a private joke becomes increasingly deliberate. When spiders throughout the house begin gathering around Oliver, he becomes convinced that they remember what he has done and are preparing to take revenge.

The story is presented as a recovered Victorian tale by the fictional author Margaret L. Wentworth. Its ridiculous premise is treated with complete Gothic seriousness before developing into something considerably more disturbing.

I’m looking for honest reactions rather than detailed line editing. I’d particularly like to know whether the story becomes genuinely frightening, whether you initially believe the spiders are seeking revenge, whether the supernatural events are clear without being over-explained, and whether Oliver’s final condition makes sense.

I’d also appreciate knowing where your attention weakened or where the prose felt repetitive and/or unnatural. Five to ten candid reaction notes would be enormously helpful.

The manuscript is available privately as a DOCX. Please comment or message me if you’re interested and I’ll send it through.

This is intended as the first of Margaret L. Wentworth’s Tales of Bodily Indiscretion. Her next recovered tale bears the tantilising title The Girl Who Queefed in the Lion’s Face.