How do you all go about getting a good critical reader for a completed novel?

[Squinch]

2. I tried the only local fiction

group around and they are closed. I guess I'll have to go a little farther afield to find one.

The bookstore and local colleges are a good idea. I will hunt that down.

I am going to a Christmas party at which there might be a friend of a friend who is a published author, so if I find any new insights I will let you know.

The letter is a completely different kind of writing than the novel itself. I used to write advertising in my previous career, so I was able to put a letter together that another agent, who rejected the book, said caught her interest, so I figure it's working. It seems a little weird that getting a novel read depends on being able to write a letter in a way that is almost the opposite of good fiction writing.

Thank you for your congratulations. It's kind of a limbo, though. I really don't want to have this agent get the next 100 pages and go, "pfffft."

Do you find it a little terrifying when you submit to anyone? I always heard people say it was like sending your child out into the world, and I thought they were just being dramatic. But it is pretty emotional.

Good luck back to you. Keep me posted on your progress! Thanks for the suggestions.