Looking for a proofreader for Summer Lovin 2019

[MetaBob]

I started a new piece last weekend and I'm looking for a proofreader for typos and such. I have 26K+ words in 7 chapters and am nearing the end, which I expect will come in one or two more chapters.

Book title: Packback
Short description: Lust, love, and longing on the Pacific Crest Trail
Tags: love story, consensual, female orgasm, multiple orgasms, female dominant, big breasts, ffm, first time, hypnosis, martial arts
Category: Novels and Novellas
The first three paragraphs:

I was 25 years old and hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. I'd been working for a tech startup and was able to cash in some sweat equity, but the new CEO got caught double-dipping and everything went to crap. My girlfriend dumped me and I was on the street with no real career ties but no immediate need to find more work.

Disillusioned, dejected and rejected, I needed a break. So I took a hike. Then another and another. It was winter. I moved back to L.A., found one great hike after another, and before long it was springtime. The Pacific Crest Trail beckoned. I was in shape, I was getting to know gear, I talked to some people who knew it better, and I made a plan.

Mid-April at the Mexican border. An overnight at a trail angel's house with an hourlong orientation, then sleeping on cots and the floor with about 20 other people, mostly men, then a van to the monument at trail's end, or in our case, its beginning. A touch of the border fence for luck, a little bit of a group hug, goodbyes to people we'd met and liked. In my case that was pretty much limited to Megan, who was young, cute, funny, perceptive, smart, flirty and a little giggly but I thought she used that to conceal some depth. I also thought she might've liked me but she'd come with a girlfriend and their boyfriends. They weren't in trail shape and I was, so this would likely be the last time I saw her unless something unforeseen happened farther up the trail.

Anyone game to look for any typos, misspellings, word omissions, wrong words or similar goofs that have evaded me? I'm willing to consider specific changes even in the case where I consider parts of my writing creatively idiosyncratic rather than unforgivably ungrammatical the way some here can. I should have the rest of the piece done in the next few days.

 

[Emmeran]

PM me

Emmeran

 

[MetaBob]

Thanks, Emmeran, you've given me a lot to think about. I finished two drafts (32K words!) before receiving your input and a third incorporating some of it. I hope to submit the piece later today, giving careful consideration to everything else you've given me.

 

[MetaBob]

Editing a contest entry?

Hi again everyone. I submitted my contest entry a week and a half ago and it seems to be fairly well-received, especially after a couple sweeps removed what had obviously been at least a handful of 1-star bombs.

I wrote this in rather a big rush, two weeks from conception to submission for 32K words, and on subsequent review I wanted to change a few relatively minor things about it. I've held off from doing so because I didn't want to muck with its status in this contest, but now I wonder ... is waiting necessary?

 

[HeyAll]

Hi again everyone. I submitted my contest entry a week and a half ago and it seems to be fairly well-received, especially after a couple sweeps removed what had obviously been at least a handful of 1-star bombs.

I wrote this in rather a big rush, two weeks from conception to submission for 32K words, and on subsequent review I wanted to change a few relatively minor things about it. I've held off from doing so because I didn't want to muck with its status in this contest, but now I wonder ... is waiting necessary?

No, go ahead and edit it because editing takes 2-3 weeks. Better to get it down right away.

btw, I recommend using grammarly.com for a free check. A lot of their suggestions are wrong, but they do catch a ton of stuff.

 

[MetaBob]

I went ahead and submitted an edited version of my piece. We'll see what happens. I think it improves the story without changing its structure. In the course of final review I actually found a few typos and other words I wanted to change.

I took a look at grammarly just to see what it might offer and found two misspellings and three typos in 32.2K words ... thanks for the tip!

 

[MetaBob]

The update got posted today. Many thanks to all who rated it so generously.