Peta / Sam (novel), Peta & Sam (short story), Peta (sequel novel) feedback thread

[StrentWriter]

Peta/Sam
First Novel, published November 2025 (Romance Category)

Synopsis:
Peta Fernsands and Sam Maillard meet at sixteen, when a holiday boat trip off Corfu capsizes and Sam drags an unconscious Peta from the wreckage, saving her life. In that phosphorescent chaos, a bond forms that neither of them can ever quite escape.

Over the next fifteen years, their lives weave together through missed timing, distance, and unresolved desire. They fall for each other in fragments—university years in Vienna and London, stolen weekends, long silences where each pretends to move on. Adulthood intervenes. Peta marries for stability. Sam marries for peace. Careers bloom, families form, children are born.

Yet every reunion crackles with the same inevitability. Their story becomes one of almosts: a kiss too late, a confession too early, a life built just slightly wrong.

When tragedy forces them back together, long-buried truths surface and the question they’ve avoided since adolescence can no longer be ignored: Was the life they built without each other ever truly theirs—and is it too late to claim the one they were always meant for?


Peta & Sam
Valentine’s Day Contest Submission 2026

Synopsis: Peta & Sam is a short companion story that follows directly on from the novel Peta/Sam, capturing the moment when two people who have spent years almost finding each other finally choose to stay.

Reunited in London, Peta and Sam move quickly from physical reconnection to an unambiguous decision: to marry, to blend their families, and to stop running from what they’ve always known. Alongside humour, explicit intimacy, and cultural friction, the story explores grief, responsibility, and the quiet work of becoming a family.

Set around an intimate wedding in Holland Park and its aftermath, Peta & Sam closes one chapter of their relationship while opening another — a love story no longer defined by longing, but by choice and consequence.



Peta
Sequel Novel, in progress, (Romance Category)

Synopsis:
Peta follows Peta Maillard in the fragile calm before everything breaks, and the long, bruising stretch of not knowing what comes after. Four months from her wedding, Peta is balancing family life between London and Vienna when her husband Sam leaves to support a humanitarian mission abroad. What begins as a temporary absence stretches into silence, fear, and a waiting that corrodes certainty.

Left alone with two grieving children and a flat that feels too large, Peta endures loss without closure. Desire, anger, loyalty, and loneliness collide as she struggles to remain anchored to a man who is increasingly absent in every way that matters. Public sympathy fades, political interest sharpens, and private compromises begin to feel dangerously human.

Set against moral conviction, bureaucratic indifference, and the ache of physical and emotional deprivation, Peta is a novel about love under pressure — about what fidelity means when hope becomes unbearable, and how far a person can bend before something finally gives.

Act 1
Chapter 1: “Married With Children”
Chapter 2: “Half the world away”
Chapter 3: “Trip Inside”
Chapter 4: “The Girl in the Dirty Shirt”
Chapter 5: “Soldier On”
Chapter 6: “Part of the Queue”
Chapter 7: “One Way Road”
Chapter 8: “Where did it all go wrong?”
Chapter 9: “Sad song”
Chapter 10: “Don’t look back in anger”.

Act 2
Chapter 1: “I think, I hope, I know”.
Chapter 2: “Better Man”
Chapter 3: “Waiting for the Rapture”
Chapter 4: “A quick peep”
Chapter 5: “Morning Glory”
Chapter 6: “Sunday Morning Call”
Chapter 7: “Alive”
Chapter 8: “Up in the sky”
Chapter 9: “Cast no Shadow”
Chapter 10: “The Swamp Song”

Act 3
Chapter 1: “She’s Electric”
Chapter 2: “Bag it up”

 

[PennyThompson]

You could post the whole thing in Novels & Novellas, but it's a pretty small audience that will read a 100k story all in one piece here.

It’s very uneven.

It’s not perfect by any means.

In fact, some bits of it may be a bit crap.

What I would like to do is post it back up on Literotica for feedback

I feel like using Lit as your crowd-sourced free editor for a messy first draft is bad form, and not likely to get you a positive response.

I would suggest putting in the work of cleaning and tightening it up before publishing, and you can also publish it in 10-12k chapters which tend to get more views and feedback than a single gigantic work!

 

[AwkwardMD]

What I would like to do is post it back up on Literotica for feedback - but I’m a bit wary of getting stuck into the “is the AI - no - resubmit” chapter by chapter problems of years past.

There is no pattern of false positive for the use of AI except, perhaps, if Grammarly is involved (and at a certain point is it even a false positive?). Write it yourself, edit it yourself or obtain the services of a volunteer editor, and you won’t have a problem.

 

[StrentWriter]

There is no pattern of false positive for the use of AI except, perhaps, if Grammarly is involved (and at a certain point is it even a false positive?). Write it yourself, edit it yourself or obtain the services of a volunteer editor, and you won’t have a problem.

Trust me, I got receipts, you can go back and read my threads from 2023 but yes there are false positives, some of which was American English grammar versus UK English grammar.

I’m not talking in terms of form or function but in story - it may or may not be any good!

You could post the whole thing in Novels & Novellas, but it's a pretty small audience that will read a 100k story all in one piece here.

Fair comment.

I feel like using Lit as your crowd-sourced free editor for a messy first draft is bad form, and not likely to get you a positive response.

I would suggest putting in the work of cleaning and tightening it up before publishing, and you can also publish it in 10-12k chapters which tend to get more views and feedback than a single gigantic work!

It’s more trying to work out if it’s a story worth telling.

But I take your points entirely.

Sorry, I may have explained what I’m trying to achieve badly.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

In your situation, I might do the opposite and post short excerpts to get a handle on reactions. Mark them as excerpts of a longer work, don't deceive anyone.

If you're feeling lucky, mention in the excerpts that you're looking for beta readers.

--Annie

 

[AwkwardMD]

In your situation, I might do the opposite and post short excerpts to get a handle on reactions. Mark them as excerpts of a longer work, don't deceive anyone.

If you're feeling lucky, mention in the excerpts that you're looking for beta readers.

--Annie

Lit rules prohibit posting teasers for a complete work that will eventually be posted elsewhere.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Elsewhere. Who said "elsewhere"?

To answer OP: I have posted one novel-length story on Literotica. It was read as five separate stories with different readership numbers and ratings, in a way I found very confusing.

--Annie

 

[AwkwardMD]

Elsewhere. Who said "elsewhere"?

To answer OP: I have posted one novel-length story on Literotica. It was read as five separate stories with different readership numbers and ratings, in a way I found very confusing.

--Annie

If I misunderstood, that's my bad.

 

[AwkwardMD]

@StrentWriter

 

[StrentWriter]

@StrentWriter

Yes, I did that awkward thing where I left the forum, feeling a bit depressed about how badly the novel was going, under a bit of a cloud, and then I came back earlier this year after some time away under virtually the same name. (Literally just added “writer” to “Strent”).

Hopefully not the worst conspiracy theory in the world right now XD

 

[THBGato]

It’s more trying to work out if it’s a story worth telling.

Clearly, if you put all that effort into writing it, YOU feel it is worth telling. Trust yourself on this.

But I agree with Penny - spend some more time on it. But yes, you could post the whole thing as a single submission.

 

[StrentWriter]

Clearly, if you put all that effort into writing it, YOU feel it is worth telling. Trust yourself on this.

Oh for sure - but that doesn’t mean I’m a good writer!

But I agree with Penny - spend some more time on it. But yes, you could post the whole thing as a single submission.

I’m thinking based on this thread that three submissions of the three acts, ten chapters each, might be the best way to go.

Thanks for your thoughts everyone.

 

[StrentWriter]

Okay. Prologue, three acts of 10 chapters each at 2-3K a pop. I’ll split it into three with the prologue with act 1. Maybe could work? Still comes out at about 35,000 words per lit submission.

 

[Gamblnluck]

In your situation, I might do the opposite and post short excerpts to get a handle on reactions. Mark them as excerpts of a longer work, don't deceive anyone.

If you're feeling lucky, mention in the excerpts that you're looking for beta readers.

--Annie

Then what do you do? Post the finished product and have to deal with comments about it being a duplicate? Even if marked, that is going to be the reaction.
It is far simpler to just do a little rewrite/edit to tighten up the story line and publish it in the appropriate category in small enough chunks you don't scare away your readers. I am holding off reading a single story that is half that size (56k) because I am not familiar with the author.
I surely would have started the story if it had been 10 to12 k words long and marked as chapter 1.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Okay. Prologue, three acts of 10 chapters each at 2-3K a pop. I’ll split it into three with the prologue with act 1. Maybe could work? Still comes out at about 35,000 words per lit submission.

I published 104k words in twelve roughly equal bites, around two Lit pages each chapter. The whole thing was written though, completed, and the chapters were published 24 hours apart.

Sounds to me, though, that you want a bit of feedback as you go along. If that's the case, you might want to think about shorter submissions, with maybe a week in between. You won't get much commentary, that's just the way it is.

 

[StrentWriter]

I published 104k words in twelve roughly equal bites, around two Lit pages each chapter. The whole thing was written though, completed, and the chapters were published 24 hours apart.

Sounds to me, though, that you want a bit of feedback as you go along. If that's the case, you might want to think about shorter submissions, with maybe a week in between. You won't get much commentary, that's just the way it is.

I’ll be honest: I’d rather have feedback on the whole thing as one piece than individual feedbacks on each individual chapter without the full context of everything else.

Simply put, some of it won’t make sense without reading all of it - the chronology is deliberately written out of sequence, for instance.

 

[StrentWriter]

Then what do you do? Post the finished product and have to deal with comments about it being a duplicate? Even if marked, that is going to be the reaction.
It is far simpler to just do a little rewrite/edit to tighten up the story line and publish it in the appropriate category in small enough chunks you don't scare away your readers. I am holding off reading a single story that is half that size (56k) because I am not familiar with the author.
I surely would have started the story if it had been 10 to12 k words long and marked as chapter 1.

So is the general consensus that short = reading as opposed to full story = unlikely to be read?

 

[TheWritingGroup]

So is the general consensus that short = reading as opposed to full story = unlikely to be read?

Actually, as I read it the consensus is, "Just pick the one you like." Some people get tens of thousands of readers on 100,00+ word novels published in one piece.

--Annie

 

[ElectricBlue]

I’ll be honest: I’d rather have feedback on the whole thing as one piece than individual feedbacks on each individual chapter without the full context of everything else.

Simply put, some of it won’t make sense without reading all of it - the chronology is deliberately written out of sequence, for instance.

There's your answer then.

Submit the whole thing at the same time, and think about your chapter lengths as way points for reader convenience. That's the approach I took, with a 24 hour release gap between chapters. That meant something was on the category front page for a fair while (whereas a single submission will disappear).

Five years later I have a chaptered novel, with comments and scores left by readers as they have gone along, and in a format that let's them know where they are.

 

[Gamblnluck]

Actually, as I read it the consensus is, "Just pick the one you like." Some people get tens of thousands of readers on 100,00+ word novels published in one piece.

ubmit the whole thing at the same time, and think about your chapter lengths as way points for reader convenience. That's the approach I took, with a 24 hour release gap between chapters. That meant something was on the category front page for a fair while (whereas a single submission will disappear).

You just contradicted yourself. You submitted your story in chapters. Yeah, some people do not blink at 100k at once. But I'm sure they are a rarity. I find it a little hard to keep track of where I am in the story and find my place. I have taken on a few very long endeavors. Bumblingfool's stories are generally 50k and above. But readership will not be as good at the beginning as you might like. If you get high scores, over time you will garner a little interest.
In the case of very long stories, you bet that your view count is many times the actual 'reads'. It is people going back to continue to read.

 

[Gamblnluck]

Some people get tens of thousands of readers on 100,00+ word novels published in one piece.

Name one here on lit. Maybe after 20 years and the author is popular. Emily Miller published an extremely good, 6 chapter novel totaling about 80k. It is about 2 weeks old. Only the first chapter has over 2K views. Most of the rest about 1k.
The OP can do what he wants with his story. He came here for advice. Mine is to break it into bite-size chunks and if he has it pretty much finished, publish like ElectricBlue described, in short intervals.

 

[StrentWriter]

Less fussed about total views, more fussed about the feedback (if any!)

The general view seems to be split it into chunks, so I think I’ll work on getting the prologue and first act ready over the course of today.

 

[StrentWriter]

There's your answer then.

Submit the whole thing at the same time, and think about your chapter lengths as way points for reader convenience. That's the approach I took, with a 24 hour release gap between chapters. That meant something was on the category front page for a fair while (whereas a single submission will disappear).

Five years later I have a chaptered novel, with comments and scores left by readers as they have gone along, and in a format that let's them know where they are.

My big worry is that publishing in the chapter order, chapter by chapter, is going to confuse most readers - they’re deliberately chronologically out of order.

 

[VerbalAbuse]

There's this curios thing about people wanting to judge if the story is worth telling by looking only at the finished "product."

Well, I believe you could/should be able to tell that from an abstract. As a writer, you should be able to say what the story is -- and more importantly, what are you trying to achieve. Most importantly, and far lot harder (I believe) for most people, is to tell how they plan to achieve that. Yet, this is just basic engineering, and writing a story is engineering. You need a workable plan, and good means to achieve to desired result.

(If you'd be building a bridge, we'd tell you: by no means build it and we'll look at it. We'd want to look at your blueprints.)

On the other hand, with most stories, the effect is in delivery, not in the essence. Most stories that are any popular, do not, in fact, meet the standard. They are not worth telling. But the delivery is really just good, or merely entertaining enough.

 

[ElectricBlue]

My big worry is that publishing in the chapter order, chapter by chapter, is going to confuse most readers - they’re deliberately chronologically out of order.

You're overthinking. Once the whole thing is published, and it's all out there, the release strategy is irrelevant. You're thinking the first release is the most important, but it's not. Think six months, a year, two years later, the long run.