Harsha

Prologue

You've got a mail.

From:teamvanya@mail.com

To:harsh10@mail.com

Subject: Re: Application for beta readers.

Dear Harsh,

We are sorry to inform you that you have not been shortlisted for our beta readers’ team. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors’.

Best wishes,
Team Vanya.

Best wishes my foot. Why didn't they just accept that they didn't want a male romance beta reader? They readily accept male romance authors just not beta readers. Is it that impossible to think that I liked reading romance? Yes, I am male and like reading romance. No, it's not a mental issue, it's just preference. I happen to like the romance genre. It's not that I didn't like any other genre and only read romance. I like to read, but if you ever asked me to choose I will always select romance.

I was first introduced to the romance genre by my grandfather. He is an avid reader. He always tells me that these romance books are self-help books. He had won grandmother's heart and hand in marriage through the help of a romance novel. He swears by everything he holds dear that had it not been for those romance novels Grandma would have left him long ago. He credits his seventy years of married life to romance novels.

I read my first romance novel in eighth grade with the hope that it would give me ideas to impress my then crush. Needless to say, Ms. Pascal was so impressed that she sent me to the principal’s office. My parents were phoned and I was suspended for two days from school. My parents were appalled but my grandfather was proud. He knelt and looking me in the eye said, "You did well for your first attempt, son."

I started beta reading some three years back. I was unemployed and had all the time in the world when Raima, my best friend, came to me with the book. She also bought me a questionnaire which made my work easy. At that time I provided my services for free considering it was her first book and my first attempt at beta reading. The first book of Raima sold a thousand copies. A year later when Raima came back to me with the second book I jokingly told her I would charge her for my services, to my shock, she readily agreed. Thus began my career in beta reading. Raima would write books and I would beta read them. We made our version of Batman and Robin.