Characters Home from Niagara Falls

My characters navigated their way through the Falls and are now safely home. That means I've finished my upper middle grade novel, which came out to be approximately 13,000 words. I'm going to send it out to a couple of children, a teacher, and friends. I don't have a critiquing group right now so this will have to do.

I have to turn off that horrible fear of criticism and let others look at my work. It is the only way to improve. Tough lesson.