u/Background_Suit_1829

After nearly a decade of writing, rewriting, shelving it, returning to it, researching, doubting it, and refusing to let it go… I finally hit Publish.

My first short story, The Question Remembers by M.L. Daire, is going live on Kindle this week!

It’s a quiet, reflective story about memory, grief, time, and the questions that follow us through life. The kind of story that lingers more than it shouts.

8,500 words • short read • emotionally atmospheric

Seeing it finally live after carrying it for over ten years feels surreal. 🌑⭐

To every writer quietly working on something nobody else sees yet: keep going.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for a few beta readers for a completed historical fiction novelette titled:

WHERE THEY STOOD
A Chronicle of the Sacred Band of Thebes

The story follows the rise and fall of the Sacred Band of Thebes, the elite Theban military unit composed of 150 paired male couples who became one of the most formidable fighting forces in ancient Greece.

Rather than writing this as a fast-paced war novel, I approached it more like an observer recounting memory across time. The story is written almost like a reflective historical chronicle, as though someone is standing centuries later on the battlefield itself trying to understand what these men were, what they believed, and why they refused to break.

The focus is less on spectacle and more on:

• loyalty
• sacrifice
• mortality
• legacy
• brotherhood
• love under pressure
• how civilizations remember the dead
• what it means to “hold the line”

This is not fantasy and not romantasy.

It is heavily researched historical fiction grounded in recorded events surrounding:

• Pelopidas
• Epaminondas
• Tegyra
• Leuctra
• Chaeronea
• Philip II
• Alexander of Macedon

Tone/style:

• atmospheric historical fiction
• reflective war narrative
• character-driven history
• literary historical fiction

Details:

• Approx. 8,573 words
• 36 pages
• 9 chapters + prologue and epilogue
• Approx. reading time: 35–50 minutes

A brief synopsis:

The Sacred Band of Thebes was unlike any military unit in the ancient world: 300 elite soldiers formed from bonded pairs who believed devotion to one another made them unbreakable in battle. Through victories that reshaped Greece and a final stand that became legend, the story traces the rise of the Band from experimental formation to immortal memory beneath the Lion of Chaeronea.

A short excerpt from the opening:

“The lion does not roar, does not bare its teeth, does not threaten or defend or warn. It simply watches — stone shaped into memory…”

I’m specifically looking for feedback on:

• pacing
• emotional impact
• readability
• historical immersion
• whether the writing stays engaging without becoming too dense
• whether the relationships feel authentic and grounded

Content notes:

• battle violence
• grief/loss
• historically accurate male relationships within the Sacred Band
• no explicit sexual content

If this sounds like something you’d enjoy reading, comment below or send me a DM and I’d be happy to share more details.

Thank you.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for a few beta readers for a completed historical fiction novelette titled:

WHERE THEY STOOD
A Chronicle of the Sacred Band of Thebes

The story follows the rise and fall of the Sacred Band of Thebes, the elite Theban military unit composed of 150 paired male couples who became one of the most formidable fighting forces in ancient Greece.

Rather than writing this as a fast-paced war novel, I approached it more like an observer recounting memory across time. The story is written almost like a reflective historical chronicle, as though someone is standing centuries later on the battlefield itself trying to understand what these men were, what they believed, and why they refused to break.

The focus is less on spectacle and more on:

• loyalty
• sacrifice
• mortality
• legacy
• brotherhood
• love under pressure
• how civilizations remember the dead
• what it means to “hold the line”

This is not fantasy and not romantasy.

It is heavily researched historical fiction grounded in recorded events surrounding:

• Pelopidas
• Epaminondas
• Tegyra
• Leuctra
• Chaeronea
• Philip II
• Alexander of Macedon

Tone/style:

• atmospheric historical fiction
• reflective war narrative
• character-driven history
• literary historical fiction

Details:

• Approx. 8,500 words
• 36 pages
• 9 chapters + prologue and epilogue
• Approx. average reading time: 35–50 minutes

A brief synopsis:

The Sacred Band of Thebes was unlike any military unit in the ancient world: 300 elite soldiers formed from bonded pairs who believed devotion to one another made them unbreakable in battle. Through victories that reshaped Greece and a final stand that became legend, the story traces the rise of the Band from experimental formation to immortal memory beneath the Lion of Chaeronea.

A short excerpt from the opening:

“The lion does not roar, does not bare its teeth, does not threaten or defend or warn. It simply watches — stone shaped into memory…”

I’m specifically looking for feedback on:

• pacing
• emotional impact
• readability
• historical immersion
• whether the writing stays engaging without becoming too dense
• whether the relationships feel authentic and grounded

Content notes:

• battle violence
• grief/loss
• historically accurate male relationships within the Sacred Band
• no explicit sexual content

If this sounds like something you’d enjoy reading, comment below or send me a DM and I’d be happy to share more details.

Thank you.