The one rule.
Simplicity.
That's it. Lodger suffers from being overly chaotic and mixed-up. Actions start and stop with frustrating non-linear twists and turns. It made a lot more sense on the 2nd go around reading this, but that's the thing, isn't it? If a story's good you should be able to enjoy it the first time around.
You need to get emotionally invested in the characters. You need to care about them. Keep their actions and motives simple and easy to follow. Plot twists, no matter how clever they are, always derail your reader.
I'm waiting to see if Stray Bullets is a good read. From the positive word of mouth I'm pretty sure it will be.
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