It’s been One of Those Weeks. Taxes, Amazon being shirty over things, ebook theft and techbro plagiarism apologists clogging my mentions, and I have got to get these revisions sorted, fa cry-eye. Turning off the wireless and sinking into the second Cthulhu-tinged romance seems like a grand idea, if only I wasn’t waiting for time-sensitive emails.
The big series reformatting I did instead of spending time in recovery is pretty much finished. Some of that effort may well turn out to be wasted; I’m seriously looking at getting every remaining title I have left through KDP (it’s not a lot, mostly paperbacks that were done through Createspace) the hell outta there. Which will be a multi-month endeavor to make everything go smoothly, but I’m almost, almost at the point where it’s worth it. Ease and convenience are heavily outweighed by the asshattery at this point, and the instant I get a few more ergs of energy to spend thinking about the whole thing I suspect I’ll start moving.
Anyway. The revision proceeds–not apace just yet, but I’ve gotten a chunk cleared and all I need to do now is cleanup, altering some of the villain’s behavior to achieve a slightly different state of frustrated desire as one of his motivating factors, and seeing if I can’t get the “hero” stabbed (or bitten!) in the ass a few more times. I promised my editor I would make the guy pay for his behavior in the first book, especially since in this one we see what was going on inside his head while he was (admittedly) doing his best to fight off the whispering of an old mad god.
Redeeming one of my “heroes” takes work, because by and large they’re not very heroic. Mostly because I enjoy a good problematic male lead in fiction so much I can’t help but write them often. In real life it’s very different, naturally, but in fiction? Give me the worst, most questionable stone-faced jerk, put him through hell, make him crawl for the heroine’s forgiveness, and I am a happy cupcake chowing down on handfuls of popcorn while I yell at the screen.
We all have our particular tastes. I’m a sucker for a bad-boy-made-good redemption story, even though I know in reality one doesn’t touch that shit with a ten-foot pole.
I do actually like a paragon every now and again, sometimes as a foil, sometimes as a palate cleanser. And I occasionally write heroes who are good guys in most senses of the word. Just…not often.
In any case, the coffee is almost done and there’s a run to get in today, the subscription drop to put finishing touches on, and stuff to prep for tomorrow’s Reading with Lili. I might do Stuart Neville’s Ghosts of Belfast, which I just read so it’s very fresh in my mind. Plus a pair of boxes full of author’s copies arrived t’other day and I might open them on-stream for the very first official unveiling of Spring’s Arcana.
The virtual launch party for that book is listed here, it’s gonna be fun. Nerve-wracking for me, but fun nonetheless. (Oh, and there are new sales listed for the end of April.)
So it’s off I go. The honeysuckle is full of leaves, the hop vine is going great guns, the clematis is budding, and I’m even seeing traces of green on apple and chestnut trees. Looks like we get another springtime, always a surprise. My jury is out on whether it’s a pleasant one, but that could just be the doldrums talking.
We’re almost to Friday, my beloveds. Hang in there…