Tough Month

It's been a tough month of writing. On one hand, the story is flowing well. On the other hand, I'm still struggling to find the uniting element for all of it. In other words, things happen, but why should the reader care? What's in it for the reader?

I've run into that before. Sometimes I have to write out the entire novel before I come up against that one bit of dialogue or natural outcome that wraps it up for me. Then comes draft two (or three, or four, or however many it takes to get it right).

I'm trying something new with this book as well. While Jacqueline and Angélique are fighting zombis in London, the zombi plague has been sent to kill their father via a box of tainted cigars. I'm using "Entr'actes" to relay the progress of that plot. I'm thinking zombi goats. I'm thinking poor little phthisic Lisette might get bitten by a zombi goat and die. 

I'm also having a hard time envisioning the great reveal of de Guise's character and his relationship to the captain. At first, I wanted Jacqueline to rescue him from the enemy tong, but then I thought, what if he's undercover with the tong when Jacqueline and Angélique are captured, and he has to pretend to be evil? Shatter Jacky's heart? All kinds of possibilities, and until I have the uniting element, I'm not sure which would work best.

But on the publishing front, I had a short piece accepted for an anthology. Yay! Look for an announcement in the late spring.

And I'll be on the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading at Heliosphere next weekend in Piscataway. I'm really looking forward to that!