Ravens vs. Steelers… Too Much Fun!

Anyone who really knows me knows I’m a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Which means I’m automatically anti-Baltimore Ravens. We’re supposed to hate each other. Or so I’ve been taught ever since moving to this proud-of-purple area.

Bleck!

Yet “Moves and Countermoves” main character Thomas Evans is a Baltimorian born and bred. And he’s a man’s man. So I had to make him a football fan in general and a Raven’s fan in particular. It just made sense that way.

Surprisingly for someone whose eyes narrow and lips purse whenever she sees anything Ravens, I had an absolute blast getting into Evans' head and trashing the Steelers a few times over. That’s especially since I made continuing character Rodney Andiluigi – a definite antagonist in at least the first half of “The Politician’s Pawn” – giving allegiance to Pittsburgh.

Which means I got in a pretty decent dig against quarterback “Big Ben” Roethlisberger at one point. Which made me giggle. Which probably makes me a really bad Steelers fan.

Oh well. I redeem myself in Dirty Politics Book 3: “Amateurs Play Elsewhere.”

Come to think of it, I trash the Ravens in that story more then I do the Steelers in this one. Though that’s not because I’m horribly biased. It’s not even my muse Katrina’s fault.

There would be a few more pro-Ravens comments in “Moves and Countermoves,” except that my darling editor – a New York Giants fan all the way – struck them out as being pointless.

So I tried, boys and girls. If it doesn’t come across that way?

Well, we can’t win ‘em all.

Just ask the Ravens.

Okay. Okay. And the Steelers.

But we still have more Super Bowl rings. Don’t forget that.

Same Story Line, Different Main Character – Totally Fascinating!

In last Wednesday’s blog, I admitted – WARNING: SPOILER ALERT – that I meant to kill Kayla at the end of “The Politician’s Pawn.”

That didn’t happen though. And since I didn’t figure that wasn’t going to happen until the last two chapters, I was left with three possible options:

1.       End the story on an inconclusive note

2.       Write a really, really long book in order to resolve everything

3.       Start figuring out a sequel

As usual with my stories, I didn’t get any say in the matter. My muse took over and chose (i.e., demanded, mandated, put a gun to my head and said, “Do this or else”) that a sequel it would be. Moreover, it was going to be a sequel from blue-eyed, conflicted-bad-boy Evan’s perspective.

I genuinely don’t remember ever consciously making that decision. It just happened. One chapter, I was writing from a familiar female point of view; the next, I was doing my best to think like a guy.

A guy who used to be in the military. And turned to crime. And then grew a conscience again.

Now, I’ve never been a guy, or in the military, or turned to crime. Though I have shed and regrown a conscience a time or two. So I figured this was going to be three-quarters of a major challenge.

Except that it wasn’t. My gun-toting muse (I really should name her if I keep bringing her up. How about Katrina?) was about as benevolent a story-line kidnapper as possible.

The first thing she did was prompt me to start out “Moves and Countermoves” – WARNING: SPOILER ALERT – back in Kayla’s living room after Evans has handed a manila folder full of evidence over. So it rehashes a dozen or two lines of dialogue from the very end of Dirty Politics 1. Only it’s Evans’ eyes we see it all through, and his thoughts we get to listen in on.

Here’s the first thing I discovered writing that same scene from a new perspective: Male and military-trained or not, he’s not nearly as impassive as Kayla thinks he is. And he definitely wasn’t the night before, when – WARNING: SPOILER ALERT – he saved her from becoming another sad, D.C. crime statistic.

Fictional though both Kayla and Evans are, it provided me a rather fascinating example of a real-life truth… that we never really know where another person is coming from. They might be acting badly. They might even be acting in a downright evil manner, in which case they have no excuse.

But they might just have a reason nonetheless. And sometimes that reason is pretty darn heavy.

Just ask Evans. Which you can do as of June 24, when I publish “Moves and Countermoves.”