The Big One Zero Zero

Today marks a special occasion: the hundredth post here on Muses and Musings.

For some reason, this surprises me.

It’s like I wasn’t aware I was driving you all up the wall blogging twice a week since January 12, 2015’s “An Anglophile I’m Apparently Not.” And since there are 50 weeks in the year that traditionally come after January 12, it makes perfect sense that I’d hit the big one-zero-zero right around now.

So I have no excuse for being taken unaware. Then again, I never claimed to be good at math.

What I am a bit better at (sometimes, anyway) is recognizing my blessings, so here’s a recount of the writing-related accomplishments I’m thankful for this year:

• Seven books published (Maiden America, Not So Human, To Err Is Faerie, Up in the Air, The Politician’s Pawn, Moves and Countermoves, and Amateurs Need Not Apply)
• Two manuscripts written (Wing and Dagger, and Designing America), though they still need to be edited a few times over
• Two book readings for awesome local groups
• Innovative Editing Insider, my creative-writing focused quarterly newsletter
• Tables at two fairs where I peddled my books, The CHAP Convention in Harrisburg, PA, and Faeriecon in Hunt Valley, MD
• The opportunity to teach a creative writing continuing education class at Community College of Baltimore County
• Interactions with a whole slew of fun and fascinating people, some of them Innovative Editing clients and some of them potential Innovative Editing clients.

That all begs the question… How am I going to top that in 2016?

I have no idea, but I’m excited to find out. In the meantime, however, I’m going to celebrate my hundredth blog post by taking off for the rest of the year.

If you need to reach me for any editing projects, I’ll still be checking my email at jdilouie@innovativeediting.com. And if you find that you desperately need to read one of my books (and you totally do, right?), all of the links are listed above.

Other than that, I’m going to focus on having a fabulous Christmas with my family… and then working like crazy to finish the second draft of Designing America before the end of 2015.

So Happy Holidays and an amazing New Year to you all!

Thanks for sticking with me these last hundred blog posts, and here’s looking forward to the next hundred…

Am I Being Too Mean to My Villains?

About two months ago, I handed the fifth-draft copy of the upcoming Faerietales Book 4: Wing and Dagger to a certain influential individual in my life, figuring she could have fun reading it while I waited for my way-too-savvy editor to savage the thing.

Since the person in question is the whole reason why I wrote another installment in the series, I figured she’d be happy. And she was.

I think?

The reason why I’m not so sure is because she talked less about the aspects she liked and more about how, in the first three chapters, I’d been so mean to two particular characters.

Out of all of the possible criticisms I could have gotten, I never saw that one coming. Which was probably stupid considering her past reactions to how I’ve treated previous villains.

Yup, I said villains. The two characters she was upset about are bad guys. Unrepentant ones too. Martin was in Not So Human, where he pushed Sabrina to her literal snapping point, and Ryan was a manipulative little liar who tried to mess with her head in To Err Is Faerie.

Neither of them were main antagonists. But they certainly weren’t nice or good or likable.

Which means I don’t understand feeling bad for them. I didn’t throw them to crocodiles (which, admittedly, they don’t have in Scotland). I didn’t even have anyone beat them up, which they would have deserved considering how they’re still willingly employed by the HPAC.

All I did was make them think Sabrina was going to kill them. And in the creative world, that’s low-key. Practically chick-lit material, really.

If you want “mean,” how about having your protagonist track down his wife and daughter’s killers, inject them with paralyzing drugs and then saw them into pieces while they’re still alive?

I’m not making that up. I actually hope I couldn’t make it up, since it’s a level of disgusting I don’t care to dwell on.

(Never watch a movie just because it has a pretty face and form in it. Even Gerard Butler might not be able to make up for the rest of what you’re in for.)

I also can’t stand burning characters – villains or otherwise – or permanently disfiguring them in any other way, shape or form. If you want that kind of stuff, go read or watch Game of Thrones.

All of this is to say that I do think you can be too mean to your villains. However, I don’t think I crossed that line.

If I ever have, Ii can guarantee it’s my heroes who’ve suffer the worst. 

Faerietales 4: Because Trilogies Are So Cliché

At the beginning of the month, I mentioned how I’d started another story despite my plans to work on completely different novels.

So here’s the big reveal now that  I've officially published Faerietales 3 (available on Amazon.com in both print and Kindle copies)... I’m working on Faerietales Book 4.

It had to happen, I suppose, considering all the questions I left unanswered at the end of the appropriately named “Up in the Air.”

It’s not a cliff-hanger ending. Don’t worry, guys. I had originally intended this to be the last Sabrina-focused book, and so I gave her a promising new future. But it did still end in such a way that left a whole lot of room for a whole new story.

At least that’s what a certain lovely, lovable, obnoxious someone I know told me after reading Book 3. And I guess I caved to the pressure.

Nah… That’s not being fair to her. If anything, she got my imagination fired up. That’s it. The rest is all my fault.

So here I am, typing away, reusing memorable tertiary characters from “Not So Human” and “To Err Is Faerie” that I never thought I’d write about again. Oh yeah, and I’m introducing a new character based on one of the greatest emotional con-artists I’ve ever personally met.

Unexpected though it is, it’s totally fun!

Don’t ask me what the title is, because I’ve got nothing right now. But I do have a good grasp of where the plot is going. And let me tell you… It’s going to rock! As is Sabrina. No more scarred little faerie… This princess is ready to rule.

Since I’m still in the early stages of writing, don’t expect this baby to fly free until next year. But here are a few elements I may or may not have already written into existence:

·         There may or may not be a wedding involved.

·         There may or may not be a faerie plot to kill humans for a change.

·         And Sabrina may or may not have to work hand in hand with the HPAC at some point.

I wish I could say more, but I really can’t. For one thing, it would be giving away too much of the recently-debuted “Up in the Air,” which is now available on Amazon.com in both Kindle and print copies.

But also, I don’t like locking myself into anything. I reserve the right to go back and edit out anything I want to until I push that “publish” button.

In the meantime, feel free to post any suggested titles in the comments below. I’ll take all the help I can get!