I’m going to be a tad selfish for this month’s little 500-word packet.
I’m 70,000 words into the revision of my novel (specifics to be found discussed back in June, egad), and theydies and gentlethems, this is a slog. I’m tired. I’m tired of rereading and reimagining the same story I’ve been chewing at off and on for four years.
I had somewhat ambitiously hoped I could finish off the revision by September. But as it happens, one of the angles I want to cut was woven in rather tightly, and it’s been a bit of a bear to find the story that the book is becoming without it. It’s there, and I’m digging it out, but good heavens.
Slowing my roll significantly is the current state of the world. The US is, of course, a total shitshow (vote Biden! Let’s try to put the brakes on, shall we?), and the entire world is dealing with climate change and COVID, and nationalism is on the rise everywhere.
What on earth, I ask myself not infrequently, is the goddamn point of trying to publish a fluffy queer paranormal romance novel right now? Nobody even wants vampires these days anyway.
Well, somehow, when push comes to shove, I like writing. I really do. And I like my particular brand of it, warm and funny and romantic and a bit sexy. So I keep plugging away at it, not because I’m so much convinced that the world needs my book or even wants it really.
But diving into my little world is comforting. I know the happy ending is coming, because I’m damn well going to write it myself. I know the heroine is going to get the girl, because while they’re both complete ignoramuses, I know they each secretly think the other is hot.
And the old, stodgy, wealthy villain who only wants others to die so he can live to the excess he desires is going to himself die a rather gruesome death.
Because I’m going to make sure of it.
Keep going. Good luck.
-C
Wolfgang Editorial
P.S. Look for “Chicago Iron” by Chris Wolfgang in the Silk & Steel anthology, publishing November 2020, from Cantina Press.
Now available for preorder on Amazon.