De-blog

The post title may seem a contradiction, but I've taken a break from The WAG and The Scoundrel to write this post, so... Reflections in brief: I've just hit 60k words, which is quite awesome. I plan to write 75k words, but it's not set in stone. That usually means somewhere around 100k words, but I don't think that will happen this time. There again, I didn't think it would happen last time. Some characters are chattier than I anticipated, which is nice. I think. And there are too many of them (see below). Word clouds are an excellent (if not distressing) way to see which words should not be in there as much as they are. Trying to write to a genre is one of the greatest constrictions on my creativity. I am no longer writing to a genre. I don't care. Mostly. Look at all these characters! Main: Gray Fisher - ex DCI running the SIU. Now a PhD student and part-time lecturer / TV extra Will Richards - ex investment banker, animal rights activi...

I've heard of (and been part of) many a discussion about the pure horror experienced by readers of M/M romance when all of a sudden, SMACK! BAM! in the middle of their hot man-on-man action, there's an intimate scene between a man and a woman! Gasp! More often, it's described as a 'hetero' scene, yet in many cases, the reason the scene has found its way into an M/M romance is because one of the two male main characters is bisexual. It may even relate to other aspects of gender/sexual/relationship/identity, but that's for another post. All I'm getting at is, the way I see it, it's at best hypocritical to be a proud member or ally of the LGBTQ community and then spit bi-erasing disgust when faced with the reality of love is love . Preachy bit over. I mention it, in part, to make clear my writing philosophy, which is essentially to follow where the characters lead. I love the process of getting to know a character, walking alongside on their journe...