Sometimes it’s hard to believe I’ve been writing the Crimson Series (off and on) for nearly a decade. The new novel, Crimson Revenant, has taken a lot longer to write than its predecessors.
Why is that? Writers block? Somewhat. I tend to get a great idea, write like a demon for a few weeks, and then get stumped for months. Here’s a perfect example–anyone familiar with the books knows that Simon Baldevar murdered his older brother, Roger, shortly before he became a vampire. In the new novel, I’m writing about how the murder took place. Well, it took four months before I realized what the problem was. I kept trying to write this perfect, calculated murder and I was tearing my hair out because the scene never turned out right. Then one night it came to me what the problem was–the murder wasn’t perfect at all! I was thinking of Simon as the smooth, polished vampire he became instead of the mortal man he was when the murder actually took place. Simon, it turns out, killed his brother in a fit of unplanned rage and had a devil of a time getting away with it.
Having characters do the unexpected is one of the things I love about writing this series. The other thing is seeing how the characters have changed over the years. Jimmy Delacroix (Meghann’s mortal lover) has impressed me by becoming a lot less self-centered and self-indulgent. Simon, I feel, was losing some of his edge in Crimson Shadows. I’m happy to see he’s satisfactorily sinister in the new novel and wouldn’t recognize political correctness if it sat up and bit him.
It does look like there’s light at the end of the tunnel for Crimson Revenant. At most, there’s four or five more chapters to go. If I put my nose to the grindstone, I’m pretty sure I can have it done by the end of summer. Right now, I’m looking to put my new books (and republish the old ones) on Kindle. Yes, yes I am a luddite in my heart and I love actually holding a novel in my hands. Unfortunately, I don’t have sufficient funds to do POD and you can get ebooks up and available for free.
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