Finding your voice

or the voice of your MC

That’s been a big part of what I’ve been working on the last couple of weeks. Hallowed Grounds is plotted. I’ve gotten parts of it written (and posted here). I like where it’s going, but something just wasn’t right. I’ve discussed it here before, but the solution always seemed just out of reach. To say it’s been frustrating is putting it mildly.

For a bit, I wondered if the story wasn’t meant to be part of the Eerie Side of the Tracks series. It wouldn’t fit directly into the main plot, but still. . . .

Except that didn’t feel right. More importantly, it didn’t fit there any more than it fit in the Tearing the Veil series (and the next book is being plotted out as we speak). So I couldn’t shove it into either of them any more than I can just forget the book. Myrtle the Evil Muse is being very loud and demanding about it.

So, while I’ve been doing some formatting and text updates to the Honor & Duty series to prep it for a couple of “box sets”, I’ve been playing with Hallowed Grounds. Then, around 0300 the other morning, Myrtle woke me with an “Aha!” moment. I had the voice—almost. But it was enough to get me heading in the right direction.

This isn’t the final text, and it has changed a bit since I first wrote it at that most unholy of hours, but here’s a preview of the change in Reagan’s “voice” as the narrator of the story.

My parents didn’t raise me to be a whiner. While I agree with them on principle, it doesn’t make mornings any easier, especially when the sun continues to rise much too early for my liking. Whoever thought it was a good idea to start the day before ten should be identified, resurrected from the grave, and then locked in a room with cranky, coffee-deprived morning haters like me. He’d beg for mercy in minutes, if not sooner.

And he’d never again so much as suggest it was a good idea to get up before the sun was well on its way to its zenith.

Unfortunately, the day still insisted on beginning before any sane person liked. Yes, I count myself as sane. Some folks might not agree, but I have enough problems without adding insanity to them.

That’s been enough to get the creative juices flowing on the story once again. The basic plot isn’t changing. But Reagan is. She is still the same character, but it looks like she’s not going to be a depressed (or depressive) as she started out. Instead, she uses snark to help cope with things she doesn’t like or doesn’t understand.

I’m also working on one big issue I had with the initial story: how could she have grown up in and around Hallowed Grounds and not know what it really was and what role (and powers/responsibilities/etc) her parents have to the place? I’m still figuring that out. I don’t want to use the all too common (in my opinion) plot device of her inheriting the place from some estranged or unknown relative. Instead, her family has been the guardians of HG for generations. She’s known it. She might not always have believed it is real, but it has been part of her life. The big question (well, one of them at least) will be if she accepts the responsibility when it becomes her time to step up.

After all, how’s a gal with healthy appetites of all sorts supposed to go about her life while having to deal with a paranormal way station of sorts that seems to be the gathering place for all things paranormal—and all too many of them not always the nicest of critters?

To say this is out of my comfort zone is putting it mildly. It’s been a very long time since I’ve tried writing anything humorous—and there will be plenty of humor and snark in this piece. So I’m not rushing it. That means I’m working on it while I work on other things as well. Right now, as I mentioned, it is the first of the box sets for Honor & Duty. My goal is to have it ready to upload by the first of next week. There will be some minor changes in the books, nothing that impacts the plot. Mainly it is formatting changes and catching a few spelling or punctuation errors that slipped by me before.

I am also working (okay, trying to write) on another project as well. But the real work on it will start after I get the first box set uploaded. I don’t want to have too many different things going on at once. Besides, I need to create a cover for the “box” and then figure out the rest of the fiddly bits about putting together a box set that looks good in the digital format.

One lat bit of housekeeping. For those of you who have been generous enough to support this blog with your pledges, I’ll be reactivating my Book Funnel account after the first of the year. Please take a look at my list of publications and decide which of my books you would like as my New Year’s gift to you. I’ll be sending out a message to paid subscribers only with more details in the next day or two. Please know you have my deep gratitude for your support.

Until later (I need to find more coffee and see what trouble the cats are getting into. They have been much too quiet this morning.)

(image created using Dall-e)