The End
I finally posted the last chapter of my short paranormal story, Hidden Magic, on Vella. I’ve been trying to polish and post its chapters while I’m writing FACING THE MUSIC, my second Nick and Laurel novel. It’s been sort of a fun balancing act, going back and forth between the two. And I like them both for different reasons.
Every once in a while, I just love to write a paranormal where I have so much more freedom for my imagination. When I first signed with my agent, I wrote a lot of urban fantasy, and I enjoyed it. But the market was glutted, so I had to try something that might actually attract a publisher. I went to romance and eventually to cozy mysteries. And I enjoy those, too. Somewhere in there, I played around with some short horror stories and sold them to anthologies, but horror’s not easy for me. I can only write dark for a short time, and then I need to go lighter. The older I get, the more I like upbeat endings.
Paranormal has a nice balance for me. It’s sort of like cozies. Yes, a good person or two might die, but the good always win at the end. And there’s magic. I love the idea of magic. Of course, in stories, magic can make your life more difficult, because someone always has magic that wants to misuse it. And the protagonist has to defeat him or her to keep the world safe. The battles are bigger with more consequences.
But Hidden Magic is finished, and the good guys–as usual–win. Now, I’m getting close to the last chapters of Facing The Music, so I can concentrate on finishing that book. In cozies, sometimes good people die and sometimes the victim has so many enemies, for good reason, that it’s hard to decide which one of them finally killed him. This time around, I ended up with a sympathetic victim. No one can figure out why anyone would want to hurt Asher. But someone stabbed him over and over again. Why?
HH’s brother is coming to stay with us for a week in mid-October for a visit. I’m hoping to have my first draft of Nick and Laurel done by then. But that’s pushing it. With me luck.
