Things I'm Not Sure Anyone Wants To Read That I Nevertheless Write

Oh boy ... who wants 40K freebie? What's the catch? Well ... hm ... it's a series of character studies based on Guttersnipe and frankly I'm pretty sure it makes no sense if you haven't read Guttersnipe ... so, you ten over there. This is for you ;)

That's right I've finally finished Lords of the Gutter. Incest, rape, emotional abuse ... Just in time for Thanksgiving :) It can be downloaded from Smashwords for free here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/256763

The idea behind Lords of the Gutter was filling out some of the characterizations of Guttersnipe. 90K of mindfuckery ... there wasn't really that much room to go into every detail of every character. This meant if you're the sort of reader who wants everything spelled out, Guttersnipe probably wasn't for you. It ended up being a very cerebral book I guess ... as illustrated by the number of long, in-depth reviews.

Lords of the Gutter is split into three parts, each part not so much a story as a collection of vignettes relating to a relationship between two Guttersnipe characters. Everything is fade to black, no erotica, references to rape, incest and physical abuse but all off page. It's a much tamer book than Guttersnipe ... maybe not anywhere near as interesting or as fun :/

Marco and Zach
Part of the challenge of doing something with Marco and Zach was staying true to Zach's asexuality. Not making Zach the weepy bottom or some other boy-man M/M cliche. I really love their relationship, but it wasn't easy to figure out how to portray it. I knew one thing for sure: I did not want this to be a story of Marco's magical cock healing poor broken Zach.

Evelyn and Nick
Nick is probably one of the most underdeveloped characters in Guttersnipe. Deliberately so <spoiler> I felt strongly that the better developed he was the more likely people were going to see right through his "death". I figured if he seemed minor, people were more likely to assume that I killed him off to bring Derek and Marco together. </spoiler> Lords of the Gutter became a good opportunity to help people get to know him better ... first through thirty pages of incest (O.o) then through his relationship with Derek. What I found interesting in this story was that I came away from writing it suspecting that it actually portrays Nick in a very unflattering light. The way to betrays two people to save himself. I wonder how sympathetic anyone will find Nick?

Derek and Nick
See this is romantic to me, but it's obviously not romantic to anyone else (hah). My beta on this described Derek and Nick's relationship as "like an arranged marriage" and .... yeah, I confess, I've always been very fond of those sorts of things. I know now that people want hearts and stars and googley eyes and cum coming out your nose sort of LOVE STORIES ... but I've always found these sorts of relationships much more endearing and sweet ;)

In the end .... well to be honest, this isn't my best work. Guttersnipe remains the book I am most proud of, most happy with, found the most satisfying to write ... Lords of the Gutter on the other hand ... hm... it's free, it has a really pretty cover, and it has it's moments I think.

We'll see how it goes.