The dark horse contender.

I'm officially unAmerican and going to skip the Super Bowl.  When did that happen?

I'm still in the honeymoon phase with my new vampire story.  Turns out, with an outline I write even faster!  Less time wasted trying to work out the logistics of the next step, I guess.  So I'm now about 2/3rds of the way through.  A very productive day yesterday -- three chapters.  Read them to Linda, and she really liked them.  I think I'm on track.

The end of the book is beckoning to me.

I'm liking this book so much, I now thinking about making it my lead effort.

It's the dark horse, coming around the bend, surging to the lead. 

The other books all have problems.  I've detailed how much I've struggled with NEARLY HUMAN.  As much as I enjoyed writing FREEDY FILKINS, it's kind of a gimmick -- a strange mix.  DEVILTREE is readable, but I wrote it 30 years ago and I think I'm a better writer now.  THE RELUCTANT WIZARD is probably the second most consistent book, but I want to develop that world a little more.

The question is -- given the fact that most people are only going to give me that first try, are any of these books something I feel comfortable with?  I mean, they all have value, but I think I'd like to try to start with my best effort first. 

LAST DAYS OF THE IMMORTAL is what it is -- a vampire story.  It accomplishes what it's supposed to accomplish.  It has all the right elements in all the right places.

I think it has a strong lead in, which hasn't had to be worked over too much.

I like the characters and the plot, and I think the themes are deep enough to be interesting.  I don't have an particularly sparse places (where I always think I'll fill in later) nor clunky places (where I pushed ahead and wrote even though I wasn't very inspired.) I think the writing is loose and plotting is tight. 


I'm thinking about changing the title, though.  As much as I like LAST DAYS OF THE IMMORTAL, it doesn't trip off the tongue.

I've thought of RULES OF VAMPIRES as a title.  I'm thinking how it would look on the booklists, with the cover and title.  Martha was saying she wasn't into vampires but might read a book with the previous title -- but, here's the thing -- if she didn't know me, she would find out even before reading the book that it was about vampires.

I can also visualize a photoshoped cover to RULES OF VAMPIRES, which is no small thing.

Decisions, decisions.

I'll probably be finishing this book about the same time I would have been ready to post the other books.  So, to be safe and give myself a little time to go over it again, it might delay my first online effort for another couple of weeks or month.

I may have second thoughts, but I don't think so.  Usually I have a nagging suspicion that somethings not working, and I don't have that feeling with the book.  I'm having the opposite feeling -- that this book was meant to be and meant to be as it is written.