Deviant, Twisted and Unspeakable
I have the proof of ‘Twisted Tracks’ back from my proof reader but I’ve not gone through it yet. I am up to about 55,000 words on ‘Unspeakable Acts’ (The Clearwater Mysteries book three) and want to get to the end of a first draft of that one before going back to ‘Twisted’, book two. Meanwhile, book one, ‘Deviant Desire‘, has a blog tour from 29th April until 12th May (articles and interviews appearing every day on different MM Romance blogs), and I want ‘Twisted’ out around the time that ends, so there’s no rush and I have plenty of time to have it laid out.
I was really blocked for about a week on ‘Unspeakable.’ I am kind of making it up as I go, but I knew the ending. The thing was, I got to about half way and had lft myself two days to fill before the climax – the characters were saying, ‘The gala is on such and such a day’ and I was sticking to that while wondering what they would be doing during those two days while they waited. Of course, I woke up one morning and said, ‘Why make them wait? Just move the gala forward.’ The gala at the City Opera House is the climax of the thing. Once I’d realised that, I was off again, and I reckon I’ve got around 30,000 words of what’s essentially an Act Three still to go.
I expect I will go beyond that as there’s a lot of madness and mayhem to get through, and then I can go back and edit and get the job done properly. For now, I’m steaming ahead into the world of German opera (an invented composer, a contemporary of Wagner) and backstage at the Opera House, while someone of great importance has arrived unexpectedly to witness the performance, during which one of Archer’s best buddies will be killed, on stage, if he doesn’t make a speech ‘outing’ the viscount. Silas and the new footman, James, have to work out the clue as the show is running and then find a way to stop a demented boy-whore murdering Cadwell Roxton, famed countertenor, while preforming ‘Aeneas and Dido’ – a retelling of the classic take where Aeneas kills himself (rather than Dido). Anyway… All rather mad but now I am unblocked, I’m back on track. Rather ‘Twisted Tracks’, I suppose, but then, that is a good name for a story.