Tie-in Fiction

Confession: Intimacy frightens me, now.

Reading:

• Someplace to be Flying, by Charles de Lint

Writing:

• Untitled Dark Fantasy Project
  

Revising:

• "Cora and the Sea"

Several bits of news today. First, my Three-Cover-Letter plan crashed and burned. One of the magazines had a shorter word limit than I expected, and another doesn't accept new submissions until September 1st. For the third, I lacked the submission guidelines, since they were not posted on the site. A quick email to the editor netted me those, however, and I should be able to get the cover letter done tomorrow morning.

I finished the Thrawn trilogy just now. The first book was better than I remember, and the last book was a let down. The middle was simply unmemorable. I can't help but ask myself... have I outgrown tie-in fiction? Probably so. I used to read Star Trek novels non-stop, but now I've sold all but my very favorites, and I don't read those.

I think I started to feel the stagnation. For the most part, main characters don't progress in tie-in fiction. Every Star Trek novel ends where it begins, in terms of the characterization. Any actual character arcs only take place for the guest characters, who in a certain sense, "don't matter" in tie-in fiction. Star Wars has managed to avoid some of those pitfalls by carrying the same characters over from story to story, but even so, the main cast has already gone through their character progression, and have very little room to grow or change.

Unconnected novels, though, aren't bound up by the cross-media restrictions. There's no limit to what can happen. I think I really need that in what I read now.

Finally, you can see that I've chosen a new writing project at last. It doesn't have a title at the moment. The original title no longer applies, since this is no longer going to be a novel. I'm pretty much going to rewrite from the beginning. I'll keep the main character, and her beautiful sister, but I want to develop her foe a lot more. It's too cut and dried. There needs to be some sexual tension in there, some possessiveness, and the main character's dawning realization that she has become what she fears and hates. I'll have to keep the mirrors, of course, and I like the candles.

Once I get past the last currently written scene, she needs to think she's escaped. Let her take the new look out for a spin, start to enjoy it despite herself. Does she have access to all the old forms? That would be a twist. They become collectors, of a sort. Like clothes that can be changed as the occasion warrants. Each one a memorial of murder.

If this doesn't make sense yet, just wait until I announce it's done, and ask me to email it to you.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 2
• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 1