Writing is like a lot of creative endeavors; a little inspiration and a lot of perspiration. It is hard work but it requires ideas to drive it. We’re never short of ideas; right now we have the Dwarven Rifleman Series, Rage of Angels Series and no less than three urban fantasies going at once.
A few years ago I got sick of ‘Buffy Books,’ a brand of urban fantasy in which a beautiful young woman who may or may not have superpowers is fated to fight evil. But they aren’t ripping off Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Honest. No, really! So in the course of working in my shop I began to think ‘What would be the opposite of a ‘Buffy Book?’ Thus The Gray Man was born. I scrawled down a few thousand words and then put it aside, because at the time I wasn’t a writer.
Then Linda and I became writers, and it was only natural that we’d dust off ‘The Gray Man.’ We went over it, tuned it up and sent the first three chapters to a publisher. The months went by, we moved on to other projects (too many of them) and gradually more or less forgot about it. We never finished it because we had more pressing concerns. Then we found out the publisher was interested. Surprise!
So nothing for it but to drop everything and restart work on ‘The Gray Man.’ While three other books are partially complete and waiting for our attention. It’s a never-ending carnival, is our life. Fortunately it’s interesting.
‘The Gray Man’ is a man so nondescript that people have trouble remembering his appearance. In his own words “I’m not handsome, I have no super-powers and I’m not tragically hip.” Probably a good thing in his profession; he’s a murderer. A serial killer, actually. His victims are werewolves, usually newly spawned, that have killed people. He understands that sooner or later, despite his best efforts he will be caught and punished for his crimes. As an added bonus he hates his work.
It’s going slower than usual because in a peculiar way the story stirs up a lot of ghosts for me. No details but suffice it to sat they are not ‘friendly spirits.’ But that’s interesting too.
In the meantime we need to keep house, care for our dogs and keep the bills paid. It makes for interesting times sometimes, but we wouldn’t trade it. Well, maybe for enough money, but it would take a LOT and no one is offering.