Crossover

Coming up for air. Gasp. Choke.

You haven't heard from me for a while. Likely you've all been happier that way...

So I have this book that's due, and is so not humming along. I work on it sporadically, but it's just like, "ya, dahh, I can't hear you!" and doesn't want to cooperate.

So what happens? I get an idea for a completely new book, just a scenario, really.

Two weeks ago this idea comes. I sit down and start typing, just to get it out of my head.

Two weeks. Carry-out pizza and piles of laundry later. Skipped meals, no other hobbies. I barely broke away to sleep and watch the Bears squeak by the Vikes. I type A LOT. Two weeks. 53K words.

I've got this mini-book. A romance, natch. Contemporary, not historical (I'd left contemporary behind, which is probably exactly how this idea sprang into my head, like Athena full-armed from the brow of Zeus).

Trouble is, when the characters took over (it was as though all this stuff had already happened to all these people, and I was just jotting it down), they didn't play C-fic nice. They're not averse to a glass of wine with dinner. One of 'em has an emotional meltdown and gets hammered. They cuss occasionally. They don't bother kicking the bedroom door closed after they get married and youknowwhat.

What do I do with this non-G-rated book? My previous stuff has all been fic you can toss to Grandma or your 14 year old. This isn't. I don't know whether it will ever see daylight, but...

Thanks for listening to me rant.

I suppose I might. My small but deeply disturbed following is not going to know about it, though, if I do that. I might sniff around some of the houses that don't require agents, since I'm joyfully and gratefully agent-free.

Writing this piece, I didn't allow any "rules." It was a tremendously free experience. I know you know what that's like.