It’s Just a Number, Right?

by Seleste deLaney

Guess what? I’m old.

No. Seriously, I’ve recently been informed of this and it shocked the hell out of me. Sure, I was born on this very day…a while ago, but I really don’t see myself as old. Every once in a while when some random body part starts protesting life, I joke about it, but hello…those were jokes.

The thing is I’m a firm believer in the old saying “You’re only as old as you feel.” And most of the time? Yeah, I just don’t feel all that old.

I think that’s one reason most of my heroines are younger than my (LOL you thought I was going to tell you?) years. I remember high school and college and those first years on my own not only well, but fondly. And it isn’t because I look at the past with rose-colored glasses; I remember all the crap too. It was just a time of discovery, a time before settling into jobs and marriage and kids and routine.

For me, that’s a much easier time to write exciting things happening. You see, if I were to write a heroine like me now, she’d be a stay-at-home-mom and wife working some sort of job from home. She’d have a wonderful husband who loved her, maybe a couple pets, a mortgage, big extended family, in-laws she may or may not get along with. All in all, it’d be a full, solid life. Good stuff.

But that’s the problem. When the bad shit happens in the book—as it usually does in mine—those very things would become targets. The family, the husband, the kids…

Yeah. That wouldn’t be nearly as fun to write. I know this first hand because one of my works-in-progress deals with a lot of that. It’s painful to write. I cry a lot. And it’s a freaking romance novel. Not like it’s this huge tragedy in and of itself, but so much tragedy happened to the heroine to get her to the place she is in the beginning of the book that has to be revisited over and over…

I’m honestly not sure I’ll be able to finish it for the simple reason it hurts too much. So yeah, I embrace writing about younger characters, because while in some ways they have more to lose, in other ways, they have a lot less. Judge me if you want for clinging to my youth like that, but you know what? It’s my birthday, and I’ll cling if I want to ;-)

So what about you, dear readers? Do you prefer to read stories about heroines your own age? Younger? Older?

Just the Facts Friday: The Blood Kissed Series

with Seleste deLaney

1) Of Course I Try was originally written for a challenge where participants had to write something inspired by a song.

2) The very first version of Of Course I Try was actually only the last scene that made it to publication. The story was originally less than 1500 words long.

3) I didn't start out planning to make the story erotic, but the level of sex fit the characters.

4) Though originally envisioned as a stand-alone short, certain reader responses led to plot bunnies forming in my head that would allow for more tales about Jocelyn.

5) The first plot bunny attack came with the knowledge that Chad, the guy Jocelyn meets at the bar in Of Course I Try, had to come back into her life somehow.

6) For her longer pieces, I usually “cast” my characters in order to have visuals to refer to. Since Of Course I Try was a short, I didn’t do that and found myself back-tracking once it became a series. Many nights were spent thinking about my characters until I found people to fit them. Now I envision Max as Christian Kane, Jocelyn (sort of) as America Ferrera, and Max as Jensen Ackles.

7)The Ghost of Vampire Present was going to stick much more closely to the original machinations of A Christmas Carol, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that Jocelyn and Scrooge had so little in common it would never work, so it was tweaked…heavily.

8) Before my beta-readers had the holiday story for a week, they'd already started dividing into Team Max, Team Chad, and Team Jocelyn. Their commentary made for some interesting reading.

9) One of my beta-readers has devoted an entire list on twitter just to me, so she could have an entire page covered with Max (alas I’ve since changed my profile pic so it no longer works).

10) At this point, I’ve finished the draft of the first novel-length Blood Kissed story. As of writing this, I don’t know if it’s been accepted yet (since I just finished and haven’t sent it), but I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted. In the very rough outline of the series, I’m estimating the series to have at least three novel-length manuscripts, quite possibly more if twists present themselves. The best way to stay up-to-date on Blood Kissed news is through the series page on Facebook. Like Blood Kissed and news will show up on your feed as I have it to share!

Find Seleste:

selestedelaney@gmail.com

Facebook

Twitter