It was raining cats and dogs here in Tampa, Florida early this evening. Whereas others go in ponchos or act like they’re made of paper, I was headbanging and reveling in that rain. I love the rain; it’s soothing to my soul. I’m also aware that Fall has begun. Gone are the 90°+ weather days, the wild high humidity or the heat advisories. Seeing morning temps be as low as 68 and only high as 86, which is a relief. Dance in the Rain is also one of my favorite Megadeth songs.
I also witnessed a seizure for the first time in my life and had to take action to prevent their life from being in further jeopardy. If anything had my anxiety reawaken, it was that. Thankfully, they’re in good hands and the worst is over but I’ll be damned if I’m gonna act like I wasn’t traumatized from that.
I have also begun sketching for the FireFrei book cover. A hand will definitely grace the cover. Now it just comes down to sprucing the concept idea out and putting it together. I definitely want to make sure I do a small spine decor. I also intend to have the back cover having a brief synopsis of where things stand and can go within the book itself. While in FireButt I did have a table of contents of sorts for the novel, I’ll try something new and then figure out if it suits me prior to publishing. Getting started on the cover art had lingered in my head for the last two weeks but this afternoon was when I took action.
I’m almost done writing this month’s entry of Drafts as well. The world building is gradual but fruitful. It feels nice to actually make every month be a means to write and piece something together. I don’t think many could imagine an urban fantasy world that’s underneath the water yet connected to one of the biggest cities in the United States, albeit during 2019 in a timeline no one could truly imagine…except folks that wrote about the future during the middle of the 20th century. Giving myself some grace to write something different in tone from the Emmanuel Lucifer stories is liberating, even though I know it will bridge back to his story. The main purpose of it is to get out of the usual setting of NYC but instead of going into another city or state, explore a world that has never been. I also let the wondrous aspects we see in Metroidvania games or Dark Souls and you create an opportunity to give the reader a world that is grounded yet fantastical all at once.
That being said, it’s also the first work where there are moments where it gets a bit…smutty. I’m not one to tackle writing physical intimacy in writing but sometimes, your hand and mind wander, say “fuck it” and take a chance at it. I may not get it all right but that’s creative writing for you and as Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus would say, “Take chances! Make mistakes!” and learn from there. Maybe it’s due to some friends on Threads that happen to be smut writers. Maybe it’s that, I dunno but I know the trickiest thing for me is understanding a balance of approach between the two love interests in this story. Both are strong people but also tender to each other in their journey in Old York and as a writer, I want that sense of mutual exchange in physical intimacy to reflect that but let it be known that I don’t write these parts for the sake of writing or for shock value — these moments just write themselves into existence in my freehand writing approach.