Drawing the Line

Two weeks ago I talked about blurred lines in my writing: how sometimes things get too real even in the fiction writing realm. Where I love the character of Loose and love her journey, I think it’s time to step away from her for a little while. I finally found the courage to write the catalyst for her whole existence: her rape at 16. Once again this is an example of me taking the things that happened to me and placing them into my writing. Once again it’s becoming a little too real.

I’ve come to a bit of a crossroads with her stories that consequently are also dramatized and expanded versions of my own stories. With the path that she’s going down it’s not going to end well. My path though completely turned around almost 3 years ago when I got over all my anxiety, issues, and emotional blockage. I finally started talking about my past and sharing with people those internal problems that before I only got across in my writing. That’s also when I started actually publishing my writing. So before when I said writing was my coping mechanism I was right; it has proved to be more healthy than otherwise.

At this point in time “Loose” is nowhere near ready to be published. In fact, I’ve been toying with the idea of leaving it unpublished. Even though in the last three years I’ve gotten a lot better at not bottling my emotions, I’m not sure I’m ready for the literary world to see that side of me. Instead, I’m going to finish up the current story of hers I’m working on and then let her sit for a while. I’ll let her figure out what course she wants to take: stay in this violent, complicated, and loveless life or move on to something more.

What this means is I’m heading back into one of my others worlds. After asking you all on my Facebook and Twitter it seems that most of you all would like to read more about Penn and Doyle from my first published work: “Dark Cell.” It has been about a year and a half since we visited them so it only seems fair that we see what they are up to. This new installment has the working title “Dark Hall” and centers on Penn and Doyle at University. Once again they find themselves in the middle of another case of murder, mystery, and magic.