The other woman.

I've been a happily married man for over ten years now.

But there may be a new woman in my life.

Let me back up a few paces.

Some time ago, I wrote a post in which I mentioned writing across genres. Simply put, I do it. I like to tell different kinds of stories. A lot of rich bastards very successful authors (particularly detective writers) write one series of books that essentially tells the same story over and over again. Bad guy does bad stuff, same cast of characters catches bad guy, with little change or character growth. The authors do it well, and readers love it. Personally, I never wanted to be that kind of writer. I'd much rather skip around from genre to genre. However, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I'd love to have one wildly successful, no-end-in-sight franchise that would free me up to do whatever else I wanted.

In the linked post, I mentioned three of my works: the zombie thing, the Norse mythology thing, the historical horror thing. Different genres, it's all good. Admittedly, I do repeat myself in one area: my main characters. They're pretty much yours truly the same guy in a different setting. I make no apologies for this...I think they're sympathetic, believable characters...but facts is facts.

This brings me back to the other woman: Undermarshal* Holly Black. She crept into my mind today. I never saw her coming, and she will not leave me alone. Now I'm fixated on telling her story. By the way, her story involves monsters. Lots and lots of monsters. If you know me at all, that's a very good thing.

Here's my problem: I've written plenty of minor to major women characters, but never one as the star. I'm not even sure I know how. It worries me that I've read a lot of female characters written by male authors who were so unrealistic that even I noticed.

Am I good enough to avoid that? I have no clue. All I really know is that I want to spend all of my spare writing time on this project, and I hope I can do it justice.

This feels like a big hit/giant miss kind of thing. You know, like a real relationship.

The honeymoon's over. Wish us luck.

* Totally made that title up. It will make sense at some point.