Counting All The Starfish

Today's title comes from the new Kitty album Rose Gold, because it's amazing and basically all I've been listening to for days.

I've been thinking recently about how I want to finish or continue the Deadheart series. Storm of Masks really didn't sell well, and I've considered revamping it with a new title and cover, or rewriting it entirely, or adding 25k words onto it to wrap the story up and publishing that as a new edition. But I think I owe it to myself and the characters to finish the story, and even though I have my issues with the first book, I don't think it's a bad book, it's just not my best, which in a way is comforting because it means there's nowhere for the story to go but up.

Storm of Masks is quaint and charming but I feel like it's too slow at times and there's not enough action or enough at stake. It definitely feels like a prologue to a much larger story. And to be fair, it is. But I think I could have added a few sequences or scenarios to easily improve it that I just didn't see at the time, and I feel like Eric stood out a little more than Jen, which isn't that fair considering she's the main character.

So I'm writing the next three books. And they'll be better, and I'll give the characters more to do. I still love Storm of Masks, I just think it could do with a few thousand words being cut off, and a whole lot more added. I didn't explore certain things to their full potential, but going forward it will be more balanced and exciting. There are plenty of book series with slower starts though, so I think it's fine.

One thing I really want to do is develop the romance more. I feel like Jenna and Carter fell a little flat in the first book and I want people to care more about their romance and feel like it has actual stakes. The romance in this series is actually going to be pretty unconventional. It starts out as a love triangle but it's definitely not that, because Carter and Todd have as much romantic tension with each other as they do with Jen.

Carter is going to get some interesting storylines to say the least. I think book two will be a lot of fun to write because it's essentially a wham episode where a bunch of big, crazy things happen and people die and characters are gaining new powers and testing their relationships. Jen, Cayla, and Nora get more of a chance to shine, so Cayla feels like less of a token trans character and Nora feels like less of a crazy best friend cliche which I feel like there's too much of in YA, even though it's one of the tropes I love. Plus the new villain(s) will be borderline psychopathic.

So, there's that to look forward to. Oh. And the pretty covers. They're beautiful.

I'm gonna go play video games and drink another coffee to wake up before I start writing for the day, but I'll have a new post or two up tomorrow! As I'm finishing up this post a huge bolt of thunder struck and I think lightning just hit right outside my house, it's one of the loudest things I've ever heard and my dogs are spooked. It's raining pretty hard too, but the rain is nice.

Anyway. That's all I've got, folks!