I am now about three thousand words into the Hallmark romance which I have started, and I can see the appeal to writing it at least. With these sorts of romance novels, everything is already mapped out as far as expectations go. I don’t have to think about the structure or a lot of plot reversals or anything like that. I can just sit down and think of characters, but even then, there are expectations. One would think that there are so many limitations you can do little.

I say the opposite – because all of the heavy lifting is done for you, you’re free to do anything thing else. You can concentrate on really fleshing out the characters. You can work on your descriptions, work on dialogue – work on things that you’re not so solid on. All the major stuff has been taken care of for you.

So far – the name of the novel is Romance with Advantage. The story is about a man who runs a game store, but his ex is coming back to town to develop the area for houses, stores in a sort of open air arcology. They had a split-up about five years earlier which was acrimonious, and both have managed to finally piece their lives back together.

I’m trying to use things that I know about. The main character knows games – something that I know quite a bit about. He’s been through the wringer about this relationship…check…and there will be a happy ending. Yes, I’ve had one of those, too. This is going to be a little more difficult because I am trying to keep it a little light as the genre demands.

I’m enthused about this particular novel. It’s something that while I am writing for profit, I am going to have fun writing it. I get a chance to use my humor with some of the characters, I get to mine my own personal history for material, and I get to work out of my comfort zone. I’m still in love with this process, and I’m going to work to get the freedom to pursue this to the end.

Also – I have the cover design in mind, and all I need to do is find a place that can make custom made dice. This is going to be an amazingly simple cover and I get to use some of my photography equipment. I am so stoked about this! This has been what I’ve been missing for the past week. This sort of enthusiasm! The heady rush of creativity. The voices of the character are coming to me… and I love my sassy gay friend character Scott. It might be cliched but looking at the plot and what I’m aiming for, I think it’s going to be fine.

I am still committed to The Resurrectionist’s Blues, though. I’m going to break this up into writing one in the day and the other at night. It’s going to slow down things a little, but as long as I have three books done by the beginning of December, I’m fine.

Wish me joyful luck, everyone!