So here I am about a third of the way into The Worms Of Heaven, the third installment of my Book Of Lost Doors series, and a whole lot of nothing has happened so far.
Well, that’s not entirely true, things have happened all around James&Catskinner, but they haven’t really done anything other than talk about it. I have got twelve chapters that are basically a lot of conversations, what’s happening, what’s going to happen next, what are we going to do about it.
To a certain extent, that’s deliberate. There’s a list of story suggestions going around that is supposed to be from Pixar, and one of them is make your protagonist deal with a situation that is the exact opposite of his or her specialty. James’ edge is Catskinner, and Catskinner is a nigh-perfect fighting machine. So I have been structuring this story so that the antagonist (who is no fool and knows that Catskinner is a mobile open air butcher shop) is staying out of the way and avoiding any direct contact.
Instead, there have been a series of attacks made through intermediaries and directed at people on the edges of James’ life. I’m trying to keep the tension high by making the situation fluid and uncertain, no one knows who is behind the attacks or the overall goal.
But I’m afraid it might be boring. So far there hasn’t been anything for Catskinner to do except make enigmatic comments and sulk because he hasn’t got anyone to kill. James is thrust into the role of general of a very irregular army, and he’s not at all comfortable with that.
So I’d like to ask for some feedback. If you’d be willing to read the first twelve chapters of Worms and let me know if it holds your interest enough to make you want to read the rest, I’d appreciate it. You can contact me via my Contact Page and let me know what e-mail address to send it to and your preferred format, and I’ll send it off.
I’ve tried to write so that people who haven’t read the first two books will be able to get up to speed on my world and the characters fairly quickly, so anyone is welcome to request the file.
I have not finished Catskinner…my husband has it on his reader and he is reading it now. Then, I would want to read Cannibal Hearts. I am slow to commit to read when I am writing. I don’t think I could do this in a timely manner.
Me, too. I am so far behind in my own reading. I was waiting a year for the new Matt Archer book, and now I’m so fried from writing I can’t enjoy it.