Decisions, Decisions

No particular reason for the picture except it made me laugh. Plus, we have these exact same coffee thingies at work. Urge to troll rising…rising…yeah…I probably will.

Anyway, I find myself in a bit of a conundrum with my latest book, mainly with Abby’s relationships. And I’ve talked about it before, but I was hoping that once I actually started writing it (panster that I am), things would become a bit more clear…and they aren’t. Admittedly I’m only 30k into it and a lot can happen in the next 60 to 70k, for sure, so I’m not completely despairing.

The harder part is I can’t *really* talk about it openly yet – not without spoiling the hell out of people. But I can’t exactly wait around and poll people either – for one, as an author, it would be a great disservice to not write a story the way it needs to be told, regardless of popular opinion. For another, the third book has to be in before the second book even comes out, so it’s not like waiting around to ask would even help.

I did an impromptu twitter poll out of frustration the other week, asking how people would feel if Abby just ran away with both guys and they all lived happily ever after. In theory, I could get away with that since this is Urban Fantasy and not Paranormal Romance. Surprisingly enough, most reactions were rather positive to the idea, although some were not. (The more negative responses had more to do with an actual menage as opposed to Abby splitting her time between them. And though I wouldn’t mind writing a menage scene, neither guy swings that way. It would be a pretty big hijacking of set character tropes to do that. Abby would have to REALLY want it to happen, and even then, I’m not sure.)

As tempting as it may be, that feels a bit like the easy answer, though – and I felt the same way about the opinions that I should just kill one of them off. Seems to cheapen the overall experience. Don’t get me wrong – should the story warrant the killing off of a character, I’ll happily do it. I adore a good dose of tragedy, but to do it simply because I can’t figure it out? Not so much.

I think part of my problem is that BoD had a different ending originally. Abby and Ion were together, for all intents and purposes. Half of SoS was written with them as a couple before BoD was sold…and I was told to change it. It took me a long time to be able to wrap my head mentally around a second love interest and what it would mean for Abby.

Only thing is, I might have done it *too* well. What was once so clear before just isn’t now. I don’t want readers to be disappointed. I dunno. Maybe I need to extend this series out a few more books to really do it justice – but if Pocket decides they don’t want a fourth book, I don’t want to leave people hanging, either.

Ah, well. Suppose I’ll figure it out when I get there.

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