Journal: Mood and Vibe
I’m working on the sequel to Blacque/Bleu--it’s #3 in the Arcada novels. I had a specific image in mind when I started. No, I’m not going to share, at least, not yet.
When I wrote B/B, it wasn’t a book I came up with spontaneously. I was “assigned” the book by Treva, one of the owners of Loose Id. They were doing a Coming Out day promotion and asked if I’d do a pitch for it. She gave me till Wednesday to send a synopsis and till Friday to send a chapter.
This was a case where I had nothing in mind. It was scary, but that Sunday night, I did some image searches, I listened to music and visited my orphaned character files. By Monday, the song for the book was “The Sky is Crying” by Stevie Ray Vaughn. The color was blue. The character was an insomniac vampire from my unused characters. He was supposed to be for a comedy, but between rain, tears and blue, I knew he was a tragic hero.
The second character took a little time. I knew he was butch, and probably tattooed with blackberry vines. He’s also heavily pierced. But why? His color was black, which is where his name came from. He isn’t indigenous, as he’s a wolf-shifter, but as in Belle Starr, my shifters tend to align themselves with tribal people. Its sort of a camouflage. Once I had a few character basics down, I outlined and the book flowed like water.
This sequel is also like water…but more like rapids. I hesitate to step in. I know my characters, so that’s easy. But life is going to get hard for our boys. As I entered that world, that specific image keeps niggling at me. (An insider tip: it’s from the comic series The Authority, which introduced the characters of Midnighter and Apollo. I’ll write more about them sometime)
But it didn’t have a song, and I guess for me, that’s incredibly important. It’s sort of a meditation trick to get into the vibe of the story. I found the song yesterday, and it’s one most people won’t know.
This book is really more about family. Blacque’s sister and father. Bleu’s sister. They all have stronger roles in this book. Travis spends most of it in a coma, and Dylan is traumatized.
There’s also the issue of the demon possessed wolves. As the book opens, they’re surrounding Arcada, and a member of the pack is trapped outside. So lots of drama, right off the bat.
There’s a lot going on and I’m probably going to have to dial back a lot of the sub-plot, but Oliver and Lukas and their unshakable love is the bright center of this story. There will be separation, fear and longing, but mostly faith.