'Achille and Florian': Done (and Updated Cover Art)

My side project is finally done after over a year of working on it and then going back to redo huge chunks of it. It started out practically a PWP with no real story holding it together, hence my decision to trunk it and let it sit for a while until I figured out how best to make it work. The book being a PWP (or "Plot? What Plot?") was actually much harder for me to work with because I'm not a pure erotica writer. I can write sex scenes, but they can't be the only thing in the story, and I do find it much more difficult to tackle.

I'm glad I went for it, though. I really am. It bit me hard in the ass, but I appreciated the challenge, and after a bit of time with the story, I did find my rhythm. 

One thing that squirmed through my fingers was the book length. I'd at first planned for this to be another long novella -- even shorter than my usual stuff. But with the inclusion of a relatively complex plot, the book's going to be a novel by the time I'm done with the edits and revisions. There are several chapters that tell too much, and those need to be broken apart and turned into passages that show instead, which will add to the length.

Not complaining. I do read my backlist now and then, and that distance of time between writing and reading allows me to pick out problems that I'd been blind to despite multiple passes prior to publishing. I'm well aware of my weaknesses, and I'm hoping to do better with my future projects. Some books are worse than others in exhibiting these problematic writing tendencies of mine, but all I can do now is move forward with those in mind so as not to make the same mistakes.

Oddly enough, it's been an easier task, tackling those in this instance, and I don't know why. Maybe it's because Achille and Florian is so far out of my comfort zone that I'm not sunk in familiarity and, therefore, more mentally passive when it comes to how I work out a scene. If that makes any sense. 

Admitting that also makes me wonder if I should make this a more regular thing but not to the same extent as my usual books in order to keep my writing skills sharp. I'm able to write for the Grotesqueries collection pretty frequently and steadily. My NC-17 stories, though, require a lot more time and patience with myself (because sex scenes and taboo subjects). If this turns into something kind of expected, there'll be a much wider gap between them compared to my long novellas. 

Oh, yes -- I updated the cover art! 

This look is more in line with the fantasy / historical fantasy / fairy tale aspect of the story, and the tagline is also indicative of the tone. There's a good bit of dry humor worked into the plot because the story requires moments of levity, and as you know, I love writing humor and even prefer it. I'd use it more often for my long novellas, but most of the plots tend to be dark, so humor in almost all of those books is way more muted. 

At any rate, here you go. It'll be released sometime next month, and as it's a novel, I'm not putting together a gallery page for it. Also it's NC-17, so definitely not going there. The release announcement, though, will provide some background info and all that good stuff that readers normally get from the gallery pages, so there's that. 

And as an addendum, I've settled on the title Ouroboros for the next book in my "naughty series" in the event I do end up working on it. I was doubtful at first because of how I thought readers might take Achille and Florian, but now that I've succeeded in finishing something I never believed I'd ever write, I'm feeling a little more confident in my ability to tackle another story regardless of reader response to the first book. So we'll see. I do need to go back and work on Valérian before I can think more about it. Also I need to recover from using writing muscles I rarely ever use.