ROW80 Check In 6 - Back to Original Plan

Oh...kay.  I am not ready to call the smut experiment a failure, but it is currently a non-success for the purposes I dove into it for.  Specifically, it takes me too long to write.  This may be due to the doldrums of summer or some other temporary or seasonal factor.

Current plan is to write these once in a while and save them up until I have a critical mass, and then I'll do a bunch of covers and publish them.

In the meantime, I'm back to romantic suspense and romantic adventure novelettes.  Which means it will be tougher to make my goal, but maybe I'll do some short fiction in there too.

I did have a great day today working up two new suspense stories -- one adapted from a thriller screenplay I never wrote, the other inspired by a path not taken by an episode of Peter Gunn.

I'm considering turning these into post-war period stuff.  They really have a bit of a retro feel, and plotting can be easier without cellphones and also when ladies weren't expected to be as independent, but people didn't find it the least bit scandalous when they were, because, you know, Rosie the Riveter.

Also, one of them just might be a great for the overarching plot of a Starling and Marquette story.  (Might even do with Gwen as the woman-in-jep, as she definitely has a helpless 1940s dame vibe....)

And I'm still uncertain as to whether to use a pen name for this romantic suspense line of stories.  The goal is to be consistent in appeal to the romance audience. But, since I have a tendency to turn romance expectation on it head, I might have to wait and see if bothering with a pen name is worth it.

(For these, it will be an "open" pen name and you'll know.)

See you in the funny papers.