I need to write, but I can’t say I have much motivation for anything at the moment. I had big plans that absolutely did not happen today. That’s fine, mostly, I think I needed a bit of a vacation and this is definitely that. Still, I hate to miss my word count mark. At this point I’m not too far off goal, average wise. My goal is 600 a day, and I need to average about 615 words a day through the end of the month in order to make it. That really shouldn’t be that hard. There were a couple of days this week when I wrote 1,000+ words so it’s not like it’s outside of my scope. But I did just finish one story that I was very engrossed in writing. Being engrossed in a project makes it easier to get the word count, which is great. Unfortunatley once it’s initially finished but needs editing, the word count thing gets harder. I have trouble writing a new project while the old one is in limbo and writing and editing both come from the same “time bank account” so to speak so they end up battling each other a little bit.
I’m grateful that I was engrossed in the story and as much as it may not be some great work of art, I’m looking forward to posting it. I can’t do justice to Lyall and Biffy, not really, not when Gail Carriger is such an amazing writing and storyteller and character builder, but it was a story I really needed to see them get. I know that a fanfic story isn’t what Toni Morrison had in mind when she said, “If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” That said, that’s how I felt about it. Maybe one day Gail will write a modern story of Biffy and Lyall that will show how them getting engaged “really” goes down and you can bet that I will buy it as an ebook and an audiobook when she does, but until that day, I’ve written the story I needed to feel complete. Shit, I hope one day that they’ll turn up in her modern series. Granted, there’s already a werewolf named Biffy in her modern stories.
Which… what is her obsession with werewovles named “Biffy” come to think of it? I mean, it’s a nickname in both cases and it does SORT of make sense for Sandalio de Rabiffano to be named Biffy especially when he likely got the nickname from Lord Akeldama who, as a character, constantly nicknames people rediculous things if he likes them. He calls his adopted daughter, “Puggle” and almost never calls Alexia by her name but rather just a stream of cutesy things like “rose petal” and something something “button” I can’t remember. He renames Randolph Lyall, “Dolly” of all things so “Biffy” isn’t really a stretch there.
But the other “Biffy” …
Just looked at those books again, and apparently his real name is Bryan and they call him “Biff” not “Biffy” and their originally Alpha is “Fifi” and a dude. Now that I think about it, I’m thinking these aren’t really in the same world. Magic isn’t really a “thing” in the Parasol Protectorate series and I don’t think the wolves are “immortal” in the same way either as they are in her first series.
I get that as a writer she might want to continue to write about vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures but experiment with them in new ways and I’m glad that she’s able to do that, but I think I’m probably always going to think about all of her books in terms of the ‘rules’ set up by her Parasol books. Partly because she has eleven books and four novellas in that universe with another two on the way and partly because I read Soulless (the first in the Parasol Protectorate series) before I read anything else by her and so it set the precedent for my future readings.
Anyway, hopefully I’ll get more Biffy and Lyall and more of Primrose and Tasherit, but I’ll happily read just about anything she writes. There is only one book that I haven’t read by her yet. It’s a sci-fi YA story and I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. For now, I’m going to go read something totally unrelated and hope that I can get my word count and my editing done in time.