Male gaze trope? Only if Clarke was a decade or two younger. Or if Styles swung that way, but I don't get the feeling she does.
In general you're not shying away from the adult material, but you're not reveling in it either - you're not "Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones-ing" it where all exposition must come alongside sex or torture, and people use the word "fuck" like a comma. All cool.
Chakraborty...diving into the head of someone in a self-destruct mode is rarely fun. I suspect at the moment she's the hardest to write. She needs help. She's not going to get it. Zoltan is gonna ignore it unless something drastic happens. There's a train wreck on that horizon.
No Sally jokes this week, which means you didn't kill anyone or introduce a new body this chapter.
That's useful feedback - good to hear that it's tonally on the right line, for you at least. As you say, it's about whether the author is 'revelling' in it or not. The purpose of a brothel in this story is not to titillate but to provide a story point around which other themes can be explored, and to examine the reactions of our various characters.
I suspect Chakraborty will get worse before she gets better, if she does. She plays as hard as she works, but those pressures are building.
And yes, I haven't killed off a character for a couple of chapters now! Well done me. Next week is the final part of the 'Traffic' storyline, which aside from anything else will also make more sense of that title.
One exciting aspect of this format is that with each storyline I can shift gears significantly, taking on a completely different storyline, but with the SDC core characters being the through-line to keeps it consistent. It's a very different way of writing to any of my previous books, so is challenging. I hope over time it'll really start to snowball into something significant.
I'm wondering now what's waiting for Zoltan too. At first I assumed a kid/family, but then I see from the comments that there's no kid. So.... hm.
Also, I love the line, "They were into the hour of the wolf, that indistinct point between night and far-too-early morning." I don't know that I've heard that before, and it's very evocative. Fits the story too.
I first heard the phrase from J Michael Straczynski, who used it in an episode of the show Babylon 5. That was in the late-90s and it's stuck in my head ever since. As you say, very evocative and describes that odd limbo state of anxiety just right.
Thanks for reading!
Male gaze trope? Only if Clarke was a decade or two younger. Or if Styles swung that way, but I don't get the feeling she does.
In general you're not shying away from the adult material, but you're not reveling in it either - you're not "Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones-ing" it where all exposition must come alongside sex or torture, and people use the word "fuck" like a comma. All cool.
Chakraborty...diving into the head of someone in a self-destruct mode is rarely fun. I suspect at the moment she's the hardest to write. She needs help. She's not going to get it. Zoltan is gonna ignore it unless something drastic happens. There's a train wreck on that horizon.
No Sally jokes this week, which means you didn't kill anyone or introduce a new body this chapter.
That's useful feedback - good to hear that it's tonally on the right line, for you at least. As you say, it's about whether the author is 'revelling' in it or not. The purpose of a brothel in this story is not to titillate but to provide a story point around which other themes can be explored, and to examine the reactions of our various characters.
I suspect Chakraborty will get worse before she gets better, if she does. She plays as hard as she works, but those pressures are building.
And yes, I haven't killed off a character for a couple of chapters now! Well done me. Next week is the final part of the 'Traffic' storyline, which aside from anything else will also make more sense of that title.
One exciting aspect of this format is that with each storyline I can shift gears significantly, taking on a completely different storyline, but with the SDC core characters being the through-line to keeps it consistent. It's a very different way of writing to any of my previous books, so is challenging. I hope over time it'll really start to snowball into something significant.
Thanks for reading and commenting, as ever!
Yeah, Clarke is so lucky to have the enthused rookie who will help him heal, not an enabler like the one Nisha is stuck with.
What IS waiting up for childless Zoltan? I vote kittens or small yappy dogs....
Yeah, Styles isn't who Clarke would have *chosen* to be partnered up with, but her enthusiasm for life generally is exactly what he needs.
Kaminski and Nisha, though. They're a messier situation.
I'm wondering now what's waiting for Zoltan too. At first I assumed a kid/family, but then I see from the comments that there's no kid. So.... hm.
Also, I love the line, "They were into the hour of the wolf, that indistinct point between night and far-too-early morning." I don't know that I've heard that before, and it's very evocative. Fits the story too.
I first heard the phrase from J Michael Straczynski, who used it in an episode of the show Babylon 5. That was in the late-90s and it's stuck in my head ever since. As you say, very evocative and describes that odd limbo state of anxiety just right.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Ah, makes sense; that was such a good show. It worked in this chapter very nicely.