I spent some time yesterday starting to read SENTINEL again. Thankfully, I can do so and not cringe, so that's a good sign. I do like the direction I started taking in in the third draft, even if it does mean extensive revisions. It will be a better story for it.

I also finished Chapter 15 of TOPAZ last night, but I'm not thrilled with it. Blargh.

I decided to spend a good chunk of the evening reading a new book I picked up: Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland. Good paranormal romance. She created an interesting world, where an infinite number of demons, descended from the fallen angels, roam the planet. Of course it's her main character's job to hunt them down. I ended up staying up to 1:30 a.m. to finish the damn thing. Ouch.

Anyway, after I turned off the light, I lay in bed thinking for awhile about SENTINEL. Although similar to Lori Handeland's book in that my MC is in charge of eradicating demons in her city, I realized I hadn't really fleshed out those demons beyond them just being bad. I also realized that the good-guy-killing-demons motif is getting almost as common as vampires.

Basically, I realized that although I (think I'm) a good writer and there are some unique elements to my book, it doesn't stand out enough. So I've spent some time brainstorming this morning, and I think I've come up with a solution. Now I just have to weave it into my existing story.


TOPAZ status: Chapter 15 done. Chapter 16 approaching, but I think I'll give it a few days.

SENTINEL status: Brainstorming and revisions. Yay.