“Wicked” has taken on a life of its own. What began as an impulsively sketched short story has catapulted itself into orbit and taken “Getting Mine” along with it.

For anyone asking, no the stories aren’t for sale.

A few readers asked when an update to “Wicked” would be posted. What’s the hold up? The hold up is Gabriel; he’s acting up. The authors who’ll read this post will understand what I mean.

Our characters have minds of their own. We’re basically their bitch. We’re here to dictate to the world what they want say…we’re telling their story. For me, this happens particularly with domineering characters such as Edward, Mark, and Gabriel.

Writers go into a story with an outline in hand and make tweaks along the way. But our characters will try to throw us off course. You say right, they say make a hard left and gun it. The story should be allowed to follow its natural flow however Gabriel is a slickster. I rewrote one paragraph four times because it didn’t sound like something Gabriel would say.

When this happens writers revisit the character outlines to see what traits can be moved around to produce the character we see in our heads. Going over Gabriel’s outline made my slap my head! He reminds me of the old Edward: a gentle mix of Mr. Darcy and Caligula.

Not good! It took me forever to soften Edward—he didn’t care anyone. People loved and hated him. So I went back to the drawing board and realized there was little I wanted to change about Gabriel. He was the character I envisioned though I will have to tame his mouth. He can be nasty.

Example of Gabriel's nastiness: “If you ever cross me again, I’ll rip out your spinal cord and wear it as a bandana.”


See what I mean!? I’m taming Gabriel just a smidgen. I hope to have the update posted over the weekend. Until then please checkout the new reader submitted story entitled "The Club" written by JulesW.