Yes, folks, we wrapped up the fourth Creatures book last night.  In addition to that, we have a pretty solid framework plotted—yes, plotted—out already for book five.  And we have a solid idea/game plan for a female/female side series for Creatures.

Hold up, Emery, that’s a whole lot of news for one paragraph.  Care to expound?  Why, sure, Emery, I’d love to.  (I’m an only child; talking to myself comes very naturally.)

Right, first off, finishing off Creatures book four, Sins of Influence.  I love our titles—Grey has a gift with them.  At long last, we finally came up with a solid story to explore the dashing Commander Christopher Montgomery, and his equally dashing lover, Kieran Phillips—who met in our ARe 28 Days of Heart short, Sea of Sin.  (If you haven’t read that, you really should because a) HOT, and b) all proceeds go to the American Heart Association, so good cause!)  It’s a bit under our word goal, but that’s usually remedied fairly easily in the revision process.

After wrapping up book four and exploring Middle Earth (LOTRO), Grey and I hashed out a rough framework for the fifth book, including motivations and threats and all the plotty, generally non-sexy bits (though there was a fair amount of that as well).  Maybe we’re learning after all.  By “we” I mean me.  Grey likes knowing where things are going; I like winging it.  But winging it only gets you so far.  Plotting helps you from hitting a wall, too hard.

And last, but definitely not least, we have Creatures of Sin: Lilith and Eve, followed by whatever Sins of fits the flavor of the book.  Why the differentiation?  Because it seems readers, typically, don’t like to mix up the gender composition of the romances they read.  Which baffles both Grey and I.  If the characters are engaging and the sex is hot, what does it matter if it’s two men or two women, or a man and a woman, or a male/female/male threesome or male/male/female threesome or female/female/male or female/male/female or moresomes?  Is the vajajay really that off-putting that you’re going to avoid a book in a series because it focuses on two women instead of two men?  Okay, I’m all behind the fact that people have different tastes and preferences, but still…baffled.  Maybe my view is skewed because I’ll read anything so long as the writing’s good.  And you know what?  Hot is hot regardless of gender and combination.  *climbs off soap box*  But the short, non-ranty reason is that the books will still be identifiable as part of the Creatures world, but differentiated in such a way that those who wish to can avoid them.  And a little part of me thrills at the idea that Lilith and Eve decided to go off together and leave Adam to bemoan his fate.

So, there you go.  A real, thorough, writing-related update!