"The Hearts of Men"


I'd really hoped to have this done today, to put into the LH short story challenge, but I never quite buckled down enough. Too many distractions with the kids home for President's Day. I'm going to wrap it up tomorrow or the day after though, as well as do some reading and critiquing. Got some clockwork jungle stories to read for folks before they send them off to Shimmer (and hopefully sell them!). And I got my first crit back today on the novel, with excellent points and confirmation some of my gut feelings that I'd done some stuff wrong in the second draft. Already I'm contemplating the rewrite, saving off one character's demise until the end and reevaluating another character who's basically a rug for my protag to wipe her feet on, which of course he shouldn't be. Actually I think putting these two particular characters together in the story could create some interesting tension as well as keep my protag from becoming too comfy in the situation. In a few weeks maybe I'll do some outlining, see where the new ideas take me. So big thanks go out to aliettedb.