First editing pass on The Glass Floor
confirms what I already thought – which is that I love this book. Seriously, I am so excited about this one. This is probably bad news because it’s been my experience so far that the stories I’ve loved the most haven’t necessarily been the ones other people liked, but there’s not much I can do about that.
I’m 71 pages into a 180 page book so far. There hasn’t been a lot of hard editing yet – it’s quite a clean draft at the beginning, though I know it gets more snarly towards the end. It’s just way out of my experience that I’m still enjoying working on it. I do worry a little that it’s a mainstream fantasy with a (very low key) romance between its gay hero and its bisexual hero, and that it’s chock full of vampires (or, as I like to call them, strigoii).
Both of those things may make it a hard sell to mainstream Fantasy publishers sick to the pointy teeth of vampires, but I don’t care. This is one I really believe in, and will self-publish if it comes down to it. This is me taking a chance to do what I love, instead of sticking safely with what I’ve already done before.
But, God, it will break my heart if everyone hates this one. I’m almost scared to put it out there in case they do.
*double take* Is having a gay protagonist really such a killer? (in terms of mainstream publishing)
I don’t honestly know. I know there are a few fantasies around with gay protagonists, but it’s certainly very rare. Afaik they’re usually sidekicks or villains, if they’re there at all. So I don’t know if it’s a killer but I certainly think it’s a risk.