Fics

Well, I finished the Spectral Stalker. And in the end, as I knew I would even while quibbling, I kept my original intentions. I finally just kind of gave up and accepted that I wanted to do it with Caldwell being alive. It's been very difficult to get reviews on the last few chapters; Harry has vanished again (although by this point I'm convinced he will be back) and Kaleen is an on-again off-again reviewer (although I'm pretty sure she does read, even if she doesn't review). There has been definite interest, though; my hit counts have been very good. Overall, though, I know it's not as strong or as good as my other Perry mysteries and I'm discouraged about that and disappointed in myself. But I "fixed" what I set out to fix, so in that respect I'm pleased.

As usual, I kind of planned to stop the series with this installment. And also as usual, I ended up with another plunnie before I'd even finished. It was the plunnie that kind of sealed my decision to go ahead and write the rest of the Spectral Stalker without waiting for reviews, as I was anxious to start trying to share the new story. It's going to feature Paul in a large role (and his friendship with Hamilton, although his friendships with Perry, Della, and Steve Drumm will play important roles too). And I'm going to try to keep it from swerving into sci-fi or supernatural territory. Keyword: try.

One thing I've always done quite deliberately that I'm not sure anyone has ever noticed is that Paul never (or very rarely) addresses Hamilton by name when speaking to him. His reason for that is that he's not sure what to call him. "Hamilton" would indicate a level of closeness that they don't have, "Burger" sounds too cold and removed when talking right to him, and "Mr. Burger" sounds too formal. So Paul tried to resolve the dilemma by not calling him anything. When talking about him to others, Paul usually says "Burger", as per canon information. I may eventually force him into a situation in the new fic where he has to call Hamilton something.

I also wrote up something random and dark for yesterday's 31_days prompt. It was supposed to end on a tragic note, but in the end I couldn't do it. I wrote another segment after that one. I'm hopeless.

I'm currently working on a crossover conversation I've wanted to do forever, with Lieutenant Schrank and Dan Mathews. It's coming along very nicely. Next step: get a Highway Patrol category requested on FF.net. I still have that straight-out Highway Patrol fic I want to do sometime, where Dan is shot by a nut and Sgt. Williams (William Boyett's character) and maybe Sgt. Walters (Stuart Whitman's character) come together in righteous outrage to catch the creep.