I love me some italics!

My lovely wife, who is also reading The Devil You Don't Know, looked up at me sweetly the other night while we were lying in bed (she was reading the manuscript; I was watching baseball) and said: You really like italics, don't you?

I said: Who? Me? No way!

So, she showed me the page. And seemingly every other word was italicized. Whoah. I hadn't realized that.

I do like to use italics to emphasize certain words because I strive to make my dialogue as realistic as possible. But after she pointed it out, it became clear that I ... overdo it.

It's apparently a tic, like a written whole-word stutter or a lisp. I can't help it, but I can go in and change most of them. So that's my next step in the never-ending saga of trying to get TDYDK ready. I'm going in and changing three-quarters of the italicized words back to normal.

Grrrrr.

I'm also waiting to hear from three beta readers who haven't checked in at all in the three weeks that they've had the manuscript. Since I've never done this before, I don't know whether I should be worried, pissed or not concerned. So I'm going for hopeful. As in, I'm hopeful that they are taking their time because they want to do a good job since the book is so good.

Yeah. That sounds good.

Sorry for the limited posts over the weekend. It was school play weekend for the 12-year-old, which proved quite stressful and hectic. And I'm still not feeling good yet. I'm not sure what's ailing me, but I'm starting to wonder if it's allergies. I have been exhausted, had a headache, sore throat and a cough for two weeks now. Blech.

Have a wonderful Sunday night and we'll talk again tomorrow.

I hate vampires! (sort of)

Ok, I admit it. I have never read any of the Twilight books. Or Harry Potter, although I've seen and enjoyed the movies (my wife and 11-year-old make sure of that). I've also never read Lord of the Rings or any Tolkien for that matter.

I know. I know. My bad.

But fantasy just doesn't ring my bell. I harbor no ill will toward those who like a little magic dust sprinkled on their dragons and elves, or who swoon when a pasty-faced young vampire leans in for a little nip before sun up.

No, I like my fiction gritty and straight-forward. Real. Of course, a few monsters and vampires are a good thing, as evidenced by my longstanding love of Stephen King, but I just can't muster any enthusiasm for the current crop of fanstasy titles.

But I'm glad they are there, because I suspect more young people are reading today than perhaps ever before. And that, Dear Readers, is a very, very good thing.

Over the past several months, as I began pursuing my fiction career in earnest, I've joined several online writing groups and I've noticed one thing -- there are a ton of young adult fanstasy writers out there! Dear Lord, they are crawling out of the woodwork. Some of them are writing novels at an age where I was still drinking beer, smoking dope and arguing with my Dad over keeping my room clean.

Good for them!

My own writing tends more toward a darker reality, my prose more masculine than fantastic. Let's just say I use fewer adverbs and adjectives and leave it at that.

If today's young adult fantasy is, say, the literary equivalent of Lady Gaga or Lily Allen, then mine is more Springsteen or Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Closer to the bone, so to speak.

It's been said the market for adult fiction is shrinking, while the market for young adult fantasy is growing. My hope is that once my book is ready for submission, it finds a yearning for more adult literature.

Meanwhile, viva la difference!

How about you, Dear Reader? What books trip your trigger? Let me know and we can compare favorites.