From a frustrated author: An open letter to my characters

Dear Zara, Danyael, and Galahad,

I suppose you think it’s funny inserting yourselves into my every waking and sleeping moment. I need you three to BUG OFF. I am trying to get work done here. I am writing another book, and just because it doesn’t involve you, it doesn’t mean I’m slacking off. I am the author; I write your stories, but that doesn’t give you the right to boss me around, wake me up at 3 am, fill my head with plots and scenes, and say, “Why aren’t you writing about me?”–as if you’re the sun around which my world revolves.

I am writing about other people, you selfish clods–people who have a right to come to life and to grow as beautifully as you three have over FOUR books. (Okay, three books for Galahad, let’s not get sidetracked from my point by arguing over details.)

Go hang out with Xin. I hear she’s may be secretly plotting to conquer the world (it’s hard not to aspire to greatness when you’re the clone of an ancient Chinese queen, general, and high priestess) and I’m sure she’ll welcome the chaos and mayhem that typically accompany the three of you. (Actually, come to think of it, I should check in on Xin. She’s the child  you need to worry about most when she’s quiet because she’s probably up to no good.)

Why don’t you three go break into a lab and let loose some crazy genetic experiments? Oh, wait. You already did that. That’s how we landed up in the mess to begin with. Break into a super-maximum security prison? Never mind, did that too. Infiltrate a terrorist organization? Oh, yeah, check. Fall in love with the absolutely wrong person. Been there, done that; theme of your life.

Go watch grass grow? Zara, Danyael, Galahad, seriously. You’re adults. I shouldn’t have to come up with a bucket list of things for you to do. Take charge of your own entertainment (and no, harassing me is NOT entertainment) and go find something else to do for a month or so.

Yes, a month. That’s all I’m asking for–a month to get to a solid first draft of The City of Eternal Night. I won’t even edit it, okay, you jealous creatures? I’ll dump it at the bottom of my hard drive and work on the fourth book of the Double Helix series right after that. Yes, I swear. Cross my heart and all that jazz.

And as for you two, Ashra and Jaden, you better grow up fast and come into your own. Otherwise, you’ll never stand a chance at holding my attention when Zara, Danyael, and Galahad come knocking.

With oodles of hugs and kisses, Jade

p.s. Here’s the premise for The City of Eternal Night:

Alone for a millennia since a human murdered her beloved consort, Ashra, the immortal icrathari queen, rules over Aeternae Noctis, the domed city of eternal night. Her loneliness appears at an end when her consort’s soul is reborn in a human, Jaden Hunter, but their reunion will not be easy.

The first problem: icrathari are born, not made. If Ashra infuses Jaden with her immortal blood, he will be a vampire, a lesser creature of the night, a blood-drinker rather than a soul-drinker.

The second problem: Jaden is sworn to protect his half-sister, five-year-old Khiarra. She is the child of prophecy, destined to end the eternal night and the dominion of the Night Terrors—the icrathari and the vampires.

As Ashra struggles to sustain her crumbling kingdom in the face of enemies without and treachery within, Jaden fights to defend his sister and unravel a greater mystery: What is the city of eternal night, and how did it come to be?

See, it can be a halfway decent story. Now, go away and let me write it!