Just perusing a couple of lovely reviews that got posted on Amazon for Man in the Bath, and realised a pretty naive scheduling mistake I’ve made. The first comments (and no, as far as I’m aware I don’t know the reviewers) notes how the main character and narrator isn’t a likeable person, which is very, very true, but it was only reading this that it occurred to me that the next one, The Raven Sound, has an equally (if not worse) unpleasant persona and anti-social tendencies. Bugger, I’ll get a reputation at this rate. And I think these two are the only examples of my longform fiction which have such a horrible person as the main character. At least in the new one the narrator Jack has some redeeming qualities, and if you read between the lines you can work out a bit more about why he acts the way he does.
As regular readers will know, Man in the Bath was originally conceived and drafted in 2007, whereas The Raven Sound I only began last year. In between there are lots of pieces I’ve written or partly written with female protagonists, more positive role models, romantics even, but for some reason dickhead me decided to launch with two bellend-hero featuring novels (I use the term hero loosely, in reference to them being the central viewpoint).
Hopefully, if you take part in the vote for ‘What Kit Wrote Next’ to pick my next novel, we’ll end up with a nicer person in the central role next time. My fate is in your hands gentle reader, as I’ll abide by the vote results like I promised. For any other writers out there planning their work and release schedule, it’s worth considering (like I didn’t) the order for publishing, and if elements of the lead role might give people the wrong idea about your writing in general. I’m a lovely person, honest. I like puppies, Bob Ross painting programmes on TV, happy musicals and long walks in the country.
The poll and choices for my next project are at the bottom of the free fiction page here.
I’m off to help an old lady across the road, in a socially distanced way, whether she wants me to or not.
Stay safe,
Kit