Editing, November Short Story & Squire's Wish

So, I'm nearly done with A Squire's Wish. I've got a few scenes left, and I have a much better idea about the themes for all the characters so I expect there to be certain extensive edits needed. It's currently around Chapter 17, so across November, I'll update with the new chapters for everyone.

I also (hope) to get another short story written while I'm away. Those are easy to punch out while with the family. So, comment for your favorite character and pick either serious or humorous scene. 

Lastly, just hit the scene with Roxley & John. Stop reading if you don't want spoilers right now.

I'm waiting...

And yeah, if you don't want to see the behind the scenes aspect of my thoughts of the characters, stop reading here too.

Okay. So, this is just some side thoughts and a look at the backend. Lana & John have always been doomed in my mind. I kind of foreshadowed it in book 1, with how 'bad' John is at relationships. He's obsessed, with both his personal quest and the System. Lana on the other hand I've always seen as needing something ore stable. She's someone who has always built things, nurtured them, guarded them. From her initial business to Richard to the settlements. To me, it always made sense that at the end of book 6, she'd be on Earth while John runs off.  

On the other hand, Roxley & John have always written their own story. I NEVER expected them to hit it off on first meeting. They just wrote themselves. But, for much the same reasons that Lana & John don't work, they don't either in the long-term. We won't stop seeing him (foreshadowing here...:P) but he and John will never have a traditional, close relationship. Neither can afford it. 

Roxley, in his own way, is tragic to me. He's a character who is alone due to his circumstances rather than choice, the Skills, tech and attributes making him a master manipulator, but unable to ever trust that anyone can ever care for him. Thus. John and his ridiculous mental resistances.

But, editing their scene together, I'm hit by the concern of my sales / reviews. I know writing what I'm going to write, I'm going to see a backlash. Hopefully, those who dislike John being bi have stopped reading or gotten over it by now. A part of me is tempted to cut the scene out. 

But I think it'd be a disservice to the characters and the story. So it'll stay in.