Nice victims only bother me if we spend a lot of time getting to know the nice victim and then she's killed.

Amy, presumably the victim dies early in the story, right? Because while I can see it being an issue if some nice character readers know well and have been rooting for dies at the 3/4 mark, I think it makes a mystery more interesting rather than less if the victim was nice. If they weren't, well, the motive is obvious, and maybe the deceased got what was coming to them. But if they were, that makes the search for a motive more interesting, and it raises the stakes by making the killer worse--someone we really want to see brought to justice, someone who might be a risk to other nice characters.

Nutty, $200 doesn't buy you much of a man's suit, as I recall from joining Paul in the suit section, unless you're buying close-out.

Yep. Nic has two, both by Hickey Freeman, who also made his tux, I think. The reason he only has two is that the damned things run about $800. So yeah, he's careful with them.

Apropos to the thread, I just sent a new section of Cruel Sister to my WIP readers. Feedback good. This one has a way different sense of threat than the first three.

edit - why in hell can't I type today?

The suit was HIDEOUS. He was absolutely brilliant at his job, and up until the bit where he sent me Cohen lyrics and begged me to sleep with him or he'd have to quit, quite a nice guy.

Nice victims only bother me if we spend a lot of time getting to know the nice victim and then she's killed.

Why is that a problem? Doesn't it make you want to find out who did it more?

But that's why she should do it. Oops, too much Lehane. But he rips my heart out with it every time. And usually the vic's entrails too, but hey... wrong place/wrong time(robbery or something in which she is...sort of accidentally killed Maybe a Bop Gun thing. Won't give up Grandma's necklace...I believe that lady died because of a "defiant chin." Novice triggerman wants to look hard, though he's not. Bang. Mistaken identity...from the back she looks like cleavagey slutbomb niece with dirtbag bf. Killed to send message to relative in the life.

She would have had a prologue from her POV, and then the heroine would have found her dead in Chapter One.

Ah, well.

But that's the bitch. Nice people die. Of course, I once wrote a drabble crossing "The Princess Bride" and "A Year On The Killing Streets" because, you know, Adena's killer gets away. So of course, I wrote "God, Simon, what did you show me this thing for?"
And had dear old Uncle Dave say "You like the realism right?"
And I say "Yes."
"Well, that's the price you pay then."

And "Tell me Pellegrini shoots him. Bang."
"No, Tom Pellegrini is a good cop...he respects the law too much to do that.
"Well, that sucks."
"Being a good cop sucks...I think we spend a little too much time together.
So I'm too sick to notice that problem.

I just filled out the online entry form for the Golden Heart. I don't have to mail the entry for another few months--it just has to be at the RWA office by 12/2--but this commits me to sending my entry or wasting the fee, which ought to keep me on track for editing.

Deb! Matty Groves is on it's way to me already! I am surprised as I didn't think it was coming out 'til October.

So of course, I wrote "God, Simon, what did you show me this thing for?"
And had dear old Uncle Dave say "You like the realism right?"
And I say "Yes."
"Well, that's the price you pay then."

I think you can't do that in a romance, though; historicist detail notwitstanding, romances are not big on the random beatdowns of life, you know? I don't think I've ever read a romance where at the end, the two characters just realize they aren't very alike, and break up amicably, and move on. Much less one where the female lead is hit by a garbage truck ten pages from the end, and dies.

I suppose it could happen, but I bet a lot of the audience would protest that it wasn't a romance. (That is to say, I find both propositions, as well as realism overall, interesting, but the general/loyal readership of Harlequin, probably not what they're in the mood for when they pick up that paperback.)

And can I spare an Amen for whoever coined the phrase "the random beatdowns of life"? It expresses so efficiently a complete worldview.