Well, you shou'n'ta! Go for this one.

Nervous is natural, but do it, because more people should read your work. And winning would be a pretty cool bonus.

Best of luck, erika!

connie, w00t!!!

Good luck, erika!

I'm so glad Drollerie Press exists. And I love the name.

Request for writing advice:

The issue is character death. I've recently decided to kill off a character who, for some reason, all my CPs like a lot more than I do. It's like he's their woobie or something, and the more I try to show that he's just not that brave or smart or resourceful, the more they want to cuddle and protect him!

Anyway, I'm planning to kill him at the end of Book One. It makes sense, because there's really no role for him to play in the rest of the series that isn't more ably filled by someone else. He's important in this book, but extraneous afterward, so who better to kill off in the big battle at the end to emphasize how War is Hell and my characters will have to make Big Sacrifices and so on? Except there's that woobie issue. I want readers to be sad about his death, but feel like it's fitting and appropriate on some level, and then be thrilled to turn the page and discover an excerpt from Book Two, not hate me forever and vow never to read my books again because I'm such a big meanie.

So. Given that I'm writing fantasy/adventure fiction whose overall tone is optimistic despite some grit along the way, what makes a character death succeed or fail? How do I walk the tightrope between making my guy's death too trivial or too tragic? Any thoughts?

Yay for contest submitting, erika!

Susan, what I'm feeling here is that maybe you're not totally invested in this guy's death yet. What you're describing to me sounds very ... thinky. To sell the death of a character your readers are loving, you have to have a damn good reason, and one *you* believe in, one that really compels you, I think.

Does that help?

Heh. If I sound thinky, it's because I'm trying to disguise my irrational annoyance at someone who, after all, is a figment of my own imagination! It's a relief to realize I can kill him and not have to deal with him for the entire series.

Has he been any type of a love interest for another character? If not, can the death be his choice in a "taking the bullet" for another character kind of way?

I'm trying to think of times when characters have been killed off in stories that I stuck with - characters that I cared about, that is - and foremost in my head is Doyle. TV rather than literature but still a very similar situation. I was bummed that he was killed off but I was also ok with it because he did such a Doyle thing and it was his choice. I don't know if that helps at all.

That's a good example, Nicole. You have to make it meaningful in some way, even if it's meaning*less*ness makes *another* character take action later.

Hm. Early in the story, he's traumatized by being in an ambush where he and my protagonist are the only survivors. He's guilty because he hid instead of fought, unlike his friends and family, who fought and died, or the protagonist, who fought well before deciding to attempt a strategic retreat to live and fight another day. But in my next action scene, he freezes up again and even fakes an injury to explain why unlike the protagonist he doesn't go charging off toward the sound of gunfire. So he sees himself as a coward. I was thinking I'd allow him to fight in the final battle, maybe do a heroic deed of some sort, saving the life of the protagonist or another important secondary character (no love interest whose life would be at risk at this point) or doing something critical to his side's victory, but dying in the process. So he dies, but at peace and having overcome his besetting demon.