It's been an anxious couple days for me. My editor and I are in the process of reworking four entire story lines for the comic to get them up to quality. A team of reviewers is reviewing the entire series up to the current story (which is a major tone shift for the series). I've been getting email reviews, including a few people who specifically started reading during Magnum Opus, a story I was scared I would take flak for due to the subject matter.
And, on top of all of that, I'm building up to a rather intimate scene with Owen and Tarra, that I know people will have various issues with: specifically, my family. Yes, I'm the black sheep in my family, and I get called out on it a lot. No more, though, than when the topic of race comes up. It had been so bad, that at one point, I was dating a woman I knew since the first grade. Because she was Vietnamese, my Dad felt it necessary to ask me, "Why don't you ever date white women?" In front of her. Did I mention that our families had been friends until that day?
So, lo and behold, I get to the point in the comic where Owen and Tarra finally express how they feel about each other, and I'm left with two issues. 1: Making damn sure people see that this isn't sex for the sake of sex (hence, Owen's doubts coming to surface), and 2: Awaiting the hell from my family because Tarra is both black and English. I should be more nervous about the latter, what with the holidays coming up.
But, I'm not. These are my characters, and while it's easy to say "I can do what I want with them," it's hard to execute that. Initially, Owen wasn't supposed to end up with Tarra, but their compatibility was too strong to keep them apart. I specifically designed their personalities first. I only made Tarra black and English when I realized that it reinforced the theme of two opposites forming a stronger whole. Family be damned, they work. But, that leaves me more worried about people assuming I'm objectifying Tarra when I'm not.
Which led me to an interesting contrast: in the scene I'm on now, Tarra is listening to Owen's fears about being too weak to actually fight anymore. He's on the brink of depression, suffering PTSD, and realizes that he's in yet another abusive relationship, all while falling in love with Tarra, the person who he subconsciously sees as his salvation. For two pages, she's listened, only speaking when she assures him that he won't be alone.
Contrasting this is the previous scene: Rachel LeBeau, a psychic vampire, seeks the help of Roana, a sanguine vampire. Roana is in a mental hospital after causing herself serious bodily harm. Her character at this point is steadily declining to insanity due to guilt over an event that she had a hand (err... no pun intended) in causing. Yet, despite knowing that Rachel needs help, Roana interrupts, berates, and refuses to help until she realizes that she can help herself.
I didn't actually mean to put these scenes together, but it works. And, thankfully, it's a distraction from the surprise that has me on edge this week. If you haven't yet, check out Blank here. Hopefully, this week I can get more improvements done for the first four stories.