Continued Adventures in Planning

Des Mackenzie, perpetual twenty-something, had grown accustomed to the life of the nearly-dead. But now he must face his greatest challenge: selling ice cream.

Coming this November, from renowned procrastinator Mad Cooper: Cold Blooded.

Okay, I don’t know if that's the title. It’s a good placeholder, at any rate. My main character (or "MC" as we say… in the business), does in fact have a name now. So that's cool. I think it suits him. There was a long and complicated process that led to that name. Basically, I saw one name that made me think of a show, which made me think of another name. And here we are. I could get into the details if you want.

I also know that the proprietress of the Creamatorium is named Arabella. She's older than she looks. Much, much older. I imagine her as sort of the classic vampire. Dark and seductive when she wants to be. She's the sort to reinvent herself every few decades, trying out new names and styles. She has a consort (that's the word my brain has been going with), a guy she turned a hundred or so years ago. He doesn't have a name yet. Let's not get carried away.

I've been wondering if Des should have a love interest (since I killed off his girlfriend some twenty five years ago). Since my last foray into super awkward romance was actually kind of successful, I sort of want to do it again. But do I go the whole "human girl falls for vampire" route? That seems so clichéd and overdone (damn you Twilight!). But if I don't do that, what do I do?

Another thing: I've said before that I see my stories like movies. This time is especially true. And I see it as the sort of movie where the MC is narrating explanations. I hear it in this certain tone… I want to say sarcastic, but I don't think that's right. I'll think of it eventually. Point is, I want to be able to narrate the story in this tone. It's a first person point of view kind of story, I think.

You know, some people don't like first person POV. Like, they won't even read a book with it. I think some people think it's immature, and maybe that's because a lot of young adult novels (damn you Twilight!) are written that way, poorly, and that just ruins it for everyone. Also, some of them are written in the present tense, which is super weird. I would never do that. (For anyone not up on their grammar, present tense would be, "I raise my knife and stab Steve in the throat," as opposed to the typical past tense, "I raised my knife and stabbed Steve in the throat.")

But I digress, as per usual. There's a variety of points of view I could go with, from the all-encompassing third person omniscient, all the way down to the very limited first person. I think I could do a whole post of points of view. Maybe I will. Suffice it to say, I think the inherent closeness of first person is what we need here. And it allowed my sardonic voice over.

So, dear readers, what do you think of a romantic subplot? Is it overdone? Is there a new way I could go about it? Let me know what you think.