They Fight Crime!

cristalia's crime-fighting story is live at Strange Horizons this week.

I checked the file with my first batch of TFC ideas. Snake Charmer was:

He's a notorious voodoo assassin on the hunt for the last specimen of a great and near-mythical creature. She's a mentally unstable red-headed snake charmer with an evil twin sister. They fight crime!

And there was Ebb:

He's a globe-trotting vegetarian ex-demon on a mission from God. She's a pregnant gold-digging deep one descended from a line of powerful witches. They fight crime!

The others I saved are:

He's a suicidal alcoholic cultist with a passion for fast cars. She's an enchanted extravagant medium with someone else's memories. They fight crime!

He's an oversexed dishevelled assassin fleeing from cultists. She's a pregnant French-Canadian Lilim from aristocratic European stock. They fight crime!

He's an obese coffee-fuelled vampire hunter from the Mississippi delta. She's a beautiful thirtysomething college professor on her way to prison for a murder she didn't commit. They fight crime!

Which of these should I work on next? I'm partial to the alcoholic cultist or obese vampire hunter, but I'll take audience suggestions.

Oh my god, Becky

She looks like one of those Raphaelite guy's girlfriends

And the vampire hunter told me his name while I was in the shower this morning. (Characters are worse than cats and four-year-olds that way.) I may need to start a note file. If the college professor starts talking, I'll know I'm in trouble.

Tell me who's that writing

I bitch and moan a lot about the stuck times and the flailing times and the book hate, but there is nothing like that moment when a thought slips into place and the ideas start bubbling up all spurty.

Mind you, they don't make sense yet, but there's a story in this mess, about the vampire hunter and the Mississippi blues. Whatever it turns out to be, it'll have a good soundtrack. I'd been hoping to use "John the Revelator" for a story one of these days.