Adventure Eddy is over...

After more than six months, I've wrapped up posting Adventure Eddy on the blog.

The entire story, pretty much unabridged, is to be found here. That's eighty five chapters and about 120,000 words.

I am only going to be keeping the story up there for a short while longer before I take it down, revamp the blog and have it as an update on my efforts to get Adventure Eddy published.

Claire Anderson, the honey-voiced Power FM presenter, gave favourable reviews, which bouyed me up. It did lead to this conversation with Tina, though.

In the car:

Tina: Have you got a copy of Adventure Eddy around? I'm going to finally read it.
Rols: Yep, Claire gave me the one she was reading back today.
Tina: What did she say about it?
Rols: She said she was surprised Eddy doesn't get the girl in the end.
Tina: He doesn't get the girl in the end?
Rols: No, she actually...
Tina: Why did you just tell me the ending? You've just ruined the whole thing for me!

I hadn't actually given the whole ending way. I mean, there were the series of hotel robberies to worry about. That was kind of the major focus of the story...

Or was it? Claire's comments did make me think. Dad, when he read it, talked about the hotel robberies and the practicalities of Eddy and friends driving 600 miles in five and a half hours (in a twenty year old sports car.) Claire, on the other hand, pointed out that the love interest's eyes changed colour half way through the book and Eddy didn't get the girl in the end.

I never really thought about it, but the subplot romance between Eddy and Kat was a whole second story. It's almost like the book was split into two halves. The cool thing about that was that the boys liked the chase scenes and devious crimes - and the girls liked the unrequited crush and the will-they-won't-they subplot.

I set out to write an old fashioned boy's adventure story, but the romance part appeals to girls. Maybe the book is slightly more complex than I'd first thought!

Anyway. It has inspired me to focus more on the character's relationships in the next story.

Speaking of which, you can find my Nanowrimo blog, The Bootleg Boys, here. That's almost a direct follow up to the story of Adventure Eddy, bridging the gap between the novel and the rest of the Adventure Eddy stories I've written.

In the mean time, I'm finishing up editing Adventure Eddy and will be sending it off to publishers soon.