I love it when I hate that this happens...

Here I am, writing along on Carli's Kills, aiming to get it done by the end of the year and maybe start asking for feedback so I can publish it...and Zeke just did me a number. I was adding some background to him -- being from Minnesota, adopted by Calvinist-like Lutherans, raised to be stand-offish, a little jail time...and then he started revealing more. And more. And more. And suddenly he's running neck and neck with Carli in the importance to the story.

In fact, I think he's trying to take the damn thing over. Just like Adam started taking Dair's Window away from Dair, earlier this year. I can't have that, again.

I mean, I like Zeke. And I like how he's working with me on the story to make it deeper and darker, and even adding a bit of his own humor, but he's not the main character. Carli is. And she's already letting me know, If he pulls this shit, I'm pullin' it right back. And you know me; I can be hell on wheels.

So now I've got a balancing act going between them and what should happen next? My female sheriff, Eldora Parridge, has decided she's got a thing for Zeke, too. And might wind up fighting Carli for him. And it's feeling more and more like that cat fight at the beginning of Faster, Pussycat, Kill, Kill.

What do you do when your characters start fighting with each other to take over? Let 'em duke it out? That takes a lot of time and I don't have it. I want to get back to A Place of Safety.

Shit, I hate it when this happens...and love it.