Balancing

Episode 2 of The Ruffians is not going to be pleasant. It's going to be intriguing, but it's not going to be pleasant. It has a couple glimmers of comedy, but overall, it's kind of an icky thing -- which is exactly what I was going for when I wrote it. I wanted to confront the reality of a bad day at work for two hitmen. I wanted to challenge the audience's fondness for Alexander and Charlie. Just because they're the focus of the show doesn't mean you should be rooting for them -- or does it?

I came home from rehearsal on Wednesday night in a bit of a funk. Rehearsal went really well, so well, in fact, I actually found myself affected by what we were doing. I left feeling like Alexander and Charlie were awful, awful people.

And to get out of that funk I sat down and put a final (for now) polish on the first chapter of my young adult book. It doesn't have a title yet, but it comes from a short story that I've been on-again off-again with for the past year. It's about young Arlyn Walsh, a traveller and general adventurer of the Multiverse. I'm quite fond of this little guy already, and I'm only a chapter into his story. I hope this book allows me to write a series of books detailing his adventures, but I can only take it one chapter at a time. And his pluck, wit, and lightheartedness contrasted perfectly with the grey-to-dark matter that Ruffians was. Thanks to him, I slept well Wednesday night.

We film the meat of episode 2 tomorrow night and, quite frankly, I'll be glad to have it behind me. It's a fascinating story to watch, but . . . as I've said . . . not a pleasant one.