"End of Blood and Roses." Now what?
Well, I had been planning RRST since before B&R4 was finished. Wait, I remember finishing the first (and 3 page long) draft of Chapter 7 of B&R and thinking: "I want a sequel." So I wrote three possible names at the bottom of the page: "Tears of Blood," "Blood Red Rose," and "Fallen Petals." Unfortunately for me at the time (I became very attatched to "Blood Red Rose"), the second two were already names of pretty well-known sim stories, and I wasn't really feeling it for the first. So I went and asked my mom some good names/quotes. Somehow she came up with "the reddest rose has the sharpest thorns." I about peed my pants. "Oh my god, 'Reddest Rose Sharpest Thorn!!'" I squealed. "That's what the title's gonna be!" So I started writing. The first draft of chapter one was pretty good; I ended up keeping most of the first couple pages. Next big thing: characters.
I had known Aradia was going to be the main character; after all, she was a human/vampire, so she posed the biggest interest for a good storyline. Pretty soon I had her all mapped out: Sassy. Rebellious. Sarcastic. A bit of a badass. She turned out to be the coolest POV to write from since Loretta's big debut in B&R4. Probably because Erika was a bit more chill; she didn't have the same spark as Aradia does.
Next came Eric. Completely random name. Popped into my head and stuck before I realized "Eric. Erika. Interesting." But heck. They're spelled differently, and one is a boy and one is a girl. Whatev. But I love Eric. He's a nice mix of Ian and Gabe; not too sarcastic, but enough. Just the right amount of perfect boyfriend with a little touch of twisted, messed up teenager.
So, basically, RRST just leaped without a hint of shame into my head. And boy oh boy, am I glad it did.