Cap Hit

Chapter 10: Grim Realizations

Capitolium: Yes, but it's too early to tell whether you addressed the non-hockey factors beyond trying to go for obliviousness to love, and making both workaholics

Caroline: And you said I had some relatively good characters

Relatively good compared to what? I might be willing to accept if it was comparing debut books against each other. Beyond that, while I accepted characters were key to making a good romance work, Capitolium made me feel like requests for hockey romance books with actual hockey in the plot were commonly requested, an annoyed Caro is also confused. How could I somehow grasp that characters, and how they interact with each other, are key to make a good relationship work, and take over two weeks understand that hockey romance readers will judge a book by the relationship and not by the hockey?

Capitolium: I can kind of feel like you're not going to make them flat, but you might struggle somewhat going forward to give character development for Emma

Caroline: Perhaps I could give her more development after Gustavs buys her a second-hand ticket for the Backcrackers game

Especially when she knew that, even in Montreal, a market known to so many in the hockey world to have one of the toughest media environments, media focused mostly on the on-ice action, the transactional and the injuries.

Oh yes... Gustavs will be out for revenge during that game! What happens off-ice with the WAGs usually flies under the media radar, and usually remains internal to the team when you deal with WAGs like Emma. Yet for all of Glitter's flaws as a reviewer, up to this point, she was confident that I had the intellectual capabilities to see this project through. But... why? Why did it take me over two weeks to get past the hockey aspect of a hockey romance? It's unnaturally slow for me! Was I tricked by how natural I made the hockey aspect feel? Did Capitolium's bitterness rub on me, and made me bitter as well? Capitolium's DM gives her a lot to think about.

"C'est de valeur, mais qu'est-ce que j'ai fait pour être devenue aussi idiote?" (It sucks, but what did I do to become that dumb?) Caro cries about what she perceived as her intellectual failing.

Her dad overhears her crying in her bedroom. "Tu ne m'as jamais parue idiote" (You never appeared dumb to me!)

"C'est pas une question de critique, ça m'a pris des semaines pour comprendre que les gens jugent les romans à la glace de rose par les relations amoureuses plutôt que par le hockey!" (It's not a question of criticism, it took me weeks to understand that people judged hockey romance books by the relationships and not the hockey!)

"Pogne-toi pas les nerfs. J'y suis peut-être pour quelque chose" (Don't get mad at me, I might have something to do)

Has my daughter been too demanding on the hockey aspect? Caro's dad questions whether he encouraged her the wrong way. I did tell her better a hockey romance with hockey than one without, though.

He then returns to reading what she wrote so far, and feel like Emma had a limited social life, restricted essentially to workplace after hours. Yes, Caro made Emma's intellect feel natural, and made her not totally powerless.

While it's clear that Glitter isn't as smart as I am, I don't rub it in. However, this entire fiasco makes me feel like I'm not as smart as she thinks I am. Or I had a blind spot somewhere, and it had to fall on that one thing! I thought that readers had too wide a range of tastes to judge hockey romance based on any specific aspect... But of course! Readers value different things in a book relationship, and I can't cater to everyone! Perhaps I'm still as smart as I used to be! Caro regains some semblance of clarity.

But on Monday, at work, Caro meets with her colleagues once again, and she has yet to realize that something isn't right.

"Je dois avouer qu'avec les Backcrackers, tu étais un peu... broche-à-foin" (With the Backcrackers, you were a little... haphazard) Jacques comments on the changes he made Caro do on air.