Way too late. For me, that woman was Trina. Trina, a force of nature. Not a benevolent, sunny, blue skies, warm spring breeze, force of nature. No, Trina’s force was malevolent. A hurricane, tornado, earthquake, force of nature. Unpredictable as it was uncontrollable. I had two rules for keeping my head above the raging waters of our tumultuous relationship: One . . . don’t fuck with mother nature / Trina. Two . . . if you break rule number one, cross Trina, don’t ever turn your back on her. In retrospect, I should have paid better attention to both those rules.
~~~
By Blackie Noir
Blackie comes to visit my Facebook Group, Reviewers Roundup, whenever he's released a new book... And I immediately go out and download from Amazon. This time, however, when he posted Kiss Me, Evil, I didn't realize that it was a new updated version of Open Wound, which I happened to start reading first... Let me say that there is not too much difference in the book itself, so if you, too, have already read the first version, then I don't recommend you get this one...UNLESS
You didn't like the first version.
One of the things I told Blackie about the first version was that, from a woman's viewpoint, I enjoyed learning to hate Trina before the book made it so plain. However, as you can see from the prologue above, the author points Trina right out there as she really is--a black-hearted greedy bitch... A character that really has no redeeming value, except of course, to hate her... Unless you're Nick or probably any man that enjoys hot-looking babes...
 |
| I decided not to endanger my eye. I’m not greedy. Unfortunately, Trina is. Her picture’s right there, next to the word in the dictionary. Things were probably going wrong with us long before I decided to retire, but my quitting the ring? Well, that was the final straw. Broke my back, not the camel’s. ~~~ |
In fact, I was surprised that she even kept her man...from a female point of view...LOL
Nick was a boxer and had finally come into the money... Each of his wins had meant more and more money and Trina began to not only depend upon it, but demand that it was her due... Her true colors were coming out! Now he had a $4M contract on the table, just waiting for his signature. He was on his way to the top! Trina was just waiting for the check!
The trip to the eye doctor made everything change...for Nick...
Not for Trina...
“Do? Like what?”
“I don’t know. He’s the doctor. Surgery maybe. See if it can be fixed.”
“Whatever. Your decision, not mine.”
“Concerns your well being too.Not much work out there for a one-eyed pug.”
She turned, started walking toward the bathroom. Over her shoulder, “Baby, you get home, I want you to Google Harry Greb. That’s G-R-E-B.”
Greb. An old timer. Middleweight. Fought the best of his era, beat most of them too. Turned out he fought most of those battles with only one good eye. More power to him. Bet he didn’t have an albatross like Trina hanging from his neck either.
Now, I caught her in mid-stride, didn’t touch her. Didn’t have to. I could push her buttons too. Whispers were good. Her name . . . “ Trina?”
She stopped, turned. I said, “Hey babe. The eye? I could end up losing the fucker.”
Reaching out, she ran a finger down my cheek, grinned, said, “Honey, that’s why God gave you two.”
~~~
What would you do if your wife wanted you to continue boxing, even if you would lose your eye? Nick left and went looking to get on the road to cool off... His best friend, Trash, kept his bike at his shop so he was on his way, when a "slight" distraction occurred...
A worker, back to me, was swinging a sixteen pound sledge. With authority. Busting up, knocking down, a drywall partition. Tall dude, slender, but with a back corded in lean, ropey, sinew. Arms to match. Wasp waist, disappearing into cut-off jeans. Runners legs. Ass? Not an ass a guy should have. That was my first clue. Ass like that, had to be a woman. I may not be fast, but I am thorough. Stepping closer, squinting through the airborne dust of demolished sheetrock, I spotted the black spaghetti-strings of a bikini top. Suspicion confirmed, curiosity partially sated, but my investigation by no means complete, I decided to let Trash find me. I watched the woman wield the sledgehammer with strong, rhythmic, strokes, her back rippling, streaked with sweat and plaster dust, her round ass-cheeks clenching and unclenching with every powerful swing. How long I stood there, mesmerized, I don’t have a clue. Could’ve been a minute...
I took inventory as, holding her sledge near the head in her right hand, she moved toward me. Lot of slink in that walk, and it worked well for her. I figured by the cut of her jet hair, now lying wet and limp on her skull, that its normal posture would be standing at attention in spikes, green highlighted tips in sharp salute. I counted five piercings, but she was moving in quickly and there was so much more for me to check out. Tattoos. She had fewer than Trash, but more than my two. The one that caught my attention: zigzag of a green lightning bolt cutting a jagged path from the golden hoop in her navel to mid-sternum where a small dragon clawed and writhed, fire shooting from its nostrils. Her bikini top, strings and a couple of scraps of black cloth, wasn’t much, but it managed to cover the perfect pears that were her breasts. Almost. Her cut-offs; worn, ragged, and soiled, came by their dilapidated look honestly. They weren’t store-bought 200 dollar ‘distressed’ fashion statements. Like I said, she had runner’s legs, with a fine pair of diamond-shaped calves cresting the tops of a pair of lace-up work boots, old and battered as my own. Three feet from me when she stopped. Me, I stood rooted, and marveled...
She wiped her forehead with the back of her arm, pulled her bandanna down, said, “Help you?”
“I’m here with Trash.”
“All right.”
She smiled, tooth missing, left side, incisor. Squatting, she laid her sledge on the concrete. The move brought her face level with my groin, mouth a foot from my crotch. Green eyes, pools of danger-laden promise, angled up, locking on mine. Still smiling, she said, “You like me. A lot.”
~~~
Her name? Does it matter? She had caught Nick's attention. She was the first woman that had dragged his eyes away from his wife... And he was just about ready to say goodbye greedy Trina...
And then the blood started flowing...Lots of it!
If you enjoy hard-boiled blood and guts, where payback is the only thing going--unless it is killing for revenge or money, Blackie Noir has his main character stepping up to the plate to deal with those who feel his money should be their money...no matter what Hell Nick went through to get t!
Personally, I still liked the first version as much or more than the final. But there really is no doubt about it, This book is written better. "Blackie Noir" at his finest... But I'd still rather have had a different ending, romantic that I am...LOL!
GABixlerReviews
This book is a perfect example of evaluating audience and making choices to change...
Specifically, Blackie had written Open Wound first, with early feedback making him reconsider this book. The book is essentially the same story. Character development of the two lead characters was significantly revised, however. This changed the tone, the vibe of the book into a much more hard-core, macho type of story.
From my standpoint, because of this change, I chose to play up some of the "crap" spouted by Trina at the time Nick was worried about losing his eye, while in the earlier version, there was a need to allow readers to discover Trina's evil through reading the book. Remember, we thought Nick was just a wimp and allowed his wife to rule the roost... It was clear in this latest book, that Nick was making constant decisions about whether it was worth staying in the relationship. But he still, at that point, had never met a woman who had attracted him as much as Trina.
Many writers claim that they write what they want to write. Well, sure, of course, you should... But, if you want to share that book with others--i.e., if you want to sell your book, then, in my opinion, it is part of the writer's work to determine if and who is the audience... and adapt! There's nothing wrong with wanting to sell your books. If something can be done to help in that marketing, then do what you can to revise it for your intended audience, while still meeting your personal standards for your story/writing.
Thanks to Blackie for allowing me to use the work he'd already done to change his book. Let's face it, When we see your pic, we just don't believe that your main male characters would ever be a wimp! Can you blame us? You have done an outstanding job to revise this book in such a way that it is bound to grab both men and women fans wanting to meet Evil Trina!
Personally, I still liked the first version as much or more than the final. But there really is no doubt about it, This book is written better. "Blackie Noir" at his finest... But I'd still rather have had a different ending, romantic that I am...LOL!
GABixlerReviews
This book is a perfect example of evaluating audience and making choices to change...
Specifically, Blackie had written Open Wound first, with early feedback making him reconsider this book. The book is essentially the same story. Character development of the two lead characters was significantly revised, however. This changed the tone, the vibe of the book into a much more hard-core, macho type of story.
From my standpoint, because of this change, I chose to play up some of the "crap" spouted by Trina at the time Nick was worried about losing his eye, while in the earlier version, there was a need to allow readers to discover Trina's evil through reading the book. Remember, we thought Nick was just a wimp and allowed his wife to rule the roost... It was clear in this latest book, that Nick was making constant decisions about whether it was worth staying in the relationship. But he still, at that point, had never met a woman who had attracted him as much as Trina.
Many writers claim that they write what they want to write. Well, sure, of course, you should... But, if you want to share that book with others--i.e., if you want to sell your book, then, in my opinion, it is part of the writer's work to determine if and who is the audience... and adapt! There's nothing wrong with wanting to sell your books. If something can be done to help in that marketing, then do what you can to revise it for your intended audience, while still meeting your personal standards for your story/writing.
Thanks to Blackie for allowing me to use the work he'd already done to change his book. Let's face it, When we see your pic, we just don't believe that your main male characters would ever be a wimp! Can you blame us? You have done an outstanding job to revise this book in such a way that it is bound to grab both men and women fans wanting to meet Evil Trina! http://menreadingbooks.blogspot.com/2013/10/kiss-me-evil-by-blackie-noir.html
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