With the publication of A Summer in
Amber, Some Day Days, and The Bright Black Sea, all my
major writing projects of the last five years are completed. With one
little exception,(below) anything new will have to be started from
scratch. So what will that be?
Currently I have several ideas. The
Bright Black Sea was an ode to all the old golden age science
fiction I read in my youth, and I would like to write a story as an
ode to one in particular – Edgar Rice Burroughs with a story in the
of Carson of Venus mode. I have a vague idea of writing a
sort of fantasy set in an Edwardian age-like setting. And I also have
this Three Robots in a Boat idea
that involves three robots
returning to a long abandoned earth to try to figure out whatever
happened to their creators
(humans)
– whose
ultimate fate was lost over the eons, due to file format changes and
digital decay in the robotic central memory.
These
are all just the noses
of a story. It's getting them to the wagging tail that takes
time and work. We'll have to see what develops. If anything.
That said, I have, however, slowly
started a new story and I'm some 15,000 words into it. It looks to be
either a long novella or a short novel – but it's yet to take on a
definite tone and believable story arc. I have the pieces of the
story in a pile, but I haven't quite got them to fit together into an
entertaining and believable story with characters acting in
believable ways yet. I hope, however, to have all this worked out and a petty
solid first draft done by the holidays, after which I'd lay it aside
and start another new project, one of the ideas mentioned above, or
something new. If I can get past the noses and come up with a plot,
I'd spend January through March or April working on that second
project before returning to my current story with fresh eyes to
hammer out a final draft. So, best case scenario is that I'd have a
new story out late April or May 2016. But that's likely the best
case. It's easy to day dream, but its hard to put words to day
dreams, and harder still to nail down all the corners you cut in the
day dream, so I'll make no promises.
As I mentioned above, there is one
small project I might publish in the meanwhile – one very, very,
short coming of age/mystery novel disguised as a children's story. I
wrote it some years ago envisioning it as a children's picture book
that an adult would read to a child and could explain, if necessary –
the pictures for the kids, the words for the adult. (So I didn't have
to write in the "See Zip run!" style.) It's called Lines
in the Lawn and it's about mowing the lawn and growing up. The
whole picture book part of it isn't going to happen, but if I can at
least come up with a cover that sets the scene, I will publish it at
some point down the road. (I just hate illustrating.)
And so that's the Shape of Things to
Come. A short story, maybe, between now and March, and a new long
novella or short novel May-ish. And after that, another novel, late
fall 2016 or early winter 2017. No promises, however.
