And Behind Door Number Three...

Well, this is a recurring theme for me, and probably one of the biggest reasons why I'm not a published author today.  The two stories I mentioned in a previous post (a full-length novel and a series of novelettes) have mysteriously found their way onto the back-burner and a third project has taken their place.  Fortunately, this one seems to be taking the form of a single novelette or novella, with nothing in mind for a sequel or series... well, nothing specific, anyway... which means to me that it probably has a better chance then most of the plots bouncing around my noggin of being one of the fortunate few to become a finished second draft.  To this end, I'm doing a couple of things which I don't normally do, perhaps to make the project unique enough that I can delay whatever other ideas pop into my mind long enough to get a first draft out on paper.

Behold the eldritch evil and make peace with your god.

I'm taking a half-step away from my usual fantasy to put down my on take on the modern horror genre.  Yes, I missed the latest tide of vampire fiction, and the aftershock of tongue-in-cheek parodies, but I'm vain enough to believe that mine is unique enough not to rely on riding a trend for it to be well received.  And anyway, interest in that sort of thing never seems to really face a strong decline.

The other thing I'm up to with this one (and this is actually a first for me) is to write the first draft completely on the fly, with a determination not to write down one single idea, place, plotline, character, or quote until its time has come to appear within the story, itself.  I figure I can't get completely sick of a story that I've never seen.

Anyway, maybe that will help me stay focused on this one project before I return to the others.  If I come back in two weeks and start talking about a fourth project before finishing or officially abandoning this one, somebody had better slap some sense into me.

So, I ask these things of my multitudinous readership.  What's your personal limit for writing stories simultaneously? How often do you toss away your map and compass for a story, and improvise from start to finish?

Top of the Pile

Photo by: a braver man than I...

So, I'm readin' some books.  I'd like to believe that we're all readin' some books.  I'm also lookin' to read some other books.  Here's how that's going.

The Turn of the Screw
-Author: Henry James
-Genre: Gothic Fiction

-Status: Just Finished
-Notes: The true genius of this book is something I can only appreciate now that I'm no longer reading it.  I might pick it up again if I ever have trouble sleeping, though.  There may be a review on its way, if I feel like it.

Lolita
-Author: Vladimir Nabokov
-Genre: It's not, I swear.
-Status: Reading
-Notes: The heartwarming story of a pedophile and his adopted daughter.  This is a tough one, but I've built up a tolerance watching every episode of Law and Order: SVU.  Typing the title into the search bar of certain websites will get your IP address placed on a government database.

Feast of Souls
-Author: C.S. Friedman
-Genre: Fantasy
-Status: Reading
-Notes: Not sure what to make of it yet, but it seems like a good idea to do some reading in the only genre in which I seem to write.  I loved her Coldfire Trilogy, so hopefully this will be just as good.  Also the first book in a trilogy.

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
-Author: C.S. Forester
-Genre: Historical Novel
-Status: On Deck
-Notes: I'm almost finished with the Hornblower tv movie series and I love it so much that I wish I'd never seen it, so that I could be surprised by the books.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
-Author: Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle
-Genre: Sherlock Holmes
-Status: Reading (off and on)
-Notes: Yes, yes, we've all seen House M.D.  If you really want to solve a mystery, tell me how Scrubs stayed on the air for so long.

The Picture of Dorian Gray (Harvard University Press outlandish! edition, 2011)
-Author: Oscar Wilde
-Genre: Gothic Fiction
-Status: Looking to bum a free copy
-Notes: Now that I've finished The Turn of the Screw, I might as well get a more... rounded experience of the genre.

Dune Messiah
-Author: Frank Herbert
-Genre: Science-Fiction
-Status: On The Pile
-Notes: I was pretty impressed with Dune.  We'll see how this goes.

That's it for now.  Get off my property.

Life Imitates Art

Since Blogger ate my last post (we're not off to such a good start here, are we?) I'll wait to see if it comes back before re-posting.  In the meanwhile, here's a slice of life I found entertaining.  I'll call it literature to feel like I'm producing something, but I can't rightly call myself the author.

 Happy Friday 13.

Current Progress

While moving to a new country whose language I can hardly speak, writing has been slow, but ultimately fulfilling.  Partly for the sake of my memory, and partly to help myself build momentum, I've decided to record my progress.  Of the projects on which I'm currently working, here's what I've got so far.

Unnamed Fantasy Series
Genre: Gaslamp Fantasy
Length: Series of Novelettes
Progress: Let's say 9%...
-Part 1 - A King's Ransom: First Draft Finished!
-Part 2 - The Revenant: 20% complete
Notes: Here we go again.  This series has seen so many incarnations that I can barely keep track.  I feel like I'm in a constant state of gutting and re-writing this.  This has got to be the one, though, and I like the direction it's taking.  I'm planning on doing at least a good second draft of each part before I publish part one, in case the overall narrative takes any unanticipated turns that need setting up.

Unnamed Fantasy Novel
Genre: Fantasy.  No need to get pedantic about it.
Length: Novel
Progress: 5% complete (one chapter finished, the second nearly so)
Notes: I can't ordinarily, but in this case I can track the exact moment of this story's conception.  My girlfriend at the time couldn't sleep and asked me to tell her a story, and the rudiments of this one were what came to mind.  The story didn't help her situation until I came up with something especially boring to add in.  That part won't be included, though.