Works in the Pipe Right Now, and a Few On the Horizon…

To introduce the “My Fiction” column, I figure it’s appropriate to give you a glimpse into what’s currently in the pipe.  If all goes well over the next few months, here are some items that should be popping up completed:

The Return – Ahh, The Return.  This is an SF novel David Dean and I collaborated on a few years back, and it failed to turn the heads we expected it to down in Manhattan.  Here’s my thoughts: at just under 80,000 words, it’s a touch short for the genre.  Most SF fans want a book they can sink their teeth into and get lost in.  Also, some re-reading at a distance of years has helped me realize that a lot of my descriptive elements are overdone.  It tends to bog down what is really an action-packed plot and some very clean characterization.  Finally, the plot makes a lot more sense in our head than it really does on paper.  Looking back, I think we just talked and thought about it so much between us that we knew exactly what we were trying to say, but a reader coming into it with no prior knowledge will find huge holes in the storyline that will confuse and anger them.  So, I’m actually grateful for all the rejection letters we received from agents and publishers alike because now I agree it wasn’t ready. 

But, it’s still a really good story.  So I’m working on fixing it.  First of all, starting a few months back, I read through the entire manuscript with highlighter in hand and took detailed notes on what worked and what didn’t and why.  I also made brief suggestions to myself of what scenes may help to fill in the blanks before and after existing scenes to help smooth out the entire story arc.  That process is almost complete.  By the end of this month I plan to be at the Storyboarding phase, where I will be separating every existing scene and creating a more detailed patchwork of scenes-in-between that will help flesh out the story and the characters.  This phase will also ruthlessly eliminate any fluff (although Dave did an excellent job of that even in the first “last” draft.)  That process should take through September to complete.  At that point, I should be at a point where I can actually sit down and re-write the whole darn thing.  With that much preparation, and starting with a fairly good head-start, I don’t expect that to take too awfully long.  My goal is to have a finished product – closer to the 100,000-word mark, bristling with tension and action-packed, with a clean story arc and satisfying close – by the end of 2010.  Then we’ll see what Manhattan thinks.

Whiteout – This is just a working title at the moment.  I asked a friend of mine if I could use her name in a story because it sounded very much like a strong heroine’s name: Kari Lasher.  She gave me her permission and I started searching for an appropriate vehicle for the name.  The result is going to be a fun, fast-paced short story about a woman who miraculously survives a plane crash only to find she now has to struggle to survive Mother Nature until rescue arrives.  This is in bare-bones outline form at this point with a few pages drafted.  It’s got some bugs to work out, but I think it’ll be awesome when it’s done.

Road Trip – Another working title.  This one started with a what if scenario: What if a man recovering from the premature death of his beloved wife finds that she left detailed instructions for a literal “trip down memory lane” in the form of a complete road trip itinerary?  The story will carry the reader along with the grieving husband as he follows her plan and finds the process both heartbreaking and healing.  And he’ll locate a few secrets she couldn’t bear to share along the way too.  I can see it potentially blossoming into a novel-length work, but right now I’m just considering it a short story so I don’t overwhelm myself.  In turn sad, funny and poignant.  (That’s the goal, anyway.)

And, other works on the horizon, but only in the planning stages at the moment:

The Shirah Chronicles – an epic fantasy trilogy that turns the entire concept of “magic” on its head.  In a world that always took “magic” for granted, a biological weapon eliminates its use by all but a chosen few.  Society must try to rise from the ashes of anarchy with the begrudging help of a hermit who foreswore the use of “magic” years before.  I almost giggle when I get going on outlining and delving into my notes for these books, I love it that much.  But the whole world-building situation overwhelms me, so I have yet to discipline myself into actually writing it.

The Puppet Master Trilogy – a far-future SF yarn about a world where two vastly different races co-exist in strained equilibrium until humans appear and set off a series of tragic actions and reactions.  Only after tremendous efforts to keep the peace, then to undo the plots that will lead to world war, do they discover a third race hidden behind the scenes, controlling the entire affair.  I can’t claim any more than notes about this concept, but it really fires my imagination up.  I can’t wait to get started on it.

The Elevator – A short story that started out as a brief, vivid nightmare involving two scary-looking twins on a crowded elevator.  I discussed the dream with David Dean and in no-time at all we had outlined a really cool SF short story concept with some interesting twists. 

There are plenty of other ideas in the “compost pile” in the back of my mind, many with little note scraps attached to them in one of the four composition notebooks I keep on my bookshelf for that purpose, but not enough to reveal at this point.  Just what you see above represents the next four or five years of my writing life unless serious changes in my current financial situation change my priorities.  I hope you’re looking forward to something you see here, because I know I am!

Is there any “what if” you’d like to see in print?  Something in your compost pile?

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