#p:tb

Thanks for the tag, @zmlorenz. I haven’t given an update in a while, so I feel like I owe y’all something.

Rules: Share a list of all the stories you’re currently working on, regardless of whether or not you have introduced them to writeblr.

I have quite a few projects. I’m going to group them by series and then medium. Works marked with an asterisk are tentatively titled.

Blake Livingston Mysteries (Series)

Coldwater Sound

Status: Drafting (2nd Draft) | Word Count: 81K | Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Horror

An island. A vast estate. A haunted family. An untried investigator. The  sound swallows the causeway behind Blake Livingston as she arrives on Coldwater Isle. There, a drowning causes a noble family grief, confusion, and fear. Blake will have to endure it all if she ever wishes to depart.

The Devil from the Outer Dark

Status: Drafting (2nd Draft) | Word Count: 70.5K | Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Horror

A painter. A locksmith. Unrequited love. An unknown darkness. Horrors unfold in the south of France in the wake of a terrible accident. Blake Livingston travels to the town of Céret, eager to venture down a new path that closes in on her before she can find the ground beneath her feet.

Gates of Sleep

Status: Drafting (1st Draft) | Word Count: 1.2K | Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Horror

A comatose client. Fantastical dreams. A howling man. London particulars. The fiancé of a victim guides Blake Livingston through a world she is only beginning to understand. She must descend the steps of deeper slumber to solve a crime that occurs before her very eyes, yet that she cannot see.

Other Blake Livingston Mysteries in Progress

The Gloaming

And Soon They Shall Wake

Islands Disappear

Beyond the Real

Cracks Always There

Linger

Through the Eyes of Madness

Spinoff Works

Deadbulbs*

Space Pan (Series, Collaboration)

Space Pan: Volume 1*

Status: Backburner | Word Count: 289K | Genre: Epic Space Fantasy/Opera

Various perspectives converge through time and space...with a cooking utensil. A bicycle courier from NYC. A devout space marine. An alcoholic reporter with an obscene tongue. A weary test subject, ready for retirement. A fifteen-year-old space pirate. A douchebag with a goatee.

Other Space Pan Works in Progress

Volume 2, 3, 4, and 5* and beyond?

The Inverted World*

The Marked Child*

The World Mirror* (Series)

Status: Ideation Phase | Genre: Epic Fantasy

I’m still worldbuilding this thing. There’s magic, multiple POV characters. Political conflicts. Climate change. It’s a whole thing. I haven’t decided on the structure yet. There may be a duology of novellas proceeding a series. There may not, but here’s a taste:

Sound split a wood both dark and light. Silence swept a wood both black and white. I found her there. I remember the sound of all the flies buzzing.

Standalone Fiction

Topiary Black

Status: Outlining | Word Count: 4K | Genre: Cyberpunk Thriller

A cryptic post on a deep-web forum leads an agoraphobic computer specialist into a web of intrigue, crime, and terror. Before long, she’s put on the shortlist for a mysterious game referred to as Topiary Black, the nature of which begins to unravel her understanding of the world as she knows it.

The Call of the World or: A Godless Man in Purgatory

Status: Serial Release (Drafting Part 5) | Genre: Weird Fiction

Somewhere, there is an island. On it, there is a man. And he cannot leave.

Deerfield Run

Status: Ideation Phase | Genre: Dystopian Sci-Fi

No one wanders into the barrens where once we grew corn and wheat, and the suburban sprawl stretched from one horizon to the next. Excepting the runners. No sensible souls cross the cordons, anyhow. There’s a quiet out there. You can hear it in the steady weaving of trumpet vines up the siding of a hundred empty houses. In the patter of windswept leaves across deserted baseball diamonds, bursting with wild grass and sunken with cottontail warrens. It’s the quiet of the steady progression of nature, reclaiming order from chaos. It’s the sound of humanity in retrograde.

And—there’s something else. The runners say it’s old. They say it’s been sleeping, alone out there, before all the clapboards and eaves of our derelict homes went to rot. Before the trees so kindly fell before the axes of the men who built them. Before any of them sprouted, they say. When night falls, and the antediluvian dark smothers the barrens, they say you can hear it in the quiet of Cascadia. The hum. The stirring of a primordial mind beginning to wake.

Hunters of Salt Station

Status: Ideation Phase | Genre: Historical Fiction, Western

A western-style piece that takes place in Canada.

Compilations, Short Stories, Podcasts, and Screenplays

Somnambulant Directives: Dreams from the Outer Dark (an experimental dream journal)

“The God Machine” (speculative fiction about the discovery of an advanced AI)

“The Shore Remains” (based on Tarriance in Clepsydra by @doubleviewfinder)

Precursors* (podcast - Mystery/Horror/Fiction/Epistolary)

Rot* (Feature Screenplay - Lynchian Horror/Weird Cinema)

Beating to Windward* (Feature Screenplay - Comedy)

You Have Until Dawn* (Feature Screenplay - Western/Action/Comedy)

Going Home* (Feature Screenplay - Drama)

I think that’s everything. So. /rant.

No pressure to participate. If anyone sees this and wants to give us an update, go for it.

Tagging: @dotr-rose-love, @byjillianmaria, @midnightstreetwanderings, @sassypandacandy, @kwriteswords, and @phantomswriting.

OH BOY.

In the world of Topiary Black and Deerfield Run, future sight has been attempted, in a form, by all manner of corporations, ambitious (if eccentric) individuals, and selfish hobbyists. Then, in a concrete-lined basement in the Pacific Northwest, a 53-year-old-ocularist named Artur Belinsky collided some particles and accidentally created the God Machine.

When it inevitably leaked, because nothing that knows everything could keep anything from anyone forever, every pocket of every culture cried out in discordant tones. Governments tried to gain access so they could restrict access. Anthroposophists theorized about the existence of the akashic records. Philosophers struggled over the mind-bending implications of a real-life Library of Babel. Cults of opinion on social media churned into armed protests on the steps of every institution (secular and otherwise), waving signs that read: UNPLUG. They tweeted it to all their twitters. The Vatican dispatched investigators to validate this “God Machine” as either blasphemy or miracle (though the paperwork was already filled out for the former before boots hit the soil in Pacifica).

See, there’s a problem with a machine that knows everything. Where do you point it? What if it doesn’t want to listen?

Tagging: @saccharinemornings, @erin-writes-stuff, @midnightstreetwanderings, @byjillianmaria, @doux-ciel, @hilunawrites, @ghost-possum, @zmlorenz, @doubleviewfinder, @els-writes, @dantedevereaux, @tlbodine, @hypotheticalwriterquestions, @hazeywrites, @reeseweston, @dotr-rose-love, @katabasiss, and @quilloftheclouds. (Let me know if you’d like to be added or removed from tags future tags).

I’m not prepared to fully answer that at this time, but here’s an excerpt from Topiary Black that may hopefully tickle your worldbuilding curiosities:

No one wanders into the barrens where once we grew corn and wheat, and the suburban sprawl stretched from one horizon to the next. Excepting the runners. No sensible souls cross the cordons, anyhow. There’s a quiet out there. You can hear it in the steady weaving of trumpet vines up the siding of a hundred empty houses. In the patter of windswept leaves across deserted baseball diamonds, bursting with wild grass and sunken with cottontail warrens. It’s the quiet of the steady progression of nature, reclaiming order from chaos. It’s the sound of humanity in retrograde.

And—there’s something else. The runners say it’s old. They say it’s been sleeping, alone out there, before all the clapboards and eaves of our derelict homes went to rot. Before the trees so kindly fell before the axes of the men who built them. Before any of them sprouted, they say. When night falls, and the antediluvian dark smothers the barrens, they say you can hear it in the quiet of Pacifica. The hum. The stirring of a primordial mind beginning to wake.

Tagging: @saccharinemornings, @erin-writes-stuff, @midnightstreetwanderings, @byjillianmaria, @doux-ciel, @hilunawrites, @ghost-possum, @zmlorenz, @doubleviewfinder, @els-writes, @dantedevereaux, @tlbodine, @hypotheticalwriterquestions, @hazeywrites, @reeseweston, @dotr-rose-love, @katabasiss, and @quilloftheclouds. (Let me know if you’d like to be added or removed from tags future tags).

WIP DEBUT | Topiary Black

There was a post on the downs no one was taking seriously. A bot or a user everyone thought was phishing, but their profile stood out to me because it was unique. Simple. I couldn’t get a clear picture of their real identity. Amateurs don’t stumble into privacy that good by accident.

This was on purpose. It was almost certainly bait.

But what sort of bait was it?

I brought their program into a dummy frame to look at the code in terminal so it couldn’t seed my hard drives, and at first glance, it was sloppy. Redundancies. Disorganization. But the longer I looked through the code, the more spooked I got. The chaos seemed to serve a purpose, hiding functions and data that couldn’t be detected by my applications.

They let me get a little farther before they pushed back.

A cryptic post on a deep-web forum leads an agoraphobic computer specialist into a web of intrigue, crime, and terror. Before long, she’s put on the shortlist for a mysterious underground game referred to as Topiary Black, the nature of which begins to unravel her understanding of the world as she knows it.

Tagging: @writingmyassoff, @erinisawriter, @midnightstreetwanderings, @byjillianmaria, @bethwrotethis, @doux-ciel, @hilunawrites, @ghost-possum, @zmlorenz, @doubleviewfinder, @veronicadent, @els-writes, @dantedevereaux, @tlbodine, @hypotheticalwriterquestions, @hazeywrites, @reeseweston, @dor-rose-love, and @katabasiss. (Let me know if you’d like to be added or removed from tags future tags).

If you like cyberpunk, alternate future history, 80s tech, weird mysteries, LGBT+ characters, violence, crime, cursing, acerbic narrators, and world-toppling revelations with a dash of urban fantasy, you’ll dig this one. I’ll be tackling Topiary Black during NaNoWriMo. More to come on this, and more.

I’m somewhat restrained when it comes to revealing details about my WIPs while I’m drafting, and what I do share is only after deliberate consideration. That said, I’d love to answer your questions, but I want to touch on my reservations as well because I don’t think I’ve ever talked about it here.

Oversharing cripples my process and my work because:

A) My creative well empties

If I receive validation or catharsis from revealing information or excerpts before the work is truly done, my brain will trick me into thinking I’ve accomplished something, thereby:

B) I become unproductive

Which inherently is my natural state, which gives me unintended distance from the narrative, thereby:

C) The story wanders from my active memory

That’s mostly why I err toward ambiguity. But. Since I’m not actively working on these for a few more weeks, let’s jump in.

Status: Outlining

Topiary Black is progressing, if somewhat leisurely. I know most of the major beats, and some of the minor ones, but I’ve been indecisive on matters of setting and character. The main cast needs to be pruned, for starters (one of my weaknesses is adding far more characters than necessary in the initial draft, so I’m trying to save myself oodles of time by shedding some of the extra weight now).

I’m also having antagonist problems that I was cognizant of early-on but chose to ignore because problems like that are for Future Dylan. I think I’m zeroing in on something interesting though.

Occasionally, I’ll pen a scene when I can’t contain it anymore. But for the most part, there is too much on my plate with this project to begin writing in earnest.

As far as a timeline, my goal is to complete draft one by mid-late summer 2020. I think it’s doable, but I may postpone work until I get more of the worldbuilding firmed up.

I know that’s not much in the way of actual interesting information so here are some nuggets:

The bulk will be recounted in the first person by the member of The Aviary known as “Loon”

Also planning on using a frame story for her “present” timeline

It will tackle sexuality and identity far more than any of my previous works

Inspirations for Topiary Black include “The Library of Babel,” the Akashic records, Rabbits, Mr. Robot, and the art of Simon Stålenhag

It takes place in an alternate 1980s

I’m currently planning it to be one of three semi-connected projects, the other two being “The God Machine” and Deerfield Run, that will form a loosely-connected speculative fiction trilogy, but each will read as a standalone work

I think that’s about all I can reveal at the moment, let’s get on to the next WIP.

Status: Drafting

Oh boy, what a mess.

In short, draft two isn’t going. I touched on this in an earlier update post, but my current struggle with Coldwater Sound is not a fun one. I have two entirely different conceptions of how the novel should go, and in my heart, I know which one is gonna win.

And it’s the one that requires me to re-write the entire thing.

At its heart, it will remain the same. The characters and their relationships won’t differ wholly from the first draft, but the bulk, as it is, is far too convoluted. I’ll be trimming the core cast, cutting locations, and refocusing the plot on Blake the mystery of Penny’s disappearance.

That means losing a lot of stuff I like about the original, sadly. Such is the way of things. I may reconsider this by holding another reading of draft one.

Honestly, I’m far more focused on a different project that you didn’t ask about, but I’ll tell you about it anyway:

Status: Seeking Alpha Readers/Drafting

I haven’t done an official ask/announcement, but I’ve gained enough distance from The Devil from the Outer Dark to begin the Alpha Read. I know some of the changes I want to make, but I’d still like some reactions to build from. I want to keep it small, likely 3-5 readers, if anyone out there is interested.

It is technically a sequel to Coldwater Sound, but the first is not required reading. Just like The Murder of Roger Ackroyd isn’t required reading for Murder on the Orient Express. Blake is still the main character, there’s still a mystery for her to solve, and horror lurks around many a corner, but spoilers for Coldwater Sound are mild at best.

If you want to help me out or learn more about the project, shoot me a message here on my blog.

Tagging: @writingmyassoff, @erin-writes-stuff, @midnightstreetwanderings, @byjillianmaria, @bethwrotethis, @doux-ciel, @hilunawrites, @ghost-possum, @zmlorenz, @doubleviewfinder, @veronicadent, @els-writes, @dantedevereaux, @tlbodine, @hypotheticalwriterquestions, @hazeywrites, @reeseweston, @dor-rose-love, and @katabasiss. (Let me know if you’d like to be added or removed from future tags for any of these projects).

Well sometime in the last week or so— while I was busy exploring every paperback in my possession—I surpassed a thousand followers. Even though the last year has been fraught with setbacks and indecision, I sincerely want to express my joy to all of you. That I could reach anyone with my stories, even if you’ve seen only snippets, touches me deeply. Thank you.

I also know that I’ve gone somewhat radio-silent. This is not due to any bad occurrence, but simply owed to the fact that I’ve been...I hesitate to say busy...so...distracted.

Firstly, I moved from the west coast to the midwest in late February, on the cusp of COVID-19 running rampant, back in with my folks for a transition period to new horizons. Like many, my paying work trickled to a stop, so the timing could not have been better, but, for the most part, I’m stuck here now.

The internet here is atrocious. But this is not without its benefits.

Secondly, I’ve been thrust ever deeper into my creative works. Coldwater Sound is being drafted once again and I suspect will be completed in mid-May. Topiary Black is being outlined, drafting scheduled for late May and early June. And, another project has been circling my mind...one that has me excited and enthralled. I’m hesitant to say more about it now.

I’ve been dealing with social distancing the best way I know how: focusing on unrealities, and thanking every god of luck that I’m in a position to do that, instead of unemployed and homeless in southern Oregon.

So, thank you once again. During this period of working diligently on my projects, I’ll likely be a little less active than I’d like, and perhaps less than some of you would like, but, I haven’t gone anywhere.

If you have any questions about my WIPs or anything in general, feel free to reach out, include me in tag games, etc. I’ll be a little slow in rolling out my responses, but I’ll be here.

Shoutouts: @zmlorenz, @saccharinemornings, @erin-writes-stuff, @byjillianmaria, @midnightstreetwanderings, @dotr-rose-love, @sassypandacandy. Thanks for your support since I joined this community.

Is that all for now? I think. I think that will do.

Thanks, all of you.

THE AVIARY | Topiary Black

One thing I learned in the last six months is that no amount of care on your part can prepare you for the colossal idiocy of other people. I didn’t know it, but when I went to fill the script, I was on a collision course with the Aviary.

From left to right:

LARK ⋙ Asmik Veronika (Vera) Denisovna

Russian | 32 | Female | Aromantic

Cat person (two, one pet, one transient)

Smoker (Rebelle Menthol Slims™)

Knows more about existentialism than you

Wanted for cyberterrorism (in all 43 states, except Kansas)

CONDOR ⋙ Kerrell Booker

Black Canadian | 34 | Male | Homosexual

Loves pancakes (buttermilk)

Despises meat-growers (beef)

Self-conscious about his voice (higher than he’d like)

Suspected gang leader of the Aviary

IBIS  ⋙ Watari Atsuko

Japanese American | 20 | Female | Demisexual

Headphones (Brand: Casio, Equipped: Always)

Can drink you under the table (for cash)

Trust-fund baby (you’ve never seen so many zeroes)

Wanted for murder, arson, cyberextortion, and jaywalking

LOON ⋙ Seo Ji-Yeon

Korean American | 28 | Trans Woman | Bisexual

Loves old-school video games and codes them (for meditation)

Current bodega clerk (Wix’s)

Former Cyber Security Technician (Callister)

On probation for fraud, identity theft, phishing scams, and three counts of cyberextortion against high-ranking Callister employees

NIGHTJAR ⋙ Alice Wright

White American | 30 | Female | Lesbian

ABBA lover (”Knowing Me, Knowing You”)

Loathes neophytes and script kiddies

208 WPM (on a bad day)

Publicized over 832 terabytes of illicit corporate material

TANAGER ⋙ Oliver Berry

White American | 35 | Male | Bicurious

Sunglasses at night (so he can, so he can)

Corporate shill (pro)

Family man (Ma, da, bro, bro, sis, bro, and an uncle in advertising)

Inside man (looking over his shoulder)

THRUSH ⋙ Jazra al-Kaleel

Iraqi | 26 | Female | Pansexual

Gardening enthusiast (medicinal)

Banned from puzzle nights (photographic memory)

Paperback addict

Looking for love in all the wrong places (Nightjar)

COOT  ⋙ Soma Saemon

Japanese | 22 | Male | Heterosexual

World-record holder of most kills in a single Breakout of Hypocrisy competitive match

Kicked from Tokyo’s BoH competitive team for aimbotting

Addicted to Glugg™

Wanted for vandalism to corporate property and indecent exposure

Tagging: @writingmyassoff, @erinisawriter, @midnightstreetwanderings, @byjillianmaria, @bethwrotethis, @doux-ciel, @hilunawrites, @ghost-possum, @zmlorenz, @doubleviewfinder, @veronicadent, @els-writes, @dantedevereaux, @tlbodine, @hypotheticalwriterquestions, @hazeywrites, @reeseweston, @dor-rose-love, @katabasiss, and @quilloftheclouds. (Let me know if you’d like to be added or removed from tags future tags).

Nano is going well. Getting to know these folks a bit better.

Current Word Count: 2,105

Day One: 2,105

I’m decidedly NOT ready for NaNoWriMo, but have decided to soldier on as I’ve found some of my best work manifests when I’m wildly unaware of what’s going to happen next. I focused primarily on mitigating my dangerous lack of direction, character, and world-building by making all of that not so. Consider it a hit of hardcore-brainstorming straight to the vein.

All-in-all, what I have for Topiary Black is a feeling. A specific feeling, and a series of fleeting images of what could be.

I spent the better part of the day grappling with the antithetical nature of these feelings, these images. Is it the future? Is it the past? Is it both?

Yes. It’s fifteen minutes from now in a 1987 that coulda been, and there’s a conspiracy leaking through the cracks of this sprawling concrete jungle of a city I’ve taken to calling Cascadia. And my heroine? She’s chipping away at the bricks.

Excerpt of the Day:

There’s a stretch of road under neon awnings between my place and Wix’s I call the Long Bright Dark; it flows through the heart of the labor district, and carries all manner of urban parasites in its current to every plant, warehouse, and foundry of note in Cascadia--with plenty of alleys for the criminal undertow to catch you by the heel--all beneath the crepuscular thrum of electric lights. Those pulses are the heartbeats that remind me the city is alive. Hungry. Dangerous.

Tagging: @writingmyassoff, @erinisawriter, @midnightstreetwanderings, @byjillianmaria, @bethwrotethis, @doux-ciel, @hilunawrites, @ghost-possum, @zmlorenz, @doubleviewfinder, @veronicadent, @els-writes, @dantedevereaux, @tlbodine, @hypotheticalwriterquestions, @hazeywrites, @reeseweston, @dor-rose-love, and @katabasiss. (Let me know if you’d like to be added or removed from tags future tags).

I’ll be tackling more of Topiary Black tomorrow. More to come on this, and more.