I just started second-draft revisions of The Last Christmas Gift: A Heartwarming Holiday Story of the Living Dead. I plan to have them done in the next week or so, then get the book out to a few readers for vetting, make any revisions necessary, and have the book out this summer for (1) Christmas in July (whatever that is), and (2) Salt Lake Comic Con in September, where I hope to sell a metric crapload of them. (“Get all of your Christmas shopping done at once!”)
In the meantime, I want to start working on my next writing project right away. The only problem is, I don’t know which one to concentrate on. So I’ll let my (minuscule) adoring public help me decide! Here are projects and ideas — some of them begun before, some of them only in my noodle but close enough to the surface that I could start doing concrete work on them, roughly in order of how developed the concept is:
Crimson Frontier: This is the first novel in a horror-western series about an ex-preacher trying to catch a demonic trickster distributing pages of an arcane spellbook across the West and causing havoc. I wrote most of a first draft, set it aside for a couple of years, started over and wrote most of a second draft, set it aside… It’s got legs, but both drafts showcase my predilection for characters paralyzed by their pain and uncertainty. (If I’d written Hamlet, there would be like three more acts in the middle that showcase him dithering.) A third draft with more “do something already!” would be just the ticket.
Code Name: Lazarus: A novel series about an undying freelance adventurer/solder-of-fortune who’s been at it since a bullet didn’t kill him in the Great War. I’ve got concrete ideas for the first two books.
Brother’s Keeper: The long-awaited second Avalon & Company adventure. The first one, The Demon Cross, received mostly a “meh” reaction, although there are at least two people out there who actively want me to return to this.
Godslayer: Post-apocalyptic YA about a society where cyborg-enhanced “gods” rule the remnants of humanity.
Untitled “waterworld” YA: One of the few habitable planets humanity discovered before the collapse of interstellar civilization is one covered entirely in water, with human colonies on huge floating platforms made of native sea-plant materials and their last remnants of failing technology.
Cold Fusion Video Files: When I look at the effort it would take to resurrect the Cold Fusion Video site (I’ve got all the reviews saved, but the site architecture is toast), I realize that it may be a better idea to repackage the reviews into vaguely themed volumes a la The Golden Age of Crap and sell them.
From here on out, the ideas get vaguer (and we all know what can happen when you start writing with only a vague idea, as three recent unfinished novels can attest). So what do you think?
Dude, you’re overflowing with great ideas. My vote would be for “Crimson Frontier,” though a fantasy western is likely to be a tough sell. But the premise seems like it ought to be quite fertile. “Godslayer” seems to be too cerebral for a YA book, no? I guess maybe I’m tacking on my own expectations for that idea. ^_^
I don’t see Frontier Eldritch on here anywhere. Just sayin’
From these choices, I like Crimson Frontier.
You don’t see it because I want to concentrate (for a little while at least) on projects that are entirely mine, instead of anthologies and collaborations.
Crimson Frontier sounds interesting, I think because you mention some of the plot and the others are more about the settings so it’s hard to judge. Otherwise I like “waterworld” settings (The Kragen, The Color of Neandethal Eyes, etc) so that could be good, too.
“Godslayer” sounds interesting to me. I think that there need to be a lot more good YA stories out there – the kind that actually make teenagers think about stuff. Plus, I love the dystopian genre.
I’m allergic to anything YA, but those two subjects sound interesting. Drop the YA and their appeal to me rises sharply. Otherwise, Lazarus sounds good.
I think the Godslayer sounds a lot like Brandon Sanderson’s Steelheart and Firefight books. Then again, the recent Dredd movie was an awful lot like The Raid, but they’re both great movies. It’s tough to tell from a one sentence description though. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not accusing you of ripping Mr. Sanderson off.
Crimson Frontier sounds good. I like the sound of Code Name: Lazarus, too. It reminds me of Wolverine from the comics without the claws. Ever since I became a grown up, I felt Wolverine would be a more interesting character without the claws. They’re gross.