Tuesday, October 23, 2012

#12NovelsIn12Months Update: One (Almost) Down. What's Next?

October is quickly winding to a close. The evenings are finally pleasant here in Arizona and I am so close to finishing Sullivan's Wrath, so close I can smell it. What does it smell like, you ask? Well, NaNoWriMo is coming up, so you can have a chance to smell it for yourself!

By writing a book a month, I am participating in NaNo by default but I won't be participating in all the discussion surrounding it. I'm just going to hunker down and peck away at the keyboard. And what will I be pecking in November? I had initially planned on writing the third installment of the Sullivan series, but I feel like I want to write something else in November so I can have a little break from Rick Sullivan and his universe. That way I can come back to it in December with a fresh perspective.

So what should I write? Maybe you can help me decide. Here are three of the book ideas for my #12NovelsIn12Months writing project:

1. Darkridge Hall - A reclusive shipping tycoon dies childless and leaves his inheritance to a prep school along with instructions that the money be used to construct a building on the campus. However, he also left behind blueprints for the design of the building. Exactly one hundred years after his death, strange things begin to happen at Darkridge Hall. 

2. Pray For Mars - Two hundred years from now, we have established a permanent colony on Mars. When the charismatic leader of a cult declares that it is against God's will for humans to leave the planet Earth, he sets in motion a series events that could lead to the destruction of the Mars colony. Can the colony's security forces uncover the plot in time?

3. Disreputable - A modern retelling of Henry James's The Aspern Papers with a twist. When a literary scholar discovers that the granddaughter of a writer he idolizes is still alive and, in fact, may have the manuscript of the author's last, unfinished novel, he determines that he will do whatever it takes to get his hands on it, even if that means pretending to be gay so he can seduce the author's great grandnephew, who is now living with his ailing aunt.

So there we have it: something a little occult/paranormal, something a little sci-fi and something a little literary and character-driven. The plan is for whichever one I write to be published after Sullivan's Wrath. Which would you like to read?

6 comments:

  1. Out of the three 'Darkridge Hall' and 'Pray for Mars' interest me but id love to see you take on the occult paranormal genre so I vote ' Darkridge Hall'

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    1. Thanks, Dale. I'm leaning toward Darkridge Hall and Disreputable right now. Pray for Mars would be a change of pace from Sullivan, but a different genre would be an even greater change. Writing 12 novels in 12 months, I have to be really careful to not get burned out, so I think variety will be key.

      Michael

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  2. Darkridge Hall. I'm a sucker for "strange things happening," as long as those strange things don't have run-of-the-mill Scooby Doo explanations.

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  3. Darkridge Hall for me too. I like your SciFi but as you say, if you are going to write 12 novels a little change is useful.

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    1. Thanks, Stefano. It looks like a consensus is emerging.

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