I’m off on holiday this week, which means I’m a little short on time. As such, I’m handing it over to you. It’s been a while since I checked in on what you’re doing.
So, jump into the discussion and tell me about your current creative project. What is it, where can I find it, what’s the plan?
And don’t worry if you’re not a writer/artist - let us know about a cool hobby you’re into right now!
(I do have an ulterior motive: I’m in the early stages of planning a new podcast, and it’d be useful to know more about the great work being done around here so that I can plan future interviews….)
I'm running writing retreats in southern Italy! Writing setting and writing the gothic genre are still open. Participants will stay in a 900-year-old monastery, have a daily writing critique session and go some tours (to an ancient olive farm for example) https://www.writinggrove.com/workshops
I want to be Lloyd right now. What? That sounds amazing! I'm actually helping my daughter plan her wedding in Italy. Her fiance is from Bologna. They want a Tuscan wedding. Hubby and I are going in Sept to check venues. Enjoy enjoy enjoy. Molto bene. Sto imparando l'italiano.
Salento is fantastic (and not so well known outside of Italy!). I'm working with local businesses to provide a truly authentic experience. Good luck with yours! Happy to trade ideas
New to the the Simon K Jones community but I'll jump in! I'm currently working on a plan to publish the first novel in the 'Flames of the Exiled' fantasy series. The manuscript is polished but the maps, cover art and publishing plan are not. While I draft maps and covers, I'm contemplating serialising here on Substack; launching through Kickstarter; publishing through KDP, Ingram Spark, etc. ... So many options these days!
Yeah, options are great but it can be quite overwhelming.
I find the Kickstarter idea really appealing, but also am intimidated by the sheer amount of work involved. If you've got cool stuff like maps to play with I can imagine that being a fun route - offering backers fancy print/cloth versions, for example. :) The 'premium' Kickstarter for collectors intrigues me (compared to the cheap-as-possible Amazon model).
Thanks for the thoughts. Overwhelming? Amen. It's certainly fun to think about ways to enhance the project though ... Cloth maps have indeed crossed my mind ...
Focusing on a short story I wrote called Dùil and posted recently on my Substack - considering expanding it at some point as I love the characters and the story.
Main writing focus has been rewriting my novel Frederick Street. Have tried to be more disciplined and write 1000 words a day on one project to try and finish more stories instead of jumping between. Working so far!
It's different for everyone, but I don't do well if I have multiple projects active at once. I need to focus on a single thing, otherwise I never finish any of them.
Can still have ideas developing in the background, of course.
Love this, can’t wait to check out the podcast! My current project is a serialised novella called The Calibray Job. It’s a spooky little sci-fi story about a crew of misfits searching an abandoned underwater research facility. Think Fast and Furious meets The Thing.
Fast & The Furious meets The Thing is a helluva pitch! Ha, amazing. I'm intrigued, as those are two such different things, and I wouldn't associate F&TF with spooky sci-fi (obviously that's much more The Thing).
Mostly I'm working on short stories for my Substack, alongside my fantasy serial, but I also have a couple novels in the works. I'll be announcing my next one, a literary fantasy, tomorrow, plus I have a couple in the early drafting stages. I write primarily SFF, but my short stories can range in genre.
In all seriousness I work on one novel draft at a time, and I always rest the project for a while between drafts. So if I finish draft X of project A, I move on to draft Y of project B. The short stories are fairly new to the routine, and so I'm still learning a lot about my process with them.
Cheers Simon, and happy hols- am just back from mine in Crete, where I got more 'material' for the Greek comic-philosophical-geopolitical 'detective series' I have been working on for 2 years, It is a great lot of fun that brings together my combined background in Byzantine history, regional travell writing and contemporary events journalism. It wants only for a publisher. I am sanguine tho, as there are great moments of action, adventure, comedy, insight and hey- the cases take place against a pretty magnificent geographical backdrop, for the inevitable future cinematic version, when I am really taking in the winnings. We can dream and vacation is a great time for imaginings so again have a great one, and I hope that it leads to more inspiration for your own work in the Triverse and beyond.
Thanks, Chris! Travel is great for ideas and refreshing the brain. I'm not a great traveller, but always enjoy the destination. That said - we're going by Eurostar instead of flying, which I'm quite excited about. Intrigued to see how the overall experience compares to getting on a plane.
Too true- and something about train travel is also both timeless and technological, running between both the Orient Express and time-travel capers.... I am sure you will find something of value to your writing, as I did while traveling recently. Enjoy!
So I have several in the works. Two I'm actively writing at the moment, plus others I'm outlining.
The two I'm writing are "The Evernow Canticles" (I published the first novel in the series last year, currently working on Book 2 out of 4) and "Through the Stars, Darkly" that I'm serializing on my Substack (Book 1 is done and available for free, Book 2 is currently being published at the rate of 4 chapters a week, and I'll soon start writing Book 3 out of 6).
The other project I'm outlining is an epic fantasy series in 10 volumes that I'm very excited about and can't wait to start writing, but I have to finish those two series above first, so I likely won't get to this before 2024. But I have tons of notes and a bunch of scenes written out already. I think this one's gonna be awesome ;)
I do now. When I started "Through the Stars" I wanted to do it like a serial, so I was writing a chapter a week, though I did build a 3-month buffer before I started publishing. But I quickly realized this wasn't working for me. I hate being "stuck" on one project for so long. So about midway through Book 1, I just finished writing it as a novel though I continued to publish it as a serial. Book 2 was written entirely as a novel and subsequent volumes will be as well. Works better for me, the way my brain is wired ;)
Oh great question; I also have this type of Q scheduled on my new project to get to know the community :) I really enjoy following your writing journey.
So after doing a more generalized cultural studies / literature Substack for a year, I'm focusing on a project called Yoga Culture which is not just for yoga-people but also for those interested in cultural studies. I'm in development for a podcast where I aim to be the Louis Theroux of yoga ;)
I'm also finishing the first book in a thriller series that likewise has a lot to do with cultural studies. The first is a contemporary response to Graham Greene's The Third Man. But I'm planning to table the manuscript until I grow my audience a bit more, at least that's the strategy!
I'm trying to figure out what to make of the two novels (one is a historical fantasy tale involving space-time travelling spanning over about forty years in the life of the main character; the other is a mystery novel set in the opera world of 18th century Venice) I'm writing...
I'm just gearing up for my fifth self-published sci-fi title From Within, A Darkness (as Ray Adams) which will be available as an eBook from 31st July, and a paperback as soon as I can get the proof sorted. It's about a group of miners on an asteroid accidentally unleashing a mysterious evil, and I'm confident in saying it's a lot of fun - https://amzn.to/3xkW7vO
As I know you're well aware, running serialisation here has its inherent challenges, but I'm enjoying the ride and its doing great things in actually engaging me to write each day.
Thanks! The boy is 10 and we're all off to Disneyland Paris. Which I *think* should be fun? Fortunately no crazy heatwaves, as Paris is further north. We have friends on Greek islands at the moment (fortunately not the affected ones, as yet), and it sounds crazy.
I need to check out your writing properly! Some holiday reading. :)
Hopefully we can all discover some exciting new Substack writers in these comments. That's the plan! :)
I'm teaching a series of continuing education classes at Universities around the country on Music, Media, and the Counterculture 1950-80 and continuing to build the website www.radicalradio.media as an archive of the Freeform radio era. I also have recently transitioned my newsletter from Mailchimp to Substack and am gradually getting a sense of how to best utilize this venue to distribute my writing. My thanks to you for your help in realizing that goal.
Sounds like an interesting era to focus on. Especially the further we get from it - feels like an entirely different era in so many ways. Maybe that's an inevitable feeling of my being middle-aged now? :)
The short version is that I'm still figuring out what sort of fiction I want to write and I'm serializing a story that started out as a prompt about a woodsman who frees a fairy from a tree. Also working on the best way to market my writing that doesn't include spamming my IG and FB feed.
Being able to write and publish online is a great way to figure out what sort of thing you want to write.
I've more-or-less stopped spamming links on IG/FB/Twitter (partly because of those three I'm only still on IG). It never seemed to really do much anyway!
I’m working on a short story collection - creative non fiction I think is the category. I write a Substack called Ugly Shoes and Paper Planes and teach kids creative arts skills during the summer. Currently taking some classes and trying to unplug on vacation and failing.
Yes! I'm currently working on the editing, visuals, and getting the voices done for the first episode, which centers around a shady pharmacy company. Hoping I'll have it done by next month for posting, so fingers crossed!
I do have some fiction projects that are in various stages of completion. I did NaNoWriMo almost five years ago and roughed out a draft which is maybe 1/3 of a novel in a possible SF series but it feels like trying to climb a mountain without climbing equipment whenever I look at it. Yet I still feel the need to return to it and finish it... someday.
I'm publishing a non-fiction book, CHOICE: Personalized Learning, Personalized Technology, that looks at how to effectively use technology in K12 education. I'm publishing it on Substack a chapter at a time.
I'm working on my fantasy serial Requiem of the Moth: "political intrigue with a dash of romance in an underground city as a recently appointed clan intelligence official and a moth catcher commoner have to pair up to get what they want—unlimited power for the former, protection and patronage for the latter and his family". https://vanessaglau.substack.com/s/requiem-of-the-moth
Literal! Inspired by the Australian Aborigines who apparently ate moths, my fantasy people see them as delicacy & their preparation has religious undertones. Definitely something I want to build out more over the course of the story!
Current project at the moment is revamping some of my writing and my profiles, and see if I can get back into the swing of Buy Me A Coffee. Annnddd figuring out how Substack works.
Now this is a fun coincidence--July 24th (the publication day of this post) was my last day at work before my 'creative sabbatical' started the day after :)
6 months later, after an initial recalibration period which felt very much needed, I have been on a roll for the past 2 months.
In the beginning, interactive ebooks have been a fun medium for me to pour my creativity into, and now I'm being teased with integrating voice and audio. I'm generally exploring how far into newness I can push the experience with known media. And I love integrating my digital art in all of my creations.
I'm just starting out and setting up my Substack. I have had an idea for a scifi story for a good few years but have been unsure on how to commence. Substack looks like the right way to go. I want to serialise the story before publishing it as a series of books on Amazon.
Thanks, I'm still finding my way here. I'm excited by what this opportunity can offer, I see established writers like yourself here and this helps boost my confidence in using Substack.
Yes, I hope so too. But it's been five months since the ulcers first appeared on the shines. And boy were they painful! It's taking too long to heal up (in my humble opinion) and that doesn't bode for the future. But I'm doing all the right things to promote healing. So it's not like I'm doing something wrong that I shouldn't be doing. I guess I'm just getting impatient.
Perhaps if you are still having this issue consider cleansing with baby wipes for sensitive skin as opposed to cleaning products that may facilitate skin breakdown because of the tendency of many soaps to remove skin oils (defeat the skin) which serve as a type of morter between your skin cells (the bricks, so to speak). It will depend upon how serious the ulceration is and also if any infection is present but if you present the idea to your medical care team, they can evaluate if this idea is appropriate. I worked for many years in skin protectant development and skin care and discovered that using wipes and later desiring (zinc oxide ointment liberally applied after cleaning and allowing the skin to air dry) effectively prevents skin breakdown and pressure sores in the elderly and bedridden population, even those who are incontinent. I am hoping that you have already resolved the ulceration and then perhaps these suggestions might assist in preventing future problems but again, I stress, please SPEAK with your DOCTOR or skin care team BEFORE changing your routine.
Late to the party! Not a writer other than journaling but short story reader and daily art journalist. Current quest is researching how creative self-expression and interacting with the art of others supports personal transformation particularly during large life transitions. I'm particularly interested in how works of fiction support us during these times as have rites of passage in traditional societies. I have a Substack where I wrote about this recently and would love your thoughts!
I love that! Fiction and art generally is so important, precisely because it can help us navigate difficult times (and appreciate good times). It's so frustrating that arts funding is always the thing that gets cut as being unnecessary.
Sorry for jumping on this late, I'm primarily on Substack to serialize my novel, something I was two thirds done in 2013 but got depressed and deliberately wiped out my entire file. End of 2022, reviewing my other writings, I wondered if I emailed a backup copy of my unfinished work to myself. I did! And so, a few months later, here I am.
Wow, that was a lucky retrieval! I tend to be a data hoarder and keep everything (albeit scattered across multiple hard drives in different parts of the house).
Really pleased that you were able to resurrect your old project. Enjoy it!
Simon, thanks for this invitation to share what we're up to! Like Lloyd, I host writing retreats, for women only though (sorry, guys). We aren't in a 900 yo monastery but on an island along the "Forgotten Coast" of Florida. Lots of amazing stories have been started and finished on that beach. As for my own writing, I'm trying to finish a novel set in the South in 1968 and will begin to serialize it on my personal author platform on Ream and then bring it to Substack, along with some of the fun research bits I want to share. I've got several novella series and short stories in the idea stages too (mostly historical fiction). Eventually, I hope to add some story-related merch to my membership, but that's down the line. I'm also admin for a FB group called Women Writing for Change, where I host weekly co-writing sessions on Zoom. And... we're in the second year of a podcast that I co-host called Around the Writer's Table.
I'm writing a Substack handbook to help people get clarity around their Substack projects - and learn how to use all the features. It's taking so much longer than I expected.... need to join a writing retreat like Lloyd's to get it finished I think (also: Italy❤️!). I also just launched a Substack mini-audit on Gumroad. (all while writing my $12K B2B newsletter each week.) I might be crazy.
That sounds like a good offering! The tricky thing with writing about Substack, I find, is that it's still a rapidly evolving platform. As soon as you finish writing about something, it's morphed into something slightly different. Like when I wrote a guide about integrating GA4, and then two weeks later it was entirely defunct. :D
(and, yes, Italian retreats sound like a plan in general)
Thanks, Loraine, to see my publication, just click the grey-coloured words "Writes Pubstack Success" next to my name in this comment thread. .... it's a handy Substack feature to see what people are writing.
I'm planning to serialize a new book project on Substack! I'll be dropping some little details about it in the following weeks. I've only a completed outline but haven't actually written the chapters yet 😅. And I'm also putting a book of short horror stories. It'll be my 2nd collection.
I'll be writing as I go. I tried that with my recent story; I didn't have a plan, not even a loose outline. It kept me on my toes, and I finished it. But the story I've in mind is longer, so I had to plan it out. I always wanted to write a novel but had so many false starts. Hopefully, this one will make it. 😆
I am trying to finish my first comic script on my phone while I spend my spare time-in-front-of-the-computer writing book 3 in my urban fantasy series. And also write an unrelated short story for the next season of the Lunar Awards. The comic will be Kickstarted and I have been writing about comics weekly on Wednesdays to warm-up my readers, and book 3 chapters are coming out every Friday, along with other weekly musings.
Hi Simon, I am working on book two of my series. Book one, Champions of Light, came out June 6th. I've been working on learning the publishing gig and how to keep improving as a writer. Book 2's initial draft will be done in the next week or two. I hope to have it published first quarter of 2024. In the mean time I also am trying to figure out a fiction substack, Tales of Karnum and Beyond, and keeping up with the one under my name I dubbed An Abundant Life. Can't learn without doing. Can't gain feedback without putting the writing out there. I even have what I call my science project on Kindle Vella called Cataclysm like too many other things there unfortunately. If I want to do another serial, I'll probably put it as part of a paid sub on the Tales of Karnum and Beyond Substack rather than Vella.
I've never been able to check out Vella, as I think it is still US-only. There's big potential for Substack to lean into fiction serials, if they were so inclined.
Absolutely agree that the best way to learn is to do! With writing in particular, that's very true.
I'm seriously thinking of doing a sub model with fiction in the future. Of course, I'm still working on getting my stuff in front of my audience as a debut author. It's proving to be a challenging, but fun, journey.
I've started my horror serial anthology, Marredbury. Prologue/intro story is live now. Episode 1 is launching tomorrow. It's a mix of Fear Street and Silvia Moreno-Garcia
I'm working on my pitch to agents for a speculative/alternate history novel I've been working on for five years. I sent out my first round of pitches a few months back, was surprised to get some usable feedback (though no takers yet) I've just finetuned my pitch and am about to send out to my second batch of agents.
Here on Substack, I'm tracking my real time progress in attempting to get published as a debut novelist, on alternating weeks I post a brand new short story.
I'm attempting serialised fiction "The Donegal Gold" a novel length work for subscribers (with two more titles coming) and running a support group for writers with the other substack.
Thanks Simon. I've got a novel in final edits before release next Spring called Lose Yourself. It's a novel with six separate but interwoven stories told in real time during a baseball game.
Also started reimagining a project about a curmudgeon newspaper columnist who finds redemption by having to write about gratitude. I'm writing this novel as a fictional memoir, which opens up several possibilities for creativity.
Tomorrow is the start of my very first serialized novel! It's a noblebright fantasy story about an immortal who's only one bounty away from a full pardon. Unfortunately for him, the last name is his missing best friend. I'm hoping to release chapters as I'm writing/editing to gather feedback and support while I figure out my self-publishing journey. 😊
It's always fun to see what people are working on.
Currently I'm trying to figure out the ending of a short story I'm currently calling "The Seer", but that has been named and renamed several times. It's an oddly tricky story to write, but I really love it.
I'm also starting the research for a new short story that's set in the Roman Republic.
And of course, there's my Soviet ghost story novel, which I will finish one day.
Just sent off the final master of my boss Rick Ray's newest album (his 37th, since 1999), "The Gremlins Are Listening". They certainly have been; and have dogged our pursuit of this record from beginning to end (a 5-month process). Rick's a psychedelic prog- rock guitar player of the old school; been at it since 1974. Also does his own album artwork, with a pen and infinite patience. This is my 7th year and 4th album working for him (I play bass and sing a few songs now), and can tell you that nothing out there today sounds like the Rick Ray Band.
I am working on a variety of poems, an essay on Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and his views on the "Divine Project" also known as Creation, and an extended history of my family that covers the 1900s to the present. I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, anti-war protests, Ronald Reagan and Pope St. John Paul II, various assassinations and wars, feminism, the technological revolution....have a wonderful vacation.
I’m thinking about turning a screenplay into a novel and I’m trying to build a team and raise finances for a low budget horror film based on a screenplay that I have written. I will produce and direct. I have a DP, a production manager and two horror celebrities interested in the project.
Turning a screenplay into a novel is an interesting exercise. I did that with The Mechanical Crown, which started off as a film script. I shifted to the novel once I realised that film would be ridiculously expensive and difficult to make!
Hope the film production goes well! Sounds like a lot of fun.
I'm a little past middle-age and am looking at that "coming of age" period in my life because it was a fascinating if tumultuous time in our history and one I believe that may require the contribution of our personal narratives to fully understand, given the growing bias of the media and their agendas. Thanks for your interest!
Putting together my first virtual tour - it's the commercial property in Ballycroy we might be buying and the building plans we have aren't quite accurate. They relate to proposed changes the former owners never made and the place is a bit of a maze. Self-reference, but also education as I've been debating offering virtual tour services if/when I relaunch my photo/video business once we're settled.
As an interesting side note, this particular property required about a hundred images to cover correctly (I did say a maze) - compared to the 24 images the estate agent needed to cover the house we're buying. Now, my regular photo programs aren't quite right for 360° equirectangular images. On1 PhotoRaw can't wrap them, Affinity is about editing single images, Fastone and Ifranview don't wrap them, and the camera's editor is actually quite slow to load them. Other 360° viewing software is all about loading one at a time. What do do when I need to make notes on how to shuffle/rename things, what do delete, what to merge (some images were doubled with me in two locations to mask myself out), and what to color correct? HITFILM! I used On1 to batch rename all my pics, brought the folder into a Hitfilm Comp as an image sequence, slapped the "Environment Map Viewer" (ok, "360° Viewer," now) onto a grade layer and dropped a camera in. Set my ruler to display frames, not time code, used the hokeys to step through the frames, and the Viewer widgets to rotate my view around. Hitfilm's 360° Video Transform tool is also faster than the tool which came with the camera, so it looks like future workflow will be to use the camera's tool to stitch the panos, On1 to batch rename, then loading the image sequence into Hitfilm for sort, color correct and horizon correction, exporting as another image sequence to do the tour assembly. Yup, once again Hitfilm proves itself more useful to a photo project than my actual photo software. Despite its impending demise, it's going to remain one of my "secret weapons" until either a future machine can't run it, or Artlist shuts off the registration servers.
Who did I learn how to use that 360° Viewer function from? Some dude named Simon Jones.
Speaking of plans and education, I'm also trying to decide between FreeCad and LibreCad. I need to learn one of those so I can transfer the existing PDF plans we have to a more editable format to continue our future plans.
Oh, and I took photos at a friend's wedding last month - not as their official photographer, just for fun - but I do need to finish those up. I hadn't checked my camera settings before I'd started shooting and I wasn't optimal for the lighting conditions for the first half of what I shot, so I made my life harder in the edit. I shoot RAW, so it's all repairable. Just more time consuming.
Then I'm still finishing out the replotting of years of Cutlass narratives from three campaigns into a coherent throughline. Lotta figuring out what DOESN'T need to be there while preserving the thematically important stuff.
I just got off a zoom call with Sarah Fay, (@sarahfay @writersatwork) Substack coach extraordinaire. I'm thrilled about the changes I'll be making to my stack. She knows her sh-t. Also, working on my first novel and helping favorite daughter plan her wedding in Tuscany. Busy, happy mama here.
I'm currently doing worldbuilding and plot organizing for two big trilogy projects. One is near-future multiverse western science fiction fantasy, looking at the mind control technology I first talked about in the Martiniere Legacy, only with the same characters in a multiverse setting. It's somewhat of a kitchen sink story with the legend of Melusine of Lusignan, MK-Ultra, corporate soap opera, digital thought clones, family dysfunction, and a closely-held family cult organization all wrapped up together. I decided to just plain go to the wall on this one.
The other is a fantasy trilogy focusing on what happens when the Chosen One ends up in charge of the Empire--and she realizes that not only is the Empire a fetid, corrupt mess but that she doesn't really *want* to rule over the Empire as it stands--and, meanwhile, the entire world, including her homeland, faces the threat from a couple of angry, exiled deities who want to destroy the current pantheon of Seven Crowned Gods.
I'm running writing retreats in southern Italy! Writing setting and writing the gothic genre are still open. Participants will stay in a 900-year-old monastery, have a daily writing critique session and go some tours (to an ancient olive farm for example) https://www.writinggrove.com/workshops
Wow, that looks and sounds amazing.
Thanks! I hope so. Now I just need to gin up interest.
I want to be Lloyd right now. What? That sounds amazing! I'm actually helping my daughter plan her wedding in Italy. Her fiance is from Bologna. They want a Tuscan wedding. Hubby and I are going in Sept to check venues. Enjoy enjoy enjoy. Molto bene. Sto imparando l'italiano.
Oh that sounds fabulous. I love Multepulciano & Arezzo.
That's a wonderful idea! I'm considering doing 'Yoga & Writing' retreats in the future.
What a fantastic setting. I'm based in Basel so will check out your site :)
Salento is fantastic (and not so well known outside of Italy!). I'm working with local businesses to provide a truly authentic experience. Good luck with yours! Happy to trade ideas
Looks gorgeous! I lived in Italy for a year and traveled around a lot but never made it there.
Thanks so much. I’ve subscribed so can stay up to date :) likewise good luck!
How beautiful! That looks like an amazing opportunity to step outside one's normal headspace and make room for writing.
indeed!
Looks like a beautiful spot for the retreat!
The city is really great. and so close to lots of southern Italian gems
New to the the Simon K Jones community but I'll jump in! I'm currently working on a plan to publish the first novel in the 'Flames of the Exiled' fantasy series. The manuscript is polished but the maps, cover art and publishing plan are not. While I draft maps and covers, I'm contemplating serialising here on Substack; launching through Kickstarter; publishing through KDP, Ingram Spark, etc. ... So many options these days!
Yeah, options are great but it can be quite overwhelming.
I find the Kickstarter idea really appealing, but also am intimidated by the sheer amount of work involved. If you've got cool stuff like maps to play with I can imagine that being a fun route - offering backers fancy print/cloth versions, for example. :) The 'premium' Kickstarter for collectors intrigues me (compared to the cheap-as-possible Amazon model).
Thanks for the thoughts. Overwhelming? Amen. It's certainly fun to think about ways to enhance the project though ... Cloth maps have indeed crossed my mind ...
Focusing on a short story I wrote called Dùil and posted recently on my Substack - considering expanding it at some point as I love the characters and the story.
Main writing focus has been rewriting my novel Frederick Street. Have tried to be more disciplined and write 1000 words a day on one project to try and finish more stories instead of jumping between. Working so far!
It's different for everyone, but I don't do well if I have multiple projects active at once. I need to focus on a single thing, otherwise I never finish any of them.
Can still have ideas developing in the background, of course.
Will check out Dùil.
Yep absolutely. I'm getting a bit better at focusing on one project at a time.
(Thanks in advance for checking out Dùil)
Love this, can’t wait to check out the podcast! My current project is a serialised novella called The Calibray Job. It’s a spooky little sci-fi story about a crew of misfits searching an abandoned underwater research facility. Think Fast and Furious meets The Thing.
https://mtrask.substack.com/p/the-calibray-job-reading-guide-index
Fast & The Furious meets The Thing is a helluva pitch! Ha, amazing. I'm intrigued, as those are two such different things, and I wouldn't associate F&TF with spooky sci-fi (obviously that's much more The Thing).
Mostly I'm working on short stories for my Substack, alongside my fantasy serial, but I also have a couple novels in the works. I'll be announcing my next one, a literary fantasy, tomorrow, plus I have a couple in the early drafting stages. I write primarily SFF, but my short stories can range in genre.
That sounds like an impressive line-up. How do you balance all of those different projects?
ADHD, mostly.
In all seriousness I work on one novel draft at a time, and I always rest the project for a while between drafts. So if I finish draft X of project A, I move on to draft Y of project B. The short stories are fairly new to the routine, and so I'm still learning a lot about my process with them.
Cheers Simon, and happy hols- am just back from mine in Crete, where I got more 'material' for the Greek comic-philosophical-geopolitical 'detective series' I have been working on for 2 years, It is a great lot of fun that brings together my combined background in Byzantine history, regional travell writing and contemporary events journalism. It wants only for a publisher. I am sanguine tho, as there are great moments of action, adventure, comedy, insight and hey- the cases take place against a pretty magnificent geographical backdrop, for the inevitable future cinematic version, when I am really taking in the winnings. We can dream and vacation is a great time for imaginings so again have a great one, and I hope that it leads to more inspiration for your own work in the Triverse and beyond.
Thanks, Chris! Travel is great for ideas and refreshing the brain. I'm not a great traveller, but always enjoy the destination. That said - we're going by Eurostar instead of flying, which I'm quite excited about. Intrigued to see how the overall experience compares to getting on a plane.
Too true- and something about train travel is also both timeless and technological, running between both the Orient Express and time-travel capers.... I am sure you will find something of value to your writing, as I did while traveling recently. Enjoy!
So I have several in the works. Two I'm actively writing at the moment, plus others I'm outlining.
The two I'm writing are "The Evernow Canticles" (I published the first novel in the series last year, currently working on Book 2 out of 4) and "Through the Stars, Darkly" that I'm serializing on my Substack (Book 1 is done and available for free, Book 2 is currently being published at the rate of 4 chapters a week, and I'll soon start writing Book 3 out of 6).
The other project I'm outlining is an epic fantasy series in 10 volumes that I'm very excited about and can't wait to start writing, but I have to finish those two series above first, so I likely won't get to this before 2024. But I have tons of notes and a bunch of scenes written out already. I think this one's gonna be awesome ;)
You're always so busy, Alex! Do you write it all ahead of time, before you begin serialising?
I do now. When I started "Through the Stars" I wanted to do it like a serial, so I was writing a chapter a week, though I did build a 3-month buffer before I started publishing. But I quickly realized this wasn't working for me. I hate being "stuck" on one project for so long. So about midway through Book 1, I just finished writing it as a novel though I continued to publish it as a serial. Book 2 was written entirely as a novel and subsequent volumes will be as well. Works better for me, the way my brain is wired ;)
We should have brain scans done and compare them, as my brain works in exactly the opposite way! Humans are weird.
Tell me about it! :D
Oh great question; I also have this type of Q scheduled on my new project to get to know the community :) I really enjoy following your writing journey.
So after doing a more generalized cultural studies / literature Substack for a year, I'm focusing on a project called Yoga Culture which is not just for yoga-people but also for those interested in cultural studies. I'm in development for a podcast where I aim to be the Louis Theroux of yoga ;)
I'm also finishing the first book in a thriller series that likewise has a lot to do with cultural studies. The first is a contemporary response to Graham Greene's The Third Man. But I'm planning to table the manuscript until I grow my audience a bit more, at least that's the strategy!
"The Louis Theroux of yoga".
What an elevator pitch 😁
Right?! maybe I'll even do a rap about it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5gZPAkficw
Ha, my son went on about that song for ages due to Fortnite, but I had no idea it was Theroux.
Oh! You have to check out the whole original episode. So good.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1041442/
This gets better all the time.
I'm trying to figure out what to make of the two novels (one is a historical fantasy tale involving space-time travelling spanning over about forty years in the life of the main character; the other is a mystery novel set in the opera world of 18th century Venice) I'm writing...
Hi Simon,
I'm just gearing up for my fifth self-published sci-fi title From Within, A Darkness (as Ray Adams) which will be available as an eBook from 31st July, and a paperback as soon as I can get the proof sorted. It's about a group of miners on an asteroid accidentally unleashing a mysterious evil, and I'm confident in saying it's a lot of fun - https://amzn.to/3xkW7vO
That DOES sound like a lot of fun. Am I right in thinking you've published traditionally as well, under your own name?
Book sounds great - I'll check it out once I'm back home. :)
Yep, two under my own name, the second of which, the fantasy western Greyskin, came out from Deixis Press in April!
Enjoy the hols, Simon. Where you off to? Hopefully somewhere without any heatwaves!
A great idea to ask others. Look forward to checking back in on the responses.
Two main projects underway, peppered with randomness for when I feel there needs to be such.
My ongoing novella, which currently has six entries: https://slake.substack.com/s/braes-meteorite
My fragments of a SciFi tale, which has various posts: https://slake.substack.com/s/precipice/archive?sort=new
As I know you're well aware, running serialisation here has its inherent challenges, but I'm enjoying the ride and its doing great things in actually engaging me to write each day.
Have a great trip!
Thanks! The boy is 10 and we're all off to Disneyland Paris. Which I *think* should be fun? Fortunately no crazy heatwaves, as Paris is further north. We have friends on Greek islands at the moment (fortunately not the affected ones, as yet), and it sounds crazy.
I need to check out your writing properly! Some holiday reading. :)
Hopefully we can all discover some exciting new Substack writers in these comments. That's the plan! :)
Sounds lovely, and glad to hear it's not so hot near Paris.
My brother is off to Croatia next week and I'm hoping there's not going to be any issues for him.
Enjoy the break, and thanks for seeding some community sharing here 😊
I'm teaching a series of continuing education classes at Universities around the country on Music, Media, and the Counterculture 1950-80 and continuing to build the website www.radicalradio.media as an archive of the Freeform radio era. I also have recently transitioned my newsletter from Mailchimp to Substack and am gradually getting a sense of how to best utilize this venue to distribute my writing. My thanks to you for your help in realizing that goal.
Sounds like an interesting era to focus on. Especially the further we get from it - feels like an entirely different era in so many ways. Maybe that's an inevitable feeling of my being middle-aged now? :)
I just posted a newsletter yesterday.
https://kimhayes.substack.com/p/directions
The short version is that I'm still figuring out what sort of fiction I want to write and I'm serializing a story that started out as a prompt about a woodsman who frees a fairy from a tree. Also working on the best way to market my writing that doesn't include spamming my IG and FB feed.
Being able to write and publish online is a great way to figure out what sort of thing you want to write.
I've more-or-less stopped spamming links on IG/FB/Twitter (partly because of those three I'm only still on IG). It never seemed to really do much anyway!
I’m working on a short story collection - creative non fiction I think is the category. I write a Substack called Ugly Shoes and Paper Planes and teach kids creative arts skills during the summer. Currently taking some classes and trying to unplug on vacation and failing.
I'm deliberately leaving my laptop at home when we go on holiday tomorrow, in an attempt to unplug. Will almost certainly fail. :D
Teaching creative arts skills sounds immensely satisfying. What age do you teach?
I've just created a Substack and am trying to learn how it works. Excited to be a part of the community and share some of my short story fiction!
Hi! Have fun with it - I've found Substack to be a really useful and effective set of tools.
I'm working on a cursed mermaid urban fantasy and knitting mini grim reapers.
Hello! I’ve settled into a weekly writing cadence here at Substack and am looking into serializing my novel. Thanks!
Middle of a few things. Got some art and a novel I’m working on. Right now I’m focusing on an analog horror I’m making though! :’)
Analog horror? Do tell.
Yes! I'm currently working on the editing, visuals, and getting the voices done for the first episode, which centers around a shady pharmacy company. Hoping I'll have it done by next month for posting, so fingers crossed!
How About This, my newsletter, remains my main focus. There's not much of a fiction focus but books and reading are always a part of it, including this public library appreciation post: https://howaboutthis.substack.com/p/public-libraries-awesome-things
I do have some fiction projects that are in various stages of completion. I did NaNoWriMo almost five years ago and roughed out a draft which is maybe 1/3 of a novel in a possible SF series but it feels like trying to climb a mountain without climbing equipment whenever I look at it. Yet I still feel the need to return to it and finish it... someday.
Thanks for the reminder - I've been meaning to read your library post! Will go do so now.
I'm publishing a non-fiction book, CHOICE: Personalized Learning, Personalized Technology, that looks at how to effectively use technology in K12 education. I'm publishing it on Substack a chapter at a time.
It's something different from my past work, but I'm very much enjoying it. https://www.technologyshouldbesimple.com
I'm revising my first novel, "The Great War of the Worlds," which is about a post-Martian invasion world.
I'm also trying to build an audience for it over at my Substack and am considering serializing a prequel series.
Happy holidays & a podcast sounds fun!
I'm working on my fantasy serial Requiem of the Moth: "political intrigue with a dash of romance in an underground city as a recently appointed clan intelligence official and a moth catcher commoner have to pair up to get what they want—unlimited power for the former, protection and patronage for the latter and his family". https://vanessaglau.substack.com/s/requiem-of-the-moth
Thanks! I'm intrigued by the 'moth catcher' job, and whether that's literal or otherwise...
Literal! Inspired by the Australian Aborigines who apparently ate moths, my fantasy people see them as delicacy & their preparation has religious undertones. Definitely something I want to build out more over the course of the story!
Am working on two creative writing projects at the moment:
1. My first NFT poetry-art collection.
2. My first crime-fantasy novel (working on the outline and research).
Contemporary novel, no fantasy or sci-fi.
Are you planning on posting any on Substack, Caz? (Obviously keen to read :) )
Improbable.
Set in Melbourne, so might be of interest to you. Somewhere down the track I'm going to need a few alpha readers. 😁
*raises hand 😄
Bless 😁
Current project at the moment is revamping some of my writing and my profiles, and see if I can get back into the swing of Buy Me A Coffee. Annnddd figuring out how Substack works.
Haha feel you on that last part! Seems like substack is such a well kept secret - where had it been in my life?!
Now this is a fun coincidence--July 24th (the publication day of this post) was my last day at work before my 'creative sabbatical' started the day after :)
6 months later, after an initial recalibration period which felt very much needed, I have been on a roll for the past 2 months.
In the beginning, interactive ebooks have been a fun medium for me to pour my creativity into, and now I'm being teased with integrating voice and audio. I'm generally exploring how far into newness I can push the experience with known media. And I love integrating my digital art in all of my creations.
I'm just starting out and setting up my Substack. I have had an idea for a scifi story for a good few years but have been unsure on how to commence. Substack looks like the right way to go. I want to serialise the story before publishing it as a series of books on Amazon.
Sounds good! Serialising is a great way to break that initial "not sure how to start" block.
Thanks, I'm still finding my way here. I'm excited by what this opportunity can offer, I see established writers like yourself here and this helps boost my confidence in using Substack.
My main project is healing my legs, so I can get back to doing more of what love.
Fiction: I'm currently working on a new crime/thriller story.
Knee deep doing research and now plotting chapters.
Hope both of those projects go well, Robert!
Yes, I hope so too. But it's been five months since the ulcers first appeared on the shines. And boy were they painful! It's taking too long to heal up (in my humble opinion) and that doesn't bode for the future. But I'm doing all the right things to promote healing. So it's not like I'm doing something wrong that I shouldn't be doing. I guess I'm just getting impatient.
Perhaps if you are still having this issue consider cleansing with baby wipes for sensitive skin as opposed to cleaning products that may facilitate skin breakdown because of the tendency of many soaps to remove skin oils (defeat the skin) which serve as a type of morter between your skin cells (the bricks, so to speak). It will depend upon how serious the ulceration is and also if any infection is present but if you present the idea to your medical care team, they can evaluate if this idea is appropriate. I worked for many years in skin protectant development and skin care and discovered that using wipes and later desiring (zinc oxide ointment liberally applied after cleaning and allowing the skin to air dry) effectively prevents skin breakdown and pressure sores in the elderly and bedridden population, even those who are incontinent. I am hoping that you have already resolved the ulceration and then perhaps these suggestions might assist in preventing future problems but again, I stress, please SPEAK with your DOCTOR or skin care team BEFORE changing your routine.
Late to the party! Not a writer other than journaling but short story reader and daily art journalist. Current quest is researching how creative self-expression and interacting with the art of others supports personal transformation particularly during large life transitions. I'm particularly interested in how works of fiction support us during these times as have rites of passage in traditional societies. I have a Substack where I wrote about this recently and would love your thoughts!
I love that! Fiction and art generally is so important, precisely because it can help us navigate difficult times (and appreciate good times). It's so frustrating that arts funding is always the thing that gets cut as being unnecessary.
Sorry for jumping on this late, I'm primarily on Substack to serialize my novel, something I was two thirds done in 2013 but got depressed and deliberately wiped out my entire file. End of 2022, reviewing my other writings, I wondered if I emailed a backup copy of my unfinished work to myself. I did! And so, a few months later, here I am.
Wow, that was a lucky retrieval! I tend to be a data hoarder and keep everything (albeit scattered across multiple hard drives in different parts of the house).
Really pleased that you were able to resurrect your old project. Enjoy it!
Simon, thanks for this invitation to share what we're up to! Like Lloyd, I host writing retreats, for women only though (sorry, guys). We aren't in a 900 yo monastery but on an island along the "Forgotten Coast" of Florida. Lots of amazing stories have been started and finished on that beach. As for my own writing, I'm trying to finish a novel set in the South in 1968 and will begin to serialize it on my personal author platform on Ream and then bring it to Substack, along with some of the fun research bits I want to share. I've got several novella series and short stories in the idea stages too (mostly historical fiction). Eventually, I hope to add some story-related merch to my membership, but that's down the line. I'm also admin for a FB group called Women Writing for Change, where I host weekly co-writing sessions on Zoom. And... we're in the second year of a podcast that I co-host called Around the Writer's Table.
I'm writing a Substack handbook to help people get clarity around their Substack projects - and learn how to use all the features. It's taking so much longer than I expected.... need to join a writing retreat like Lloyd's to get it finished I think (also: Italy❤️!). I also just launched a Substack mini-audit on Gumroad. (all while writing my $12K B2B newsletter each week.) I might be crazy.
That sounds like a good offering! The tricky thing with writing about Substack, I find, is that it's still a rapidly evolving platform. As soon as you finish writing about something, it's morphed into something slightly different. Like when I wrote a guide about integrating GA4, and then two weeks later it was entirely defunct. :D
(and, yes, Italian retreats sound like a plan in general)
I look forward to seeing your finished product! I will look for your Substack page.
Thanks, Loraine, to see my publication, just click the grey-coloured words "Writes Pubstack Success" next to my name in this comment thread. .... it's a handy Substack feature to see what people are writing.
I'm planning to serialize a new book project on Substack! I'll be dropping some little details about it in the following weeks. I've only a completed outline but haven't actually written the chapters yet 😅. And I'm also putting a book of short horror stories. It'll be my 2nd collection.
Sounds exciting! Are you going to write it as you go, or write the whole thing ahead of time?
I'll be writing as I go. I tried that with my recent story; I didn't have a plan, not even a loose outline. It kept me on my toes, and I finished it. But the story I've in mind is longer, so I had to plan it out. I always wanted to write a novel but had so many false starts. Hopefully, this one will make it. 😆
Good luck! This approach certainly has worked for me over the years. :)
I am trying to finish my first comic script on my phone while I spend my spare time-in-front-of-the-computer writing book 3 in my urban fantasy series. And also write an unrelated short story for the next season of the Lunar Awards. The comic will be Kickstarted and I have been writing about comics weekly on Wednesdays to warm-up my readers, and book 3 chapters are coming out every Friday, along with other weekly musings.
Not much, then, Jon? :)
Looking forward to seeing more of that comic!
I am wrapping up the first round of edits on my novella... novel that I plan on serializing soon. Like the coming week soon.
Hi Simon, I am working on book two of my series. Book one, Champions of Light, came out June 6th. I've been working on learning the publishing gig and how to keep improving as a writer. Book 2's initial draft will be done in the next week or two. I hope to have it published first quarter of 2024. In the mean time I also am trying to figure out a fiction substack, Tales of Karnum and Beyond, and keeping up with the one under my name I dubbed An Abundant Life. Can't learn without doing. Can't gain feedback without putting the writing out there. I even have what I call my science project on Kindle Vella called Cataclysm like too many other things there unfortunately. If I want to do another serial, I'll probably put it as part of a paid sub on the Tales of Karnum and Beyond Substack rather than Vella.
I've never been able to check out Vella, as I think it is still US-only. There's big potential for Substack to lean into fiction serials, if they were so inclined.
Absolutely agree that the best way to learn is to do! With writing in particular, that's very true.
I'm seriously thinking of doing a sub model with fiction in the future. Of course, I'm still working on getting my stuff in front of my audience as a debut author. It's proving to be a challenging, but fun, journey.
I've started my horror serial anthology, Marredbury. Prologue/intro story is live now. Episode 1 is launching tomorrow. It's a mix of Fear Street and Silvia Moreno-Garcia
https://open.substack.com/pub/reinacruzwrites/p/marredbury?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=y7t5u
I've combined serial story telling and short fiction, a kind of experiment with the revitalization of serials that I'm excited about
I'm working on my pitch to agents for a speculative/alternate history novel I've been working on for five years. I sent out my first round of pitches a few months back, was surprised to get some usable feedback (though no takers yet) I've just finetuned my pitch and am about to send out to my second batch of agents.
Here on Substack, I'm tracking my real time progress in attempting to get published as a debut novelist, on alternating weeks I post a brand new short story.
Good luck with the new round of pitches! That's an aspect of publishing I haven't yet explored myself.
I'm attempting serialised fiction "The Donegal Gold" a novel length work for subscribers (with two more titles coming) and running a support group for writers with the other substack.
Thanks Simon. I've got a novel in final edits before release next Spring called Lose Yourself. It's a novel with six separate but interwoven stories told in real time during a baseball game.
Also started reimagining a project about a curmudgeon newspaper columnist who finds redemption by having to write about gratitude. I'm writing this novel as a fictional memoir, which opens up several possibilities for creativity.
Have a great holiday!
Those both sound like really interesting projects. I like the idea of a novel set during a very specific moment, but told from multiple perspectives.
Tomorrow is the start of my very first serialized novel! It's a noblebright fantasy story about an immortal who's only one bounty away from a full pardon. Unfortunately for him, the last name is his missing best friend. I'm hoping to release chapters as I'm writing/editing to gather feedback and support while I figure out my self-publishing journey. 😊
Love that story concept! It has the setup and conflict built right into that one-sentence pitch. :)
Thank you!
It's always fun to see what people are working on.
Currently I'm trying to figure out the ending of a short story I'm currently calling "The Seer", but that has been named and renamed several times. It's an oddly tricky story to write, but I really love it.
I'm also starting the research for a new short story that's set in the Roman Republic.
And of course, there's my Soviet ghost story novel, which I will finish one day.
Just sent off the final master of my boss Rick Ray's newest album (his 37th, since 1999), "The Gremlins Are Listening". They certainly have been; and have dogged our pursuit of this record from beginning to end (a 5-month process). Rick's a psychedelic prog- rock guitar player of the old school; been at it since 1974. Also does his own album artwork, with a pen and infinite patience. This is my 7th year and 4th album working for him (I play bass and sing a few songs now), and can tell you that nothing out there today sounds like the Rick Ray Band.
I am working on a variety of poems, an essay on Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and his views on the "Divine Project" also known as Creation, and an extended history of my family that covers the 1900s to the present. I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, anti-war protests, Ronald Reagan and Pope St. John Paul II, various assassinations and wars, feminism, the technological revolution....have a wonderful vacation.
Well, currently I am undergoing prep for a colonoscopy. It isn’t a fun project but so far isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. 😆
But seriously, I am still adding chapters to my digital novel when I have time. https://link.talescreator.com/i8sDiacedAb
I’m thinking about turning a screenplay into a novel and I’m trying to build a team and raise finances for a low budget horror film based on a screenplay that I have written. I will produce and direct. I have a DP, a production manager and two horror celebrities interested in the project.
Eep, hope that colonoscopy goes OK!
Turning a screenplay into a novel is an interesting exercise. I did that with The Mechanical Crown, which started off as a film script. I shifted to the novel once I realised that film would be ridiculously expensive and difficult to make!
Hope the film production goes well! Sounds like a lot of fun.
Thanks, everything went well.
Asked ‘What is the best opening line of a book you’ve ever read’ on the Books That Made Us Discussion thread this week.
What would your answer be, Simon?
https://open.substack.com/pub/booksthatmadeus/p/which-book-has-the-best-opening-line?r=1nabyn&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Cor, that's a difficult question! My brain isn't good at remembering those specifics. I'll hop over to the discussion and post something. :)
I'm a little past middle-age and am looking at that "coming of age" period in my life because it was a fascinating if tumultuous time in our history and one I believe that may require the contribution of our personal narratives to fully understand, given the growing bias of the media and their agendas. Thanks for your interest!
Putting together my first virtual tour - it's the commercial property in Ballycroy we might be buying and the building plans we have aren't quite accurate. They relate to proposed changes the former owners never made and the place is a bit of a maze. Self-reference, but also education as I've been debating offering virtual tour services if/when I relaunch my photo/video business once we're settled.
As an interesting side note, this particular property required about a hundred images to cover correctly (I did say a maze) - compared to the 24 images the estate agent needed to cover the house we're buying. Now, my regular photo programs aren't quite right for 360° equirectangular images. On1 PhotoRaw can't wrap them, Affinity is about editing single images, Fastone and Ifranview don't wrap them, and the camera's editor is actually quite slow to load them. Other 360° viewing software is all about loading one at a time. What do do when I need to make notes on how to shuffle/rename things, what do delete, what to merge (some images were doubled with me in two locations to mask myself out), and what to color correct? HITFILM! I used On1 to batch rename all my pics, brought the folder into a Hitfilm Comp as an image sequence, slapped the "Environment Map Viewer" (ok, "360° Viewer," now) onto a grade layer and dropped a camera in. Set my ruler to display frames, not time code, used the hokeys to step through the frames, and the Viewer widgets to rotate my view around. Hitfilm's 360° Video Transform tool is also faster than the tool which came with the camera, so it looks like future workflow will be to use the camera's tool to stitch the panos, On1 to batch rename, then loading the image sequence into Hitfilm for sort, color correct and horizon correction, exporting as another image sequence to do the tour assembly. Yup, once again Hitfilm proves itself more useful to a photo project than my actual photo software. Despite its impending demise, it's going to remain one of my "secret weapons" until either a future machine can't run it, or Artlist shuts off the registration servers.
Who did I learn how to use that 360° Viewer function from? Some dude named Simon Jones.
Speaking of plans and education, I'm also trying to decide between FreeCad and LibreCad. I need to learn one of those so I can transfer the existing PDF plans we have to a more editable format to continue our future plans.
Oh, and I took photos at a friend's wedding last month - not as their official photographer, just for fun - but I do need to finish those up. I hadn't checked my camera settings before I'd started shooting and I wasn't optimal for the lighting conditions for the first half of what I shot, so I made my life harder in the edit. I shoot RAW, so it's all repairable. Just more time consuming.
Then I'm still finishing out the replotting of years of Cutlass narratives from three campaigns into a coherent throughline. Lotta figuring out what DOESN'T need to be there while preserving the thematically important stuff.
I just got off a zoom call with Sarah Fay, (@sarahfay @writersatwork) Substack coach extraordinaire. I'm thrilled about the changes I'll be making to my stack. She knows her sh-t. Also, working on my first novel and helping favorite daughter plan her wedding in Tuscany. Busy, happy mama here.
That sounds like an excellent combination of things.
I've not been able to attend Sarah's workshops yet due to timezone differences. Sounds like people are getting lots of good stuff from her, though!
Are you of the European time zone?
I'm currently doing worldbuilding and plot organizing for two big trilogy projects. One is near-future multiverse western science fiction fantasy, looking at the mind control technology I first talked about in the Martiniere Legacy, only with the same characters in a multiverse setting. It's somewhat of a kitchen sink story with the legend of Melusine of Lusignan, MK-Ultra, corporate soap opera, digital thought clones, family dysfunction, and a closely-held family cult organization all wrapped up together. I decided to just plain go to the wall on this one.
The other is a fantasy trilogy focusing on what happens when the Chosen One ends up in charge of the Empire--and she realizes that not only is the Empire a fetid, corrupt mess but that she doesn't really *want* to rule over the Empire as it stands--and, meanwhile, the entire world, including her homeland, faces the threat from a couple of angry, exiled deities who want to destroy the current pantheon of Seven Crowned Gods.
You know. Just a couple of small projects.