I want to give people a little peek behind the scenes and update them on some of the writing projects I’m currently working on.
Writing Projects – The Black Skull
Earlier this year, I had released my first short novel, The Black Skull: Accused. This was a lot of fun to write, letting me combine 1930s era masked vigilantes with some high octane run and gun type action. The Black Skull has been a character that’s been with me for years, and I’m really happy to be able to share him with readers.
I’ve been busy writing a follow-up novel to accused. This one, called Madman, takes the Black Skull and puts him up against a terrifying serial killer hell-bent on turning New York City into his own personal slaughterhouse. I’ve completed the outline on the book, and currently have the first couple of chapters complete. It’s going to take a bit more time to get it done, but speaking for myself, it’s going to be well worth the wait. Madman isn’t going to be your typical superhero/pulp hero book. Instead, expect elements of horror mixed in with the same action that is in Accused. Expect this book out in the early part of next year. Based on the outline, Madman is going to be several times longer than Accused and is currently budgeted at 90,000 words.
Writing for an Animated Webseries
Side-by-side with Madman, I’m developing a pilot for a web series that blends modern espionage, counter-terrorism, and superheroes in some rather…unusual…ways. I’m about halfway done the initial script, and expect to have it completed by Halloween. Production is going to start in December, with the pilot being released by late spring.
The rise in computer power and GPU-based renderers, such as Otoy’s Octane, make it very possible to do Pixar level animation on your home computer. I want to make this particular episode look as good as some of the highest quality animation that we’ve seen in television or film. Keep watching for still images and animations as we start getting closer to production and you can judge for yourselves.
National Novel Writing Month
Finally, I decided to take my first swing at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). As if I didn’t have enough stuff on my plate already, I’m going to turn myself into a cyber-hermit for the next month as I try to hit the target of 50,000 words in the first draft of a brand-new project. For those unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, it’s a form of self-challenge writing competition where there participants all try to writing 50,000 words in a single month.
I’ve talked in the past about trying to manage the flow of ideas. For some people, myself especially, we are cursed with an abundance of ideas and a sheer lack of time to deal with them. In order to help filter out some of the ideas that flow towards me like water from a fire hose, I’ve taken to simply outlining ideas and then putting them away into an archive to let them gel. The ones that still compel me after a year or so are the ones that have that X factor that can give me the momentum to take them from raw concept to finished story in the hundreds of hours it takes to refine and finalize them. Sometimes though, ideas hit you with the force of a tidal wave and they knock you over. That’s what happened to me with the idea for national novel writing month. I’m currently working on the outline for this and racing the clock to get the outline done by the end of this month. Wish me luck.
If I manage to hit my 50,000 word target for November, I expect it’s still going to take at least another 30,000 words to complete, and several months to refine and make it ready for publication. Expect to have this book released this coming summer.
Keep checking back for more information.
