Beginning Anew

With that downer of a note gracing my main page for the past bit of time, I figured I should put something less negative on here (as well as probably start blogging more reliably. Maybe? Maybe).

Here are a few things I've been doing:

- Working on a short sci-fi story called Aeon, which is currently in limbo because I am uncertain if I am currently skilled enough to finish it
- Re-reading Death's Aria in preparation for edits before submission
- Re-reading Half and Quarter, as I plan on e-publishing them a little while down the road (haven't decided when yet, but it is going to happen)
- Working on my newest novel, Morphean. By that I mean I just now made a .doc for it and will be starting it soon while editing Death's Aria

I realized that last year I abandoned a lot of projects. Naught But Glass (which was technically 2011 but I tried reviving it in 2012) made it three chapters before falling flat. A Straight Cut got all the way to the last 1/4 of the novel (the biggest reveal happened, everything went crazy, and I stopped. Not sure why) before it got put in the backburner. I believe that one was actually victim of "realizing that in order to make it work I would have to rewrite the first 1/4 of the novel" syndrome (aka "attack of the internal editor") and I lost drive to finish it. Lastly, Empty Pages, which I was very excited for also flubbed out after about five or six chapters. This one was mostly because I had an idea for an ending but one of the pieces I just couldn't latch together. Until I figured that out (which would make the twist make sense), I couldn't proceed as I had foreshadowing to do. So it kind of just died.

I also started Eighth (which I actually will finish, I assure you) but I decided it would be best to write something I could actually pitch, seeing as Eighth's grandaddy Half already got the reject stamp (it's what I get for trying to sell a vampire book in this day and age). So that one is down but not out.

I've found it very motivating to visit local bookstores, be they small one or chains. With this day of eBooks I usually can just buy anything I want to read off Amazon, but last night I had some free time and was in the area so I wandered around Barnes and Noble a bit. Walking through both the fantasy and especially YA sections I realized that I really wanted to have something on those shelves, and also I could totally write something that would work (or have already written something and haven't submitted it. Lookin' at you, Death's Aria). It was very motivating for writing and also uncorked that little well of writing ideas that's sort of been running dry these last few months.

I spent the rest of the evening plotting and devising the world for Morphean, a tentative title for a tentative series called "Dreamkiller Chronicles." Essentially our conscious thoughts and emotions create a sort of residual haze over everything (where do all those emotions/thought go after we dissipate them? To Morphean) kind of like a Wifi network I guess; a world we are always connected to but not aware of. When we dream we actually set foot in that world, but a few people can actually control how they react in their dreams and eventually break out, getting to the heart of Morphean. Of course, some people are scumbags and can bust into other people's dreams and corrupt them, essentially destroying their subconscious and killing the person. Can't let that happen.  

So it's Nightmare on Elm Street meets...I dunno, something else. Young adult. The funnest part is this story directly links to Death's Aria's world, but not so much that you'd have to have read the previous book to get it, just enough for some cameos. There's obviously more to the system than just that, but that's the basic gist. It's one part fantasy, one part the teen-empowerment stories that all YA novels are, and a big part mystery. Should be interesting. Maybe. Hopefully not a carbon-copy of Death's Aria.

Anyway I'm trying to start up writing again. I have been writing regularly for ARPGamer.com, as well as a bit on my video game blog, so those are available as well. That's it from me! I'll post less "here is Nathan's life" posts in the future.