I am now officially off hiatus and back to writing.
One thing that kept me from announcing this earlier is that I couldn't decide what to write. I know a lot of you are waiting for the CYOA sequel to Transfixed, and I want to give it to you as soon as possible. But writing a CYOA is like climbing Mount Everest: it's a huge task, and the events of this year had left me feeling very intimidated. Meanwhile, for about the last month, another story had sprung up in my mind without any conscious decision to write something new. It began with a vague idea I'd had for years, but then out of nowhere characters and scenes started writing themselves in my head; and they did it mostly at night while I was trying to get to sleep. That meant, of course, that I wasn't sleeping, not very well anyway.
So here's what I've decided. I'm going to do the new story first and try to use it as a base camp, acclimatizing me for the CYOA which will be my climb up Mount Everest. But right now I'll try to give you enough details about Transfixed to settle your cravings, I'll tell you a bit about the new story, and I'll offer a tease about a little side project I might do.
Transfixed first. My previous CYOA was sort of an exploration: you could do a lot of different things, sometimes just for fun; and you could reach a lot of different endings, none of which were technically wins or losses. Depending on your tastes, any of the outcomes might float your boat. But the Transfixed CYOA will work more like a game with a definite objective. If you play as Jason and Rebekah, your objective will to save Captain Sato. It can be done - and you can also save Captain Stone and stop the ticks for good, if you play well enough. Alternately, you can play as Nils (the half-crazed Swede from the refrigerator) and have a more mysterious adventure. You can only learn about Nils by playing as him, and his original objective will change as the plot moves along. His story is a bit more like a typical video game, with more strategizing and more shooting (if you want shooting, that is); and he, too, has a chance to stop the ticks for good.
Now about this new story. My working title is "Brainwashing of the Rich and Famous," but I'm not sure what percentage of my readership would get that reference. Please leave me some comments about that to help me decide, and if my plot description gives you an idea for a different title, let me know. If I use it, I'll give you full credit and a free book. This story is going to have a little bit of a trilby else/Dormignonne vibe, in that vacationers travel to an island paradise where they're gradually sucked into slavery. But in my story, the vacationers are all rich and famous, and they've come for a half hippy, half New Age retreat that promises to make them better people...and to give them lots of sex along the way. But everything they say and do, everything they eat and drink, is really designed to suck them into a cult. I'm trying to use real-world methods for this part of the story (sleep deprivation, for instance), so that will be a change for me. Then there's a second, more intensive retreat where they're completely stripped of their personalities; and since they've already been brainwashed into believing everything the retreat leaders tell them, they go along with the new, stricter agenda and never question what's happening. As for the ending, well, I think you can guess.
Finally, there's another quick project I'm contemplating. I feel sure I'll do this at some point, but I don't know when. It could be this year or next. I've said before that I have a YouTube channel, and recently I uploaded some clips from an old B&W movie called White Zombie. It can be taken as a story about MC just as much as a story about zombification, and the female lead has a wonderful trance face. Well, the movie is in the public domain, and I've been thinking about how I could edit and rearrange some scenes to erase the happy ending and give it the kind of slap-in-the-face MC ending that pervs like us prefer. But don't worry; my new story will have first priority. I might do the White Zombie thing one weekend if I need a break, but it's definitely on the back burner. You can see the original clips on my YouTube channel now, though.
One thing that kept me from announcing this earlier is that I couldn't decide what to write. I know a lot of you are waiting for the CYOA sequel to Transfixed, and I want to give it to you as soon as possible. But writing a CYOA is like climbing Mount Everest: it's a huge task, and the events of this year had left me feeling very intimidated. Meanwhile, for about the last month, another story had sprung up in my mind without any conscious decision to write something new. It began with a vague idea I'd had for years, but then out of nowhere characters and scenes started writing themselves in my head; and they did it mostly at night while I was trying to get to sleep. That meant, of course, that I wasn't sleeping, not very well anyway.
So here's what I've decided. I'm going to do the new story first and try to use it as a base camp, acclimatizing me for the CYOA which will be my climb up Mount Everest. But right now I'll try to give you enough details about Transfixed to settle your cravings, I'll tell you a bit about the new story, and I'll offer a tease about a little side project I might do.
Transfixed first. My previous CYOA was sort of an exploration: you could do a lot of different things, sometimes just for fun; and you could reach a lot of different endings, none of which were technically wins or losses. Depending on your tastes, any of the outcomes might float your boat. But the Transfixed CYOA will work more like a game with a definite objective. If you play as Jason and Rebekah, your objective will to save Captain Sato. It can be done - and you can also save Captain Stone and stop the ticks for good, if you play well enough. Alternately, you can play as Nils (the half-crazed Swede from the refrigerator) and have a more mysterious adventure. You can only learn about Nils by playing as him, and his original objective will change as the plot moves along. His story is a bit more like a typical video game, with more strategizing and more shooting (if you want shooting, that is); and he, too, has a chance to stop the ticks for good.
Now about this new story. My working title is "Brainwashing of the Rich and Famous," but I'm not sure what percentage of my readership would get that reference. Please leave me some comments about that to help me decide, and if my plot description gives you an idea for a different title, let me know. If I use it, I'll give you full credit and a free book. This story is going to have a little bit of a trilby else/Dormignonne vibe, in that vacationers travel to an island paradise where they're gradually sucked into slavery. But in my story, the vacationers are all rich and famous, and they've come for a half hippy, half New Age retreat that promises to make them better people...and to give them lots of sex along the way. But everything they say and do, everything they eat and drink, is really designed to suck them into a cult. I'm trying to use real-world methods for this part of the story (sleep deprivation, for instance), so that will be a change for me. Then there's a second, more intensive retreat where they're completely stripped of their personalities; and since they've already been brainwashed into believing everything the retreat leaders tell them, they go along with the new, stricter agenda and never question what's happening. As for the ending, well, I think you can guess.
Finally, there's another quick project I'm contemplating. I feel sure I'll do this at some point, but I don't know when. It could be this year or next. I've said before that I have a YouTube channel, and recently I uploaded some clips from an old B&W movie called White Zombie. It can be taken as a story about MC just as much as a story about zombification, and the female lead has a wonderful trance face. Well, the movie is in the public domain, and I've been thinking about how I could edit and rearrange some scenes to erase the happy ending and give it the kind of slap-in-the-face MC ending that pervs like us prefer. But don't worry; my new story will have first priority. I might do the White Zombie thing one weekend if I need a break, but it's definitely on the back burner. You can see the original clips on my YouTube channel now, though.
3 comments:
"Brainwashing of the Rich and Famous": let me guess, the soothing, dulcet voice of Robin Leach luring listeners into trance?
As Shaman said, I definitely recognize the reference!
Can Robin Leach do soothing and dulcet?
Perhaps my memory is faulty, but all I can remember is grating and obsequious.
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