Ideas for Independent Releases

Over the past couple of years, I’ve come up with numerous ideas for writing projects that I’d like to complete.  Progress has generally been slow, but some of these projects are starting to take shape and I think at least one or two of them will be completed by the end of 2016. Here’s what I’ve been thinking of.

1. Micro Weird 2: Another collection of short, weird, flash fiction. I’ve got three or four stories ready for this but, as you can imagine, the total word count is still pretty small.

2. Dream stories: I’ve been toying with the idea of putting together a short collection of horror stories that are basically straightforward retellings of some of my dreams. I’ve only got a couple such stories completed but I have another four or five outlined. I’m going to work on one of these tales next, as soon as I finish an anthology project. The new tale will be entitled “Thump, Thump, Thump.”

3. A literary collection. Contrary to popular conceptions, I don’t write all blood and gore. I have several literary stories that have been published that I’m thinking about putting into a small collection. The working title right now is “Down Home and Other Stories.”

4. A “lessons” from Classic Trek. Honestly, this is a longgggg way from being completed. I’ve outlined some ideas and rough drafted a paragraph or two but this will be a low priority project for me.

5. The Scarred One: This is a western novella, about halfway completed.

6. Title Tales: I’ve been toying with the idea for a collection of horror stories in which all the tales would be inspired by the titles of rock and metal music, such as “Fairies Wear Boots,” “Hell’s Bells,” “Immigrant Song,” and many others. I have several pieces of this completed in rough draft form. However, I need to find out if I have to get permissions to use these titles. If so, I probably won’t use them.

7. A series of three longish western stories featuring “The Man from Colt Creek.” Two of these are about halfway done. The third is just a basic outline.

So, no one can accuse me of not having enough writing plans. Now I’ve got to get the words down. 

Plans Begin to Form

Slowly these days, writing plans are returning to me. I hope I'll be able to bring some of them to fruition before school starts again. I came up with a character I find interesting named Layne Gabriel and I've decided to try a series of stories about him. These will be westerns and the stories are likely to run in the 5,000 word range, although I'm not absolutely sure. I'll publish them at .99 cents on Kindle and see if there is any good response.  If so, I'll try my hand at a few more and then perhaps put all of them together as a collection.

The first story will be called "To Live by the Gun," and is about a third done. The 2nd story is called "Die by the Gun" and is maybe a quarter done. The third story is merely a gleam in my eye but is probably going to be called "Gunfighter Messiah."  I want to have all three done before I publish the first, because at the end of "book" 1, I plan to run the first couple paragraphs of "book" 2 as a teaser, and the same with 3.  Then I'll offer the first one via Kindle select, and offer it for five days free through their program. That way, if someone downloads the first free and likes it, the other two will already be available for them to get.

Each title will carry a subtitle and number.  Since Layne Gabriel is from a place called Colt Creek, I'm probably going to call the series "Colt Creek Westerns," or perhaps "Layne Gabriel Westerns."  Any collection later would likely be called "The Man from Colt Creek."

I haven't decided absolutely on the pseudonym idea yet but I may do it because I think it would be kind of fun and a good experiment to try.  If it doesn't work, I could always reissue the books under my own name, although I won't make any secret of the author's identity and the copyright will be indicated as mine.  If I use a pseudonym, it is likely to be Tyler Boone.

Anyway, this should occupy me for a couple of months. If I could write a little faster I might be dangerous.  Well, probably not.  I've got a couple of other stories I have to work on for other publications as well.

It feels kind of good to have plans, though.
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One Project Down, Many to Go

Well, the Morrell article is done. I'll email it in today or tomorrow. It's due on the 27th. But today I set up folders (both physical and on my computer desktop) for four of the six summer projects that I have planned. I know I won't get all six of these finished in a single summer, but if I get organized, and keep decent notes as I work on them, it will make the long-term goal of finishing them all easier. I'd thought I was going to have a fairly leisurely summer, but some good stuff has dropped into my lap so it won't be leisure but it should be fun. With the deadlines I have, at least I will be able to stagger the work, writing on one project while reading for another. And since I won't be teaching I'll be able to split my day up, using mornings for one project and afternoons for another. At least that is the plan now, although I often find once I get into a project that it begins to consume me and I work mornings and afternoons on the same thing. I forgive myself for that. I do like to be organized, but there's no sense being strict about it. ;)