Past/Current/Next Tag
Hey, thanks for the tag, @pb-dot!
Rules: Write about three WIPs, past is a WIP you stopped working on/finished; current is a WIP you're currently working on; next is a WIP you want to write.
Tagging (no pressure): @awleeofficial, @writeouswriter, and @chiefwritesbook
Past: None of my WIPs that I intend to publish are technically complete due to procrastination (editing my beloathed) so I'll dredge up an old WIP that has been shelved permanently, The Void Drums. This one is sort of Jackaby meets Pirates of the Caribbean with dark, gothic horror vibes. Calixto, a young man from another dimension, is tasked by the villainous Lord Governor with retrieving the Fractal Glaive, an artifact of great value and power. In exchange, he will not be sentenced to a fate worse than death for his crimes. He has no choice but to accept, though of course, he plans on finding the weapon and running off with it the first chance he gets. Meanwhile, in our world in the late 19th century, Emily, the daughter of a forensics expert recently fallen ill, investigates gruesome murders that leave very little of the body behind. Their paths cross and it becomes evident that the murders are caused by creatures from Calixto's home and that they have something to do with the Glaive. There's body horror, there's layers of betrayal, and since this story will never see the light of day, I don't see why I shouldn't reveal that this whole plot is a trap, the key to finding the Glaive involves realizing that Calixto's memories were erased and he was the one who hid it in the first place, and everything ends horribly with the villain winning, yay.
Anywho, here's a snippet (cw: body horror):
He shut the door and Emily bristled. She knocked again but there was no answer. “Detective Harkins, please!” She huffed, pounded harder but it made no difference. He was being ridiculously stubborn and she couldn’t believe this was happening. “Damn it,” she muttered under her breath. Calixto sighed. “What does it look like?” Emily glared at him. He could have helped instead of standing there looking like a vagabond. “What?” Calixto pushed himself off the wall. “The journal. What does it look like?” “Like a journal,” Emily said bluntly. And then she sighed. It was Harkins she was mad at, not Calixto. He was just easier to get at at the moment. “It’s black leather, a bit worn and it’s got a red ribbon tucked into the pages.” “I’ll get it for you.” Emily narrowed her eyes. “And how are you going to do that?” As satisfying as it would be to break down the door, she’d probably get arrested. Calixto smirked. “You’ll want to look away.” “Why?” Calixto didn’t wait for her to turn her back. At first she couldn’t tell what was wrong with him, only that something was. He seemed to go just slightly out of focus and trying to watch him gave her a headache which pulsed softly at her temples. She was staring straight into his eyes when it happened. They seemed almost to unfold into a blossom of fractals, eyes within eyes within eyes, an infinite regression that made her lose her balance. But it wasn’t just his eyes. It was every part of him. She caught glimpses of muscle superimposed over skin and bone on top of that but under it at the same time. Nausea swept through her and she doubled over, afraid she was going to be sick right there on the floor. “I told you not to look,” the voice came from so many miles away but she stayed hunched over, her head hurting, her pulse pounding, putting all her concentration into breathing slowly and steadily, praying for the feeling to pass. A journal fell to the floor at her feet, the piece of ribbon sticking out of it. She refused to look up. “You can get up now. You’ll be fine.” Emily was already starting to get her nausea under control and she carefully looked up, afraid she would once again see all those impossible angles and planes and they’d make her sick for real this time. But when she looked up, it was just Calixto standing there, as human-looking as anyone else, staring down at her with sharp, albeit normal, eyes. She winced and stooped to pick up the journal. “What are you?” she managed to get out. “Oh, I'm as human as you," Calixto replied. "Just from...elsewhere." What a lie. “And the journal?” A quick check inside assured her it was the right one. But Harkins would have kept it in his desk. “Nothing in your dimension is hidden from me,” Calixto said. “I simply took a detour through 5-Space and plucked the journal out from inside the desk. Harkins was there but he could not see me. He won’t realize it’s missing until he checks for it.”
Current: I'm working on so many WIPs at once, but my absolute favorite is Project Paladin, a 12 book YA science fantasy series. Chelsea Seaver watched her parents being abducted by aliens and she's determined to get them back. Her investigation quickly leads her through a portal to an alien world where she falls in with a group of characters at odds with the Syndicate responsible for her parents' abduction for reasons unknown. She becomes a student of the last remaining Paladin, Shay Finnegan, and the series follows her adventures through space (and occasionally time). She collects many friends along the way as well as some powerful enemies.
Here's a snippet from Book 2:
“They’re kinda like puppies,” Alexos relented, laughing. “The poor little guys. We should name them.” “Name them?” Alexos put the paper bag of wrapped fish meat on the counter. “Do we cook this stuff or what?” “No, they eat it raw,” Kovna said. “Yeah.” Chelsea put their newly acquired plates down next to the fish. “Drat. Forgot to get a knife. That way we’ll have something to call them. Since we’re babysitting them and all. There’s three of them and three of us so we each get to name one.” “Mine’s Hieronymus Bosch,” Alexos said promptly. Chelsea raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you even know who that is?” “Yeah. A guy with a ridiculous name. Your turn.” “Well which one’s Hieronymus?” Alexos thought for a moment and then pointed to the dragon that was currently trying to chew on its sibling’s tail. “That guy.” “That one’s the female,” Kovna corrected. “How do you know?” Chelsea snickered. “How do you think?” “Well. Hieronymus is a gender-neutral name.” “Whatever.” Chelsea picked up the dragon that was having its tail chewed on. He was still warm from the oven. He kicked his feet a couple of times until she had her arms under him and then he stared at her with his snake-like face framed by bristling feathers. His eyes were dark and round and she could see her reflection in them. He would need a good name. Something majestic. “This one’s Falkor,” she announced. “Falkor who?” Chelsea cradled the dragon against her chest. “From The Neverending Story. Plus they’ve both got feathers.” “Okay, nerd. 612, what are you naming yours?” Kovna looked at the last remaining baby, who was sniffing around the water bowls. “You can name him.” “Come on,” Chelsea said. “If it weren’t for you, they’d be sick. It’s fair.” “I wasn’t programmed to have an imagination.” Chelsea placed Falkor back on the floor and scooped up the third dragon, bringing him over to Kovna. “Come on, look at him. He’s so cute but so sad. Look at his eyes. What do his eyes tell you?” She held the dragon so it was staring in Kovna’s direction. “Um.” Kovna looked as if he’d just been called on in class and didn’t have an answer to the teacher’s question. He stared at the dragon in bafflement and then said, “Ben?” Chelsea grinned. “Ben it is.” “Hieronymus, Falkor, and Ben. What a trio,” Alexos said.
Future: This one is so hard to choose because I have a million ideas and I want to write them all and it doesn't help that the line between WIP I'm sorta kinda working on in the background and Future Project is very wibbly.
One I'm really excited about is a 4-part horror fantasy series that's sort of urban fantasy inspired by the Left Right Game. The premise is that every so often, the Road to Avalon opens and all those who brave it and reach its end will have a wish granted. But the Road is fraught with danger and haunted by 4 eldritch gatekeepers. No one has ever returned. Our main players are Leslie, a vampire who once braved the Road in a failed attempt to rid himself of his vampirism and is the only person to have ever returned; Ticua, a sprite from the West Rattlesnake Clan who tries to convince Leslie to be the caravan's guide now that the Road is about to open again; Bug, a fox wilding (that's like a reverse shapeshifter; she was born a fox but has the ability to transform into a human due to being born on a leyline), who unknowingly absorbed the map Leslie buried because he stupidly buried it on said leyline and it got washed "downstream"; and Dauntless, a Luminary (that's a sentient hologram projected by a swarm of drones) hired to kill Leslie, but decides that braving the Road is much more interesting.
