Shifting gears to new projects always leaves me a little off-kilter. That’s even more true, it turns out, with original projects than with fanfic.
As of right now, I have oneshots drafted for post-Providence to update every-other-Monday from January of 2020 through to this time next year. So, I’m pushing aside writing in the FiCoN verse and fanfic in general for a bit.
The first draft - which is not even close to the last draft - for my first original novel, “Picture It,” is done and ready for revision/rewrite, which will happen after I have a first draft of another story done so it has time to sit before revision. "Picture It” is light and fluffy and very much a beach read. I have a series mapped out of connected stories for it, but they’re all in the same vein tone-wise and I’m... not feeling the right now.
SO, today I started outlining for my post-apocalyptic zombie-infested world instead. Sometimes you gotta go with what you’re feeling. I needed fluff after the heaviness of Providence and I need the heaviness after the fluff of Picture It.
The “Before/After” verse (as I’m tentatively calling it) is a total 180 from “Picture It” in some ways, but highly familiar in others. Characters are still reminiscent of the original characters in FiCoN-verse, but they’re set against new obstacles with different history and seemingly impossible odds. It’ll have dark and gritty moments that my lighter series will not.
I know people are wary when I say “zombies apocalypse romance,” so I just wanted to assure readers looking forward to my books that the zombies are a backdrop and a thematic metaphor. You’ll get plenty of hope and happily ever afters. None of the main characters are zombies. It’s going to be a series about learning to live and love and thrive alongside trauma and regrets that never truly leave you even as sometimes it seems like the world is falling apart around you. Especially these days, I think there’s a lot of merit in a story like that. It’s an ambitious idea, but if I can do it well, it think it has a tremendous amount of promise.
Here’s hoping I can pull it off!
