From Zombies to Steam Punk (Upcoming Books & Projects)

Needless to say my docket is full. Currently, I am focusing most of my attention on the Bitten revision and Bitten 3. The revision is a full rewrite of the first novel which will be out in April (2013).

The reason I have chosen to do a full rewrite was simply because I was never really satisfied with the end product. Now I have the ability to pull a "George Lucas" and go back and fix the things I didn't like the first time around. It's the same book, and the same story, but just much better edited, and I have thrown in new content. The Kindle only short story I released last year, Bitten: After Dark, is now officially included in the revision. So those who wanted it to be put back into the story will be happy to discover it comfortable added back into the book.

Between the Bitten revision and Bitten 3 I intend to edit two more non-fiction anthologies. One is a project I have been working on for two years, collecting stories of religious apostates, and sharing their personal de-conversion stories. The book will be titled Beyond an Absence of Faith, and it chronicles the journey's of twelve people who lost their faith. In addition to this, I will be putting together an anthology on blasphemy. It is a combination of two works, G.W. Foote's prison memoir Prisoner for Blasphemy and Robert G. Ingersoll's legal defense of the Trial of C.B. Reynolds for Blasphemy. In addition to these two works on blasphemy and freedom of speech, I will write an extended introduction to the collection detailing a brief overview regarding the history of blasphemy along with a short introduction to each book.

After these works are complete I am going to write a stand alone steam punk novel in which I do what I love to do most and mash genres together. Also, I am going to make my protagonist the descendant of Doctor Frankenstein, or Frankenstein the III,  and set him in a steam punk universe. But with a few twists. Unlike his father and grandfather before him, this young man of twenty-seven chooses a different profession, he chooses to be a private detective. Yes, it will be a Holmesian styled Frankenstein story set in a steam punk world. But, again, with a few twists. There will be a beautiful girl. There will be some time travel. And all the gimmicky things which will be sure to ruin a novel--if not handled with the utmost of care.

Why write a steam punk novel? Well, frankly, because I don't know anything about the genre. So I thought ... what better to challenge myself than write in a genre I don't know anything about? So I am currently reading some steam punk novels as my research to prepare for my story.

But like I did with Bitten, my research will be limited to just a few novels. When I researched the zombie genre, I only read four zombie novels and watched half a dozen films. Just enough to get the vernacular down, but not enough to allow other writer's voices to influence me too much. I don't want to be a copycat writer, but I do want to be authentic. So I'm doing the same for the whole steam punk genre. I am only reading three steam punk novels, and watching a few B movies, but I think it should suffice to adequately get all the terminology and tone down. I think the thing about the steam punk genre is that the stories tend to lean toward fantasy, more like Star Wars, The Iron Giant, Stardust, and Howel's Moving Castle than they do hard sci-fi, even as they are a sub-genre of science fiction. In fact, I would go as far to say that steam punk has more in common with The Wizard of Oz and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland than they do most science-fiction. But I digress.

After this short romp through the cog and gear infested world of steam punk novels, I will begin work on a sprawling space opera I have had in the back of my mind for about two years now. I've plotted the first arc and have written detailed descriptions of the characters, planets, and tech. It's my most thought out series, and it promises to be something original, but I wanted to hone my skills before I tackled such a big project.

So that's what I have in store for readers over the next couple of years, if all goes according to plan. But I have learned, over the years, that things rarely ever go according to plan. So I try to remain flexible.    

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