Good Friday…Soon to be Easter

A very holy day today as Lent comes to a close and with it the end of my 40 days of writing short-stories. It’s been interesting coming up with various themes and tales each week based on feedback from my peers. Some of you have suggested ideas, others plot-lines, and some have actually provided me with opening sentences. All in all, a fun collective endeavor! Now with Easter soon upon us I’ve given a good amount of thought to a new installment of writing samples I’d like to provide each week going forward.

Short-stories can be fun, but my forte is longer fiction. So I’m toying with the idea of actually posting a longer, full length novel to my blog. Starting Monday I plan to post the first chapter of another story I’m work on, as a sort of “pilot episode” if you will. Just as newspapers used to print novels chapter by chapter as authors wrote them (back in the days of Charles Dickens and Alexandre Dumas) I will post a new chapter or segment every week to my novel-length story. But here’s the twist…I want you to tell me how you want it to go.

Now I typically write Historical Fiction, such as the novel I’m currently promoting towards agents, The Long Defeat. However, I do write other genres as well, from contemporary Literary Fiction to Fantasy to Sci-Fi. One of my current pet-projects revolves around a Sci-Fi novel I’ve started for fun. I already have a writing style down, characters, and a plot-line, so I think I’d like to start with this one going forward. But, even though I may be the author, the direction of the story will depend upon you…my faithful readers. I have a list of four characters, and each week I will write a chapter from their perspective, but what happens to them or what attitudes/emotions you wish to see surface in them will depend upon feedback I receive from you. In other words, I’m putting you in the passenger seat beside me as I sit behind the wheel of this ever evolving story.

Stay tuned as I post my first “pilot episode” this coming Monday! I plan to write these segments in a second-person perspective, meaning you as the reader will actually be in the shoes of the character. Name, personality, etc…these will all develop over time as you, I, and the other followers on this blog contribute to the creative melting pot of the story as it develops each week. Until then, have a great weekend and a very, very Happy Easter!