Thursday, June 2, 2011

New Project: The Shore of Monsters

Since childhood, I have loved post-apocalyptic stories. How things fall apart has always interested me, and nothing is more dramatic than the end of the world. However, it is not the end of all things that I care about. Instead, I love to see what people do after the end of the world. How do they survive? How do they maintain hope? How do they rebuild? I love it!

Because of my love for that genre, I have always desired to write in that area. The explosion of zombie fiction (which is inherently end-of-the-world) kept me away for a while. However, the itch has become too great. In April I started a new novel that takes place 100 years after the fall of civilization. The world has been overrun by soulless monsters, and the only safety is found on islands off the coast. A community of women thrives there, hoping to outlast the creatures. The story focuses on one of the residents, 16 year old Sky Calloway. She has a lot of questions. What are the monsters? Why does nobody talk about them? Why are all of the boys born to the community ruined by plague? And what would do they look like grown up?

The story follows Sky as she joins a shore expedition to look for precious resources in a fallen city. Of course, everything goes wrong, and soon she is running for her life. Eventually she joins forces with a particular monster who is different from the rest - not evil or violent. In fact, it is more like a human than a monster. An odd attraction develops between the two, which leads them into greater peril from the monsters and the community of women alike.

I expect to finish the draft in late June, and publish by August.

Available on Kindle: Down the Dead Road

My new novel, Down the Dead Road, is now available on Kindle. This was formerly published under the title "A Gathering of Night". A new title, a new cover, and here we go.