Scintilla Day 9: A List of Twenty-Three
Mar. 26th, 2012 08:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jon_chaissonTwenty-Three Burners
1. True Faith
In a future where religion and spirituality is not just frowned upon but outlawed, a renegade group of programmers, outcasts, and sleeper agents awaken a long-dormant otherworldly power that could upset the course of civilization.
Status: trunked. This was abandoned for various reasons.
2. The Phoenix Effect
An urban fantasy retake/expansion of TF. A number of anti-alienist attacks alerts a special unit of the Bridgetown police, who are trying to stop the attacks before they get worse. They soon find that these aren't terrorist attacks, but a spiritual war unfolding and threatening the city.
Status: finished 1999. Rewritten as the Bridgetown Trilogy.
3-5. A Division of Souls, The Persistence of Memories, The Process of Belief
A rewrite/expansion of TPE, with a very similar plotline. The focus this time is on the delicate balance between two spiritual factions, its otherworldly origins, and its effects on the human race.
Status: finished 2010. Currently in revision.
6. PSI-PD
A collection of shorter stories about a psychic detective agency, set in Boston.
Status: trunked. I just never had the time to expand on this one, though it might be interesting to revisit sometime in the future.
7. Love Like Blood
A rock journalist from Boston is in love with the dark and mysterious woman of his dreams...thing is, she's a psychic vampire in the midst of a turf war.
Status: finished 2006. Currently in revision.
8. Keepers of the Wards
The next book in the Eden Cycle, this one takes place at least a few centuries after The Process of Belief. After the One of All Sacred had left Gharra and only her spirit remains, those not considered 'awakened' are in the minority. A young unawakened woman named Andra thinks of herself as strong despite her status, until she is called upon to save the world from another spiritual schism.
Status: not yet written. Doing some plotting and pre-writing on this.
9. Angela Death
A YA novel, this is about a young girl whose parents are grim reapers. She moves to a small town full of people with abilities as strange as hers. Her life becomes more exciting and dangerous when a demon comes to town, seeking revenge on her parents, and she's the only one who can stop it.
Status: not yet written. Doing some plotting and pre-writing.
10. Walk in Silence
My first nonfiction book, in which I write about my obsession with college radio in the 1980s. It's partly a memoir and partly a history on the genre before it became widespread in the 90s.
Status: research, interviews. This one will take awhile.
11. The Children of Dun Corran
A young man is a Watcher for his small valley village, protecting it from any outside dangers. He grows concerned, however, by the increasing dangers within the valley, especially those caused by the village elders. He makes a plan to protect the village's children before it's too late.
Status: not yet written. A bit of plotting and writing done, not much else.
12. A Tribe of Listeners
A possible companion to WiS, this nonfic book would focus on those who are obsessed with music, and why.
Status: not yet written. This idea's so new, it's not a week old.
13. "Payin' the Rent"
My one short story I've ever written, steeped in virtual reality and screwball comedy, influenced by all those VR movies that came out in the early 90s.
Status: trunked. And probably for a good reason. It's not that good.
14. Can't Find My Way Home
A novel set in 24 chapters about time travel. A trio of 'chronometrists' (programmers working on a major space-time travel project) inadvertently create their own special time loop in which they can move back and forth as well as converse. A shady agency wants to get a hold of their technology and it's up to this trio to remain one timestep ahead before it's too late. Inspired by various episodic anime like Trigun and Cowboy Bebop.
Status: side-burner. Put aside so I can work on other projects, but I have a complete outline for this one.
15. Caught in the Game, aka "The Infamous War Novel"
My first completed attempt at writing a novel, written 1984-1987. A bunch of teenagers are pulled into a world war in which its front lines are in their back yards. Written about the same time Red Dawn came out, so you can imagine the rest. Attempted revisions/rewrites until 1992 when I gave up and let it rest.
Status: trunked. And rightfully so.
16. Memory Protect, aka Dream Weaver
A college deejay peppers his nightly radio show with bizarre stories culled from his strange dreams, which brings him local fame on his campus until he finds that his dreams are starting to come true. Even worse is that his dreams are becoming increasingly violent.
Status: trunked. Interesting idea, but I just couldn't get far with it.
17. One Step Closer to You
Written right after I finished CitG as something light and fun. This was my first attempt at a screenplay. Your typical boy-loves-girl, girl-thinks-boy-is-a-doofus, girl-eventually-comes-around story heavily inspired by John Hughes.
Status: finished, trunked. I revived it in 1995 for a screenplay contest, but haven't touched it since.
18. Two Thousand
A coming of age story set in the early 90s in Boston. Two friends contemplate their futures and dreams--one is a realist who isn't afraid of stepping on toes to get where he wants to go, the other is more introspective and compassionate. Their friendship is tested over the course of a year as their beliefs and plans are tested.
Status: backburner. I've played with this one off and on for quite a number of years. It was first started in 1994.
19.Murph
Simon "Murph" Murphy is my comic strip alter ego I created in college to draw in the margins of my notebooks and elsewhere when I wanted to write some sort of non sequitur or something exceedingly silly. I've done some extensive planning of the Murphiverse, from his background (through his ancestry he could become King of America if he so chose), his friends and relationships, to his favorite place to think about things (Webster Park, just down the street from Wilde College).
Status: in stasis. I really wish I could pick this up again, but I just don't have the time right now.
20. poetry and lyrics
I've been writing poetry "officially" since 1988, but I still have some that I wrote when I was in 5th grade. Most of the early stuff is pretty simplistic and whiny or a Cure ripoff, but I think I wrote some good stuff after awhile. I also wrote some of the lyrics for my first band, The Flying Bohemians, and most of the lyrics for my second band, jeb!. Some of my favorite writing came from these two bands.
Status: continuing.
21. Oy Vey! and the Vanishing Misfits books
Oy Vey! was a stream-of-conscious exercise written during computer programming class in high school, heavily influenced by John Lennon's bizarre wordplay. It made absolutely no sense, but it was fun to write. The "books" (such as they were) were a bizarre take on the Exquisite Corpse game between myself and my friends, in which one of us would write the start of a scene and hand it to someone else to continue. The main aim wasn't to create a story but to cause the next person to laugh during class or study hall, so the plots (such as they weren't) grew increasingly silly. and usually ended with either explosions or someone saying "okay, we've done enough damage, let's end this now before it gets any worse." I still own nearly all the original books, except for one that seems to have been lost to antiquity (read: was either stolen by someone or thrown away by the janitor).
Status: ended.
22. Articles for Forward Motion
The only writing I ever got paid for (so far, not including the one ZYZZYVA issue). I wrote a handful of articles about the writing life for their blog Vision in the early 2000s. FM is a great beginner/intermediate site for a writer. They're still a fun bunch to hang with and I still see a bunch of them on the internets.
Status: ended.
23. Then...
A small group of people suddenly find themselves out of their element, and out of their timeline. They know they've been put there for some cosmic reason, but they're yet to figure it out. They're told they can return to their own time whenever they like, but will lose all memory of their own time if they do not finish their quest here.
Status: trunked. I like the idea, but I just couldn't feel it, so I put it aside.
1. True Faith
In a future where religion and spirituality is not just frowned upon but outlawed, a renegade group of programmers, outcasts, and sleeper agents awaken a long-dormant otherworldly power that could upset the course of civilization.
Status: trunked. This was abandoned for various reasons.
2. The Phoenix Effect
An urban fantasy retake/expansion of TF. A number of anti-alienist attacks alerts a special unit of the Bridgetown police, who are trying to stop the attacks before they get worse. They soon find that these aren't terrorist attacks, but a spiritual war unfolding and threatening the city.
Status: finished 1999. Rewritten as the Bridgetown Trilogy.
3-5. A Division of Souls, The Persistence of Memories, The Process of Belief
A rewrite/expansion of TPE, with a very similar plotline. The focus this time is on the delicate balance between two spiritual factions, its otherworldly origins, and its effects on the human race.
Status: finished 2010. Currently in revision.
6. PSI-PD
A collection of shorter stories about a psychic detective agency, set in Boston.
Status: trunked. I just never had the time to expand on this one, though it might be interesting to revisit sometime in the future.
7. Love Like Blood
A rock journalist from Boston is in love with the dark and mysterious woman of his dreams...thing is, she's a psychic vampire in the midst of a turf war.
Status: finished 2006. Currently in revision.
8. Keepers of the Wards
The next book in the Eden Cycle, this one takes place at least a few centuries after The Process of Belief. After the One of All Sacred had left Gharra and only her spirit remains, those not considered 'awakened' are in the minority. A young unawakened woman named Andra thinks of herself as strong despite her status, until she is called upon to save the world from another spiritual schism.
Status: not yet written. Doing some plotting and pre-writing on this.
9. Angela Death
A YA novel, this is about a young girl whose parents are grim reapers. She moves to a small town full of people with abilities as strange as hers. Her life becomes more exciting and dangerous when a demon comes to town, seeking revenge on her parents, and she's the only one who can stop it.
Status: not yet written. Doing some plotting and pre-writing.
10. Walk in Silence
My first nonfiction book, in which I write about my obsession with college radio in the 1980s. It's partly a memoir and partly a history on the genre before it became widespread in the 90s.
Status: research, interviews. This one will take awhile.
11. The Children of Dun Corran
A young man is a Watcher for his small valley village, protecting it from any outside dangers. He grows concerned, however, by the increasing dangers within the valley, especially those caused by the village elders. He makes a plan to protect the village's children before it's too late.
Status: not yet written. A bit of plotting and writing done, not much else.
12. A Tribe of Listeners
A possible companion to WiS, this nonfic book would focus on those who are obsessed with music, and why.
Status: not yet written. This idea's so new, it's not a week old.
13. "Payin' the Rent"
My one short story I've ever written, steeped in virtual reality and screwball comedy, influenced by all those VR movies that came out in the early 90s.
Status: trunked. And probably for a good reason. It's not that good.
14. Can't Find My Way Home
A novel set in 24 chapters about time travel. A trio of 'chronometrists' (programmers working on a major space-time travel project) inadvertently create their own special time loop in which they can move back and forth as well as converse. A shady agency wants to get a hold of their technology and it's up to this trio to remain one timestep ahead before it's too late. Inspired by various episodic anime like Trigun and Cowboy Bebop.
Status: side-burner. Put aside so I can work on other projects, but I have a complete outline for this one.
15. Caught in the Game, aka "The Infamous War Novel"
My first completed attempt at writing a novel, written 1984-1987. A bunch of teenagers are pulled into a world war in which its front lines are in their back yards. Written about the same time Red Dawn came out, so you can imagine the rest. Attempted revisions/rewrites until 1992 when I gave up and let it rest.
Status: trunked. And rightfully so.
16. Memory Protect, aka Dream Weaver
A college deejay peppers his nightly radio show with bizarre stories culled from his strange dreams, which brings him local fame on his campus until he finds that his dreams are starting to come true. Even worse is that his dreams are becoming increasingly violent.
Status: trunked. Interesting idea, but I just couldn't get far with it.
17. One Step Closer to You
Written right after I finished CitG as something light and fun. This was my first attempt at a screenplay. Your typical boy-loves-girl, girl-thinks-boy-is-a-doofus, girl-eventually-comes-around story heavily inspired by John Hughes.
Status: finished, trunked. I revived it in 1995 for a screenplay contest, but haven't touched it since.
18. Two Thousand
A coming of age story set in the early 90s in Boston. Two friends contemplate their futures and dreams--one is a realist who isn't afraid of stepping on toes to get where he wants to go, the other is more introspective and compassionate. Their friendship is tested over the course of a year as their beliefs and plans are tested.
Status: backburner. I've played with this one off and on for quite a number of years. It was first started in 1994.
19.Murph
Simon "Murph" Murphy is my comic strip alter ego I created in college to draw in the margins of my notebooks and elsewhere when I wanted to write some sort of non sequitur or something exceedingly silly. I've done some extensive planning of the Murphiverse, from his background (through his ancestry he could become King of America if he so chose), his friends and relationships, to his favorite place to think about things (Webster Park, just down the street from Wilde College).
Status: in stasis. I really wish I could pick this up again, but I just don't have the time right now.
20. poetry and lyrics
I've been writing poetry "officially" since 1988, but I still have some that I wrote when I was in 5th grade. Most of the early stuff is pretty simplistic and whiny or a Cure ripoff, but I think I wrote some good stuff after awhile. I also wrote some of the lyrics for my first band, The Flying Bohemians, and most of the lyrics for my second band, jeb!. Some of my favorite writing came from these two bands.
Status: continuing.
21. Oy Vey! and the Vanishing Misfits books
Oy Vey! was a stream-of-conscious exercise written during computer programming class in high school, heavily influenced by John Lennon's bizarre wordplay. It made absolutely no sense, but it was fun to write. The "books" (such as they were) were a bizarre take on the Exquisite Corpse game between myself and my friends, in which one of us would write the start of a scene and hand it to someone else to continue. The main aim wasn't to create a story but to cause the next person to laugh during class or study hall, so the plots (such as they weren't) grew increasingly silly. and usually ended with either explosions or someone saying "okay, we've done enough damage, let's end this now before it gets any worse." I still own nearly all the original books, except for one that seems to have been lost to antiquity (read: was either stolen by someone or thrown away by the janitor).
Status: ended.
22. Articles for Forward Motion
The only writing I ever got paid for (so far, not including the one ZYZZYVA issue). I wrote a handful of articles about the writing life for their blog Vision in the early 2000s. FM is a great beginner/intermediate site for a writer. They're still a fun bunch to hang with and I still see a bunch of them on the internets.
Status: ended.
23. Then...
A small group of people suddenly find themselves out of their element, and out of their timeline. They know they've been put there for some cosmic reason, but they're yet to figure it out. They're told they can return to their own time whenever they like, but will lose all memory of their own time if they do not finish their quest here.
Status: trunked. I like the idea, but I just couldn't feel it, so I put it aside.
