Welcome to the new home of the random ramblings of Andy Click, a part-time author with aspirations of publication. If you're curious about where this all began, follow the "Old Blog Archives" link to the old LiveJournal blog where it all started.
I've been writing for almost exactly ten years now, with four completed works and a fifth in its final four months of gestation. I'm proud to say I have met the NaNoWriMo challenge (November 2008, "Shinigami Blues"), and plan to do so again (hopefully this year, despite my earlier intentions to the contrary).
The current work is called "The Order," a prequel to Gunner 7, a book I can best describe as a sci-fi western, which is always fun to say. Other genre buzzwords like "post-apocalyptic," "dystopia," and "steampunk" vaguely apply. The ten-second synopsis is that a virus has killed off a large percentage of our vast populace, and cut off the remaining few into pockets of clean air and water, one of which happens to be the middle of a god-awful desert where our hero, the last devoted bastion of a coalition formed to end the violence of the few remaining gunslingers, works to collect and melt down the only remnant firearms still floating free in their tiny bubble of life.
Despite the seeming intentions of the earlier portion of the work, Gunner 7 was never meant to speak against gun ownership, or to depict all gun owners as violent. In fact, the contrast of the main character as less anti-hero and more obsessed jerkface was intended to prove that violence is violence regardless of the weapon. Gunner 7 is due for one final rewrite in the middle of next year, but we'll get to that in a moment.
The Order was intended to talk about the days before, the coalition the main character (Geno) belonged to, and the days when they still believed they were doing the right thing. It helps to humanize the main character, further explain the world inside the "bubble" of the New Southwest, and explain the events which led to the world as it is now.
I recently realized that writing an entire 250-page novel in medias res was actually a terrible idea that would lead to much confusion and loss of emotional impact, which is to say, I've given myself about 150 pages more to write within the span of the remainder of this year. But hey, that's what November is for.
Once it's done, I'll have the first two pieces in the eventual trilogy I'm thinking of naming "The Empty West," with a third title pending within the next five years that will describe the coming of the end for the virus plaguing mankind and the re-opening of the world into a large and scary place again.
With The Order to be out in print this coming January, I hope to then wrap up Gunner 7 by midsummer with all the new changes, in time to start a new fantasy epic called "Dawnwatcher" in November of 2011. Given the size, I don't expect to finish it before 2014, but I'm hoping it will be well worth it. Of everything I've written and currently have planned to write, Dawnwatcher is the one I'm most proud of already (with Shinigami Blues being a very close second).
Anyhoo, that's the plan for now. I'll be posting updates as I get The Order closer and closer to complete, with previews of new scenes and the like as they come.
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