Today’s the day, July 15th. The day when the world ends. Of course, we all know that it doesn’t really, so I want to take a moment to talk abut the future. Right now I am mapping out where I want to go from here, and I’m hoping that I can get some feedback from contributors and potential contributors.
Here’s what I am looking at in terms of projects:
- The Fauxpocalypse Project: Current word count is 44,000, and I am expecting more from three of my contributors who have unfinished stories. I still have a ways to go to reach my ideal length (60-80,000) so there is still room for more stories. I am working on an overall design aesthetic, how to lay out the headings and table of contents. I want to make sure that I have a solid design, both internal and external, because I intend to give these books a similar look. Currently batting around ideas for a cover, and I would definitely appreciate any and all suggestions for that.
- As The Miller Told His Tale: I want to start hashing out submission guidelines for this soon. I am wedded to the idea of the collection being stories from male authors exclusively, and I like the idea of romantic stories with fantasy elements. I don’t know that I need to get any more restrictive than that–I’m open to Urban Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, even stories more on the Sci-Fi side of paranormal.
- At Night All Cats Are Red: Horror stories with cats. Okay, so that’s pretty open ended, right? Again, I don’t think I want to restrict things more than that–so long as one or more cats play a significant part in the story, I don’t want to tell people how to use the cats, monsters, victims, witnesses, props. I think horror works best when the audience doesn’t know what to expect.
- The City And The Sea: This one’s a little more out of left field, and I’m going to have to put a fair amount of work into world building before I’m ready to open it up. It would be a shared world alternate history horror/dark fantasy collection. My idea is that in 1956 an undersea earthquake brought Lovecraft’s island of R’lyeh to the surface and awoke Cthulhu, who then regained dominance over the Earth. The stories would be set in this world in 1968, in an alternate Los Angeles where humans live along side Deep Ones and other eldritch horrors. Think Wild In The Streets meets From Beyond.
- Invasion Of The Killer Cheerleaders: You know how some people think clowns are creepy? I’ve always felt the same way about cheerleaders–no offense to any former or current cheerleaders out there. It’s the same sort of thing as clowns, though, the anonymous uniforms, the sort of forced joyfulness, the pack behavior. I’m think a comedy/horror/sci-fi pastiche of 1970’s Drive-In movies. Again, this one is in the concept stage, it’s going to take some work.
Anyway, those are my ideas at the moment. As I say, I’ve got a million of them. I would love to get some comments from potential writers and readers–what would you like to see? What kinds of worlds make you want to write about them or read about them?
Where do we go from here?
The Fauxpocalypse Project 
Ha! I want to write wacky scifi/satire via killer cheerleaders! That would be epic! 😉
That’s good to hear. I think that would be a fun one as well.
George W Bush was a cheerleader. That is all the evidence I need they are scary.
I would like to read all these projects; of them all the Cheerleaders are the least immediately interesting, but that just means discovering the nuances would be more rewarding.
I am not sure if I am able to submit to all of them. I have ideas for Miller and another Fauxpocalypse; once I have those shaped/abandoned I will know better how much else I can attempt.
Instinctively I feel Cats would have the broadest appeal, both to readers and writers, so might be the one to focus on if you have to choose.
I agree that Cats is likely to garner the most submissions, I am planning on doing that one and Miller simultaneously, and I suspect Cats will be out first.