In my short near-career as a writer, I have completed two novels and I’m working on a third.  Not bad considering most people that say “I want to write a novel” never even bother to buy the pen and paper.

However, like any writer, I’ve got a bunch more ideas percolating in that gray mass called a brain.  Some of these have seen the light of day, others have recoiled from it and are quite comfortable staying out of the limelight.  A couple are just waiting around for the right time to step back out.

Since I’ve been a bit short on blog entries as of late, I thought I might share a few of them and wither or not I’ll return to them or not.

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Carrionhove: The current project with a tentative title.  This one is based off an old Dungeons & Dragons campaign I ran with some friends back in 2008.  And by based off of, I mean I kept the villain and the world and scrapped everything else to come up with an entirely new plot.  Fantasy with some twists. A stand alone with possibility of a trilogy.

Status: Looking to finish late this year.

Asymonte: Night of Whispers: Not so much as abandoned as waiting for the right home, Asymonte earned me a handwritten rejection from Wizards of the Coast during their open call back in 2005/2006.  It was an epic fantasy, sprawling over multiple books (I had plans for 5 or 6) and the first novel I attempted and first completed.

Status: Will be revisited and released into the world yet again.

Confidential Vows: I’m pretty disappointed about this one.

Seven or eight years ago, I read an article that said ‘Married couples keep at least one major secret from their partner – not like buying something and lying about the price but something major and serious’.  I mentioned this to Steph and she said, “You got me.  I’m a spy.”

Boom, plot idea.  I didn’t approach it very seriously – at the time I was working on Asymonte – but I put together a rough outline and wrote four chapters.  Six months later, Mr. & Mrs. Smith with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie was released.  I had to shelve the book.

Status: Unlikely to be revisited.

Far Reach: Futuristic sci-fi novel set after Earth has lost a major war with an alien race and is once again looking to reclaim the stars.  I started this right after finishing Genie Memories and had written 7 or 8 chapters when I realized that it was growing out of my control so I trunked it.

Status: Will be revisited at some point in the future.

Limbo: A man is stuck between life and death.  I wrote two chapters of this, then sat back and went “Uh … okay, now what?”  Sometimes a great idea doesn’t just pan out and I think this was it.

Status:  Unlikely to be revisited.

Patron: A sci-fi novel based off my NaNoWriMo novel for 2006.  It revolves around a down on his luck guy who is also a prodigy when it comes to a futuristic style of motorcycle racing.  I had some good scenes in there but it felt too cliched.

Status: Maybe but unlikely to be revisited.

Favors: In an effort to save his brother’s life, a man pledges his soul to whomever is listening.  Too bad it was the most foul of demons.  Now after decades of being the demon’s champion, he’s found a way out.

I liked the premise of this one.  It had a lot of potential with a man being forced to do things he didn’t want to, lots of tension and stakes.  Unfortunately I just couldn’t bring it all together into a full novel.

Status: Very likely will revisit.

Oath Bound / Shattered Skies: These two were very closely related.  They were both epic fantasy and shared a some of the same concepts, even a couple of the same characters.  One was told from the perspective of one character, the other from another.  It soon became apparent though that it was becoming too cliched.  I did snag some of these ideas and am using them in Carrionhove though.

Status: Unlikely to be revisited.

Clean Slate: Sci-fi.  Takes place in a dystopian future where a cop kills the man who savagely attacks his wife.  Unfortunately for him, that same man was also the son of a very influential politician and the cop finds himself in prison.  He’s given a chance for a clean slate (hence the title) by participating in an ultra-violent game.

I was worried a bit when planning this that it would end up too much like  The Running Man but after a while, I realized that playing a game for your life isn’t exactly new in fiction so I stopped worrying.  This one went through a lot of iterations and I trunked it because I couldn’t figure out which one I preferred.

Status: Likely will be revisited.

Untitled Fantasy to Earth: Man capable of wielding magic (using blood) arrives on Earth and needs to find a way back.  I didn’t write an outline for this and simply dove into it after a NaNoWriMo year.  That was probably the downfall since I lost interest in it.

Status: Unlikely to be revisited.

TFOS: Believe it or not, I had a premise for a novel based on the role-playing game Teenagers from Outer Space.  I thought it pretty clever but you know what?  It’s really freakin’ hard to be funny for the entire length of a novel.

Status: Unlikely to be revisited in novel form; perhaps short stories or novella.