Who Wants To Help Me With My Novel?

If you liked my story The Untimely Demise of Absalom Fanty, then this post is for you.

In August WorldCon is being held in Glasgow. It's the SciFi convention where the Hugo Award is handed out. Apart from that there are numerous workshops and networking opportunities.

I have a very good friend from Italy who is going and apart from any other reason it would be great to see her.

However, I want to go with something I have not yet achieved. A completed novel.

Being able to talk about the novel I have on submission, or am otherwise seeking representation for is my MUST to buy tickets and start planning to go.

What does this have to do with the story linked above?

It's part of a suite of stories that make for a potential novel, and much of it is already written. What I need to do over the next few months is work on moulding them into a cohesive whole which will include not only new material, but extensive re-writes to change differing POV's and to bring coherence to the events in the novel.

It has a title. Solstice in Sar-Chona. Sar-Chona is the city where the majority of events take place. Solstice is the time nexus around which all the events of the novel swirl.

When I say I have a lot written, let me list some:

1. Arrival - a flash fiction of an MC coming to the city. c750words
2. The Interrogatrix - a flash fiction introducing a key character. c750words
3. The Untimely Demise of Absalom Fanty - this introduces some key lore for the novel, and tells us more about a key MC. c920words
4. Salt on the Sand Sea - a noir thriller with events key to the central story. c10,000words
5. Burning the Sand - Not set in the city, this gives a sub-plot and shows the world a bit more. c5,800words
6. A Break in the Weather - this introduces an main antagonist, and some lore of the city. c4,500words
7. Solstice in Sar-Chona - a 20k write up of 2 of the main characters and events. c20,000words.
8. Along the Wirnal Canal - a story of betrayal which links story 2, 4, and 7 together. c3,000words.

There's also some already written linking work which are not discrete stories, they add up to about another 3,000 words. This gives me extant writing just shy of 50,000 words.

There's a fashion for SF/Fantasy books to wallop in at 100k+ words. I am not a follower of fashion. I reckon 75,000 words will allow this tale to tell itself.

But, folks, friends, I need help. I can do the work. But my ADHD brain gets tempted by the shiny new thing. My ME brain gets fatigued with concentrating on one thing. My self destructive urge tells me not to bother.

So, who's up for a weekly update on the project? Who's interested in giving their opinion on the story as is, and where it needs to go?

Who loves the idea of a non-earth steampunkish story with: automatons; half-mechanical people; lizard folk; a strange force which affects many of the population, and can be used by some of them; a man with legs which are bombs; an ocean of sand; intrigue; love?

Let me know.

text by stuartcturnbull, picture 121385620 via Pixabay