The results of my recent poll are in and I thought you would all be curious about the results. It was really close, but in truth, I’m not all that surprised with the results.
9 votes – Rural Fantasy (Novelette or novella): Haunted abandoned school. Small town secrets going back two or three generations. Class reunion. Ghosts. Lost loves.
8 votes – YA space opera (probably a novella): Reluctant young heroine. Grizzled veteran spacer. Robbery. Murder. Grand sweeping galactic plotline. A mystery and coming-of-age story.
7 votes – Steampunk Heist Caper (Novella): Large cast of characters. Lots of conflicting interests. A mystical or mechanical McGuffin. A train robbery on the European continent. Double crosses and shifting loyalties. The next Arkady Bloom novella and probably the return of Tresa Wilhelm.
6 votes – The long-delayed Spear of Destiny Novel: Evil antiquarians. Spear of Destiny. Blind Longinus, the time lost Saint. Mystical magical Minneapolis and St. Paul. Roman witches.
1 vote – Last Car to Annwn Station Sequel
1 vote – Sequel to my novelette “Memory” which appears in Whispers in Space.
Of these above, I’m probably the most excited about the rural ghost story piece. I actually have about three pages of notes and the ghost of an outline. I think this a project that has some heat and will be something I work on before the year is out.
That said, the reason the above will have to wait is that I’ve found a project I’m even more excited about: I really want to write a story featuring former U.S. Marshal Jefferson Stottlemyre (who is currently a sergeant in the San Francisco police in the time line) and Deputy Marshal William Blenchey (plus Blenchy’s fiancee, Lady Priscilla Talbot) from The Horror at Cold Springs. I really want to write a Weird West / Lovecraftian / Buddy Cops piece set in late nineteenth century Oklahoma Territory sometime after the land run. I was chatting about this in the car with Beloved Spouse and realized just how excited I was to write this. I even have a few lines of dialogue.
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Blenchey: “It had to be a snake.”
Priscilla: “A snake god.”
Blenchey: “Alright then, a terrible big snake.”
Stottlemyre: “Good to see you still have a sense of humor, Bill.”
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Stottlemyre: “At least you get to bring your woman along on this disaster.”
Blenchey: “My woman turns into a giant black wolf.”
Stottlemyre: “Well, there is that.”
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“I really want to write a Weird West / Lovecraftian / Buddy Cops piece set in late nineteenth century Oklahoma Territory sometime after the land run.”
Like ya do.
About the “Weird West / Lovecraftian / Buddy Cops piece set in late nineteenth century Oklahoma Territory sometime after the land run”…. I was thinking about you when picking up stuff around our house.
I like to collect dictionaries, and one dictionary I got when visiting in OK was a “Dictionary Muskokee-English”. I wonder if it would be useful for you in writing this story?
I’ll show you the book when I see you, and you can see if you’d like it.