So I figured it was time I talked a bit about my own writing, because I’m excited about it and I want other people to get excited about it! I’ve got a few irons in the fire right now:
- I’m working on two novels at the moment. The one I’m giving my most immediate attention to is my National Novel Writing Month project from this year, a hard near-future sci-fi story called The Cloud. It’s a novel about asteroid mining and corporate greed that combines a deep space techno-thriller in the style of The Martian with the brooding suspense of a locked-room mystery. I think I’m about three quarters finished my first draft now.
- I’m revising my NaNoWriMo project from last year, The Forever Throne. It’s a high fantasy novel that challenges expectations of gender and ultimately, I think, the genre of high fantasy as a whole. Rather than expressing this like Game of Thrones, which chooses to ground its high fantasy narrative in the “brutish and short” real world of the Renaissance, I choose to look at the long-reaching implications of what might happen if the tropes were true.
- I have been commissioned to write the flavour text for a new RPG gaming book for the Grit & Vigor system, which is a gaming system that is intended for use in creating your own pulp fiction genre games. It’s a Raygun Gothic setting with a twist; working title is Tales of the Stellar Deep. Picture Flash Gordon meets the Cthulu Mythos — IN SPACE! It’s wacky and weird and I love this kind of thing! My deadline is around mid-February and I’ll keep you posted on the publication schedule.
- I’m in the final editing stages for the first in a series of serials that take place in a Weird West setting with Cattle Punk elements, the Wyrd West Chronicles. My world is a blend of high fantasy and classic Western, with a dash of steampunk for flavour. I intend to publish the series bimonthly on Kindle, Kobo etc. in e-format, with a once-a-year collection of stories available in actual physical book format. I will keep you posted!
Diane Morrison 