Keepsake
(Adult: Speculative concept/Literary style – Complete, Novella)
In an alternate 1920s Montreal, Elsie – aka Extract No. 1 – struggles to define her identity beyond being a Mem, a clone born of a memory.
Cait After Exile
(YA: Sci-fi Thriller – Complete)
Logline: In an America divided by remarkable gifts, pubescent children live in exile – separated from the region that empowers them – to avoid being poached.
North: Animation. South: Clarity. East: Telepathy. West: Cunning.
Every child in the former United States is born with the gift of their region – and their lives depend on the certainty that they will never see it. Sent to a different region during puberty to keep the gift from generating within their bones, they are ingrained with the mantra that Life Begins After Exile. But when sixteen year old Cait Iman is taken on a surprise detour during what’s supposed to be her last perilous journey across borders, she finds herself at the Federal Compound, her bones alight with the Cunning she’s no longer supposed to have. Now, alongside the cell to which she’s assigned, she’ll have one secret week to see what she’s really made of. After that, she’ll have to choose: play dead and keep her gift (and the Northern boy she’d never see again otherwise) or return to the West and the life she’s been craving for years.
CAIT AFTER EXILE is a completed young adult novel about a world where life doesn’t begin at birth. Life begins after exile.
The Last Life of Avrilis
(YA: literary sci-fi with steampunk aesthetic – Complete)
When Avrilis saves the life of a boy meant to die, her unscripted behavior forces the two of them to run – not knowing whether the hunters or the end of the age will catch up to them first.
Sixteen-year-old Avrilis isn’t sure a world that replays is worth saving. An orphaned Sentient living at the end of the age, she knows that time repeats and that any Sentient guilty of change becomes prey for the hunters. When she saves the life of a street urchin meant to die, the two discover the Sentient Underground – and that the father she believed dead is the prophet with a plan to end the world for good.
Staying one step ahead of the hunters and the end of time, Avrilis must uncover her father’s motive and choose a side. She can join the fight with the boy whose life she saved or face the aboveground while she searches for the one she’s loved in every life before.
The Momentary Light Afflictions
(Adult: Literary – …Was once complete)
When Demetra attempts to know her 27-year-old daughter born of rape, she finds that her chosen identity is as false as the one society tried to force upon her.
Note: This book’s logline and synopsis is still a work in progress.
~
There are several adult novels at some stage or another of completion (The Weight of Alabaster, Icharus Flying, Atlantis Submerged, etc). There are several short stories meant for the same collection. There are screenplays at various stages of completion. There is a television series. There are a few stage plays.
Margaret – the excerpt of a short story.
Untitled – a short story wip. I haven’t looked at this one in a while. Probably rather wordy in the opening.
~
I Dream The Boy Buffy – September 2011
So, you know those dreams of mine. (Yes, you do.) There was one from this summer that I had to actually write down; this scene is drawn from the story of the dream, it is not the dream itself. I wrote it down while we drove back from Wisconsin in June and I figured, it’s not growing (at least not that I know or plan at present) so why not just let you see it?
***
“Are you sure you wanna do this?” He slid the smooth stone across the blade sending all too familiar flashes of orange light into the space between them.
“Something different about this time and the millions before?” The other boy’s eyes were the only indication of interest; the rest of his body kept at work. Travis had seen the phenomenon enough times to know his friend was in fact paying attention.
“That’s not what I mean.”
“Because if you know some other Sentinel, I’ve got a raid scheduled in Azeroth.”
“Paris.” Travis tossed the throwing knife he’d been sharpening onto the pile between his feet before stalking to the table and yanking the crossbow from its surface.
This wasn’t the time, which meant it was precisely when Paris’ rapier wit kicked in. Why Travis still let his concern show was the real mystery. All it proved was that Paris was rightly chosen as Sentinel and that Travis wasn’t born with the confidence to enjoy an mmorpg on the same day he vowed to seal the threshold.
“You didn’t schedule a raid for today.” It was as close as he would come to salvaging it.
“No, but I could rustle one up.”
“Can you just answer a question for once? Pretty sure I’ve earned it.”
He shouldn’t have phrased it that way. They were friends. Saying he’d earned something made him sound like just another of Paris’ subjects.
“Can you stop asking the same question? Yes, I’m sure. I’m so sure that I already accepted their acceptance. And applied for student loans and housing and gave my notice at the car wash.” Paris’ eyebrow leapt up at the close of his statement. It simultaneously demanded whether his friend was satisfied and accused his friend of being unreasonable.
“Well, like you said, I don’t know any other Sentinels. So excuse me if I’m slightly concerned about what’s gonna happen to my hometown come fall while you’re off playing university.”
Paris snorted at that. “Get it through your head, Geppetto. I’m a real boy.”
It may well be his last chance to talk some sense into his friend – no certainty the day would go to plan – and Travis couldn’t get his foot out of his mouth. “That’s not what this is about,” he backpedaled.
“Oh, it is.”
His balled fist was drawn chest high before Travis forced himself to stop. That was a fight he’d never win, even if he started with a sucker punch. Having his back turned wouldn’t be enough; Paris would have to have his arms broken and at least one eyeball removed before Travis had a chance. But time was running out. If his best friend couldn’t make Paris stay, nothing would.
The ceiling rained down a curtain of dust and sheetrock before the boys registered the booming sound. Outside, a symphony of car alarms competed with the very few screams.
Travis was already offering the crossbow when Paris finally turned around, but the boy rolled his shoulders forward twice before accepting it. With a grin, he trotted out of the room, his friend watching the white debris leap away from his body as he went.
“Time’s up.”
***
Very short and, again, not an exact replica of the dream, but I liked the storyline. (Also, yay for WoW references!) ^.^
