So, four major unfinished pieces remain on the desktop.
MaxVonSydX3 is a short story about Father Merrin from The Exorcist, Antonius Block from The Seventh Seal, and Ming The Merciless from Flash Gordon sitting down to an Ultimate Last Supper with a curious bystander at the end of the world… two curious bystanders, if one counts the story’s AI, and I do. Hilarity ensues!
What’s the hold-up? This damn story! Goddammit, I had 20-odd pages —some would say very odd—of notes and sketches that were destroyed in THE EXTREMELY UNFORTUNATE ANNIHILATION OF DRAX SHIT IN THE BLACK FALL OF 2018… I don’t want to even glancingly reflect on what was lost. It was bad. “Catastrophic” doesn’t come close. Anyway, those 20-odd pages were among those items lost forever. And I was so bent, man; some of those pages were hot. So I didn’t want to think about this story for a long time. But hey—it wouldn’t leave me alone. So I am thinking about it, and writing it. We’ll see.
WORLD WITHOUT BOWIE is… weird. (There’s a shocker.) But seriously. It’s about a failed writer on the last day of his life and a tied-up girl. There’s also a spooky messenger in a cemetery, malevolent gravediggers, and a race of all-powerful aliens. And a tied-up girl. Who’s always tied up. For the entire story.
What’s the hold-up? Man, for the longest time I didn’t know what the flying fuck this story was. [Spoiler: a completed short story version of it is currently under consideration for a forthcoming anthology. We’ll see! Whoo-hoo!] But I really didn’t know what the fuck World Without Bowie was, what it was supposed to do or be. Another spoiler: I started it the day after Bowie died. Yes my gears grind slow.
I can tell you this much: when completed it will be a long short story / novella / short novel. And while some of the details mention above might sound like very familiar territory, it will be unlike anything I’ve ever written. ’nuff said.
Ah, HEAVY. Formerly GRAVITY. But too many movies and books claimed that title for my liking, hence the change. Which suits me just fine. What’s it about? See above. The cover says it all. Crashing planes and rock and roll.
What’s the hold-up? It can be summed in one word: FEAR. Of pulling the trigger, of completion, of final form. I think I am inching closer to that final form, however, which will be a short novel.
And my great unfinished “great American novel,” DARK AUGUST. This project suffers the same disease as HEAVY. But it’s on the desktop, and I poke it regularly. It will be a full-length novel. Edited to add: DA‘s now a widget in the “forthcoming” category. So it’s out of the drawer.
And, while this book is not currently on the desktop…
Yeah, it will continue. Once I’ve got the hook.
Any questions?
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February 19, 2020
Categories: Ashtray Chat, Books, Love Drax . . Author: simondrax . Comments: Leave a comment
