Monday, July 13, 2009

in the grip

A story's got me!

My publisher is (eventually) (someday) going to re-release my first ever short story, Chasing His Own Tale, as a stand-alone. It was originally requested as part of an anthology of wierd, strange, unusual scifi and fantasy stories, which was called Wyrd Wravings. The anthology is long gone, but the stories live on. In particular, my story, a classic English farce done in my own, distinctly left-of-center style. It cried out for a sequel.

Now, some years later, that sequel is crying back. Chasing His Own Tale 2: The Inevitable Sequel is on the march! As wierd as, if not wierder than, the original.

I've got almost 5K words already, and the story is perhaps half done. The original story was a little over 6K words. By the time I complete the actual storyline and fill in little things like setting and action, this one could be twice that. Or more. My stories always grow as I tell them.
Why now? I'm glad I asked that, on your behalf. The original story, which I will call CHOT, was based on a problem I had at the time, namely, a short story that I just couldn't get started. I ended up making that inability the starting point of the CHOT story. I have recently managed to write the story I couldn't write before, as part of my latest Tarkas book, Tales of Uncle.

CHOT2 is shaping up to be about, not a story I haven't yet written, but a story I've already written, St. Martin's Moon. Believe me, if I didn't tell you this, you probably wouldn't recognize it. I've been trying to synopsize that sucker for ages now, so it's only natural I guess, that it would work its way into this realm as well. At least it's more fun for me.

I'm actually thinking of doing this as a regular thing, do a CHOT version of some other story. If the story will let me, that is.

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