Wednesday, 18 June 2008

  • Series Update

    Over the last year, I've done a lot of updating on my actual blog, but I haven't copied any of it here.

    That's probably a good thing, because I've changed my plan repeatedly during that time. Now that things have settled down a bit, I can describe clearly where the series is going.

    When it is written, it will look like this:

    Sleeping Kings: Golden Age
    When disaster threatens to end the quiet prosperity of the United States' long golden age, four college friends gathered together in the nation's heartland get to see it happen firsthand. Terrorist attacks on major media outlets in Oklahoma City threaten to bring the widespread chaos to their hometown, but these young heros won't allow it. Braving riotous mobs and deadly bombs, the four fight to provide a message of hope and unity to the beleaguered city.

    (Trust me, it's a better story than that last sentence lets on.)

    Sleeping Kings: The Wolf
    Called into service by the President's right-hand man, Josh leaves his friends to try his hand at fixing the world. He meets the President and his staff at a fortified Camp David, where he also encounters the conniving Jeremiah Payne, acting as the President's cultural advisor on the violent Hiz'ammat movement. Josh has his doubts about Payne's loyalty, and sets off on his own mission to discover the true identity and motives of the terrorists, and along the way he builds an army of castoffs and runaways, soldiers of all stripes anxious to defend the nation they love.

    Sleeping Kings: The Shepherd
    Returning home to Saint Louis, Sarah finds her home a war zone, caught between the rival gangs that have taken over the city and the National Guard troops besieging it. In the midst of it all, an enclave of Hiz'ammat faithful thrives in violent isolation. Desperate to help the poor and defenseless most injured by the fighting, Sarah returns to her clinic at the heart of the battleground.

    When the gangs' in-fighting brings the battle to her front door, Sarah finds herself in a fight for authority at the nearby Saint Jude hospital, and eventually pits herself against the vicious Colonel Davis as she strives to bring some glimmer of hope to the dying city.

    Sleeping Kings: The Poet and the King
    Despite the best efforts of heros like Josh and Sarah, the damage is already done. In the wake of the United States' collapse, Nate and Dave work together to bolster the relatively stable state of Oklahoma against the chaos swelling all around it. Nate's grandiose vision thrusts Dave into the public eye, and Dave's charisma and wit help him secure Oklahoma's place in the world, the lone state thriving while those around it flounder.

    Even as Dave rises to power, Nate's faith falters as all his other efforts fail. In the end, it's the support of his friends and his own dedication to community that leads the way to a final, binding voice capable of healing the world. Something like that.

    As you can see, the first half of Josh's story -- as posted on this blog -- becomes the first half of book one, Golden Age, and the rest becomes book two, The Wolf. I've got most of the rest of book one written now, longhand, but it'll take me some time to get it typed, and it's not quite long enough as it is. I won't know how much more it needs until I get it typed, though.

    Sarah's story, The Shepherd, is already written. I did that for National Novel Writing Month last fall, and got surprisingly positive feedback on it from Trish and Nicki, who read it in December. I haven't even looked at it since then. Partly that was out of laziness (or burnout), but mainly because I want to get the full layout of books one and two down, at least in rough draft, before I do my serious rewrite of book three, since the former could well impact the latter.

    And that layout of books one and two is a little tricky, because there's a lot of Josh and James stuff early in Josh's story that should really be moved to book two, but it will leave some holes in book one that need some sort of filler. I also have to come up with good transitions at every place that I make cuts, and that's not necessarily easy.

    Then again, no one ever said writing books was easy. My goal is to have books one and two in a definite first draft state by the end of July, then get a good rewrite of book three done in August - September, and then go back and polish up one and two before I start whatever it is I do in November this year. Maybe I'll take a stab at The Poet and the King, but it's my most ambitious SK novel, so I wouldn't mind holding off a little longer while I get my thoughts straight.

    Anyway, that's what I have planned for the series. If you're interested in reading copies of any of the first three books, contact me directly. I feel more and more like this is a real, marketable series, so I doubt I'll be posting any more of it on blogs.

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