Works in Progress

Here are the ground rules for this page:

• I add new works to this list when I complete a first draft. (This allows me to create in peace and quiet.)
• I remove works from this list when they are either published or are archived/”trunked.” If a work is published (traditionally or by me) it migrates to my “About” page. If it is trunked, it goes to the Great Hard Drive in the Sky.
• I reveal titles here when a final first draft is complete.

In short: works are listed here when a first draft is complete and leave here when they’re published or archived. For updates on works as they happen, follow my Twitter feed.

Here’s the list:

1. The Sludge Ship Chronicles
This is a five-act, comedic play set in a medieval country. It’s about a gang of roving scoundrels who discover how to rig elections so that they win ‘every time.’ Thus challenging the lock on power of the corrupt monarchies and oligarchies of the day. Status: I’m sharing and submitting to those precious few theaters that accept play manuscripts.

2. TBOS
More on this later. Wowzer! 
Status: Editing 2nd draft.

3. The King Becomes a Star or Pharoah Unas’ Journey Through the Night Sky
A very different sort of project for me: short speculative poetry. Hat tip to King Unas (and his scribes!) for providing the inspiration for this piece…
Status: Great news! This piece was ACCEPTED by Strange Horizons magazine and will be published March 28, 2022!

4. Resurrection of the Grim Chop Maharajah
A Cosmic Horror novella set along the Natchez Trace in the Deep South. A type of piece I have been hoping to write for some time. A mythological explanation of why the American South has produced so much great music over the years. Could it be more than what it seems?
Status: First draft done, editing now, submitting soon.

5. Go Ask Alice
Flash (1000 words or less) Horror story here. It’s Alice in Wonderland fan fiction. It utilizes Horror as vehicle for exploring the Theory of Mind. Hat tip for inspiration to the inimitable ibn Rushd. Fun stuff. 
Status: Submitting now.

6. The Presence
Let’s call this The Turn of the Screw fan-fiction or, if you don’t like that, a SciFi Ghost story.
Status: First draft done. 

7. Photon.
A “star story.” This is a short (less than 3,000 words) story about the life, death and afterlife of a single beam of starlight.
Status: Done and dusted. Submitting now! 

8. Straw.
Calling this “Summa Theologica” Fan Fic. It’s based on an incident from St. Thomas Aquinas’ life and has a mystical-historical vibe.  
Status: Done. Submitting now!

9. Poem: Hybrid Vigor.
A sort of patriotic song/anti-royalist screed. Purely in the American vein. Sorry, not sorry!
Status: First draft done, polishing now.

10. Poem: Al-Hurra.
This is a poem about “Al-Hurra” which might be translated as “The Free One” or “The Liberated One.” It has a cameo from my favorite star in my favorite constellation: Al-Jannah (Epsilon Cygni, to be exact).
Status: First draft done and letting this one ‘set’ for a bit.

11. Poem: Dominion.
Here’s another spacey, speculative fiction poem. It’s got it all, Folks: atomic nuclei, galaxies, stardust. 
Status: Submitting now.

[LAST UPDATED: Jan. 2022.]