Heaven’s Edge

Heaven’s Edge for Camp NaNoWriMo

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It is the last day of March. That means that tomorrow in the beginning of Camp NaNoWriMo. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Camp NaNo is a lot like the annual NaNoWriMo, but in April. The other major differences are that you are encouraged to set your own goal, rather than the default 50,000 words, and you can work on revisions.

During the actual NaNoWriMo in November of 2013, I wrote the first half of a book titled Heaven’s Edge. The book is the first of a planned three-book series. The titles will be Heaven’s Edge, Halo’s Slip, and Hell’s Raising. In an alternate near-future, billionaire philanthropist Dayton Fairfield builds a city that sits upon a platform above the pollution and war plaguing the surface. He calls the city Heaven’s Edge. The residents were hand-selected after an intense application process and careful screening. Book 1 takes place on the one-year anniversary of the platform’s raising. The protagonist is Mack, a wise-cracking old school detective who took a security job on Heaven’s Edge as a retirement gig. Utopia hasn’t been all it’s cracked up to be, and Mack still smokes (despite there being no nicotine in his cigarettes), drinks (despite there being no alcohol in his whiskey), and expects everything to go to hell at any given moment.

It sucks to be right. After a young man shows up murdered in Dayton Fairfield’s suite, Mack finds himself caught up in the Church’s plot to destroy the surface world and bring about the rapture.

I wrote the first half of the first book and was sad that I didn’t have time to finish it while I was in grad school. Now that I’m out, I can’t wait to get back to it. The story has an old school feel with snappy, quick dialogue. It is a lot of fun to write. Hopefully, by the end of April, Heaven’s Edge will be ready for full revisions, and we will be that much closer to seeing Mack raise some Hell in Dayton Fairfield’s paradise.

I will be sure to keep you all updated on how it is going. I am expecting some other news in the next couple of weeks, as well. The release date for All Manner of Dark Things is fast approaching. You can pre-order the e-book now. The print edition proofs are being reviewed and I am hoping it will be ready for the official April 7th release.

Thank you everyone for your support. It means the world to me.

Failure and other F-Words, plus an acceptance

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Failure and other F-Words, plus an acceptance

My last Nanowrimo Confabulator Cafe blog is up at http://www.confabulatorcafe.com/2012/12/failure-and-other-f-words/. Read about my mixed mixed emotions regarding Nanowrimo this year.

Also, Separate Worlds has accepted my flash fiction piece “Collectors” for publication in their January/February 2013 issue. I’ll post more information as I get it.

Thanks for reading,

Jack

Moral Victories

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Moral Victories

Nanowrimo is wrapping up, and while I am nowhere near the actual goal, my personal goal has been met. Read how it is going, this week at The Confabulator Cafe.

http://www.confabulatorcafe.com/2012/11/6348/

Remember, Remember Last November

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Remember, Remember Last November

Last November was a life-altering month for me as a writer. With NaNoWriMo fast approaching, I shared my memories of last year, and my expectations for this year in my latest Confabulator Cafe post, “Remember, Remember Last November.” You can read it now at: http://www.confabulatorcafe.com/2012/10/remember-remember-the-last-november/

All November, my weekly Monday column will be a report on the progress of “Heaven’s Edge,” the dystopian noir novel that I will be writing as part of NaNoWriMo. Another November, another novel. Let’s get to work.