Things have been chaotic for me during past few weeks. The vomiting flu has been going through my home and I haven't been able to take care of my writing the way I would like. Presidents' Day threw my schedule off such that I was thinking yesterday was Monday. Thus I just made my Tuesday post this morning.
Part 1 of The Ark consists of 22 chapters, and I just posted Chapter 19 this morning. This chapter will change Jon's perceptions. It will also lead to some very important changes to his plans, which in turn will improve the survivability of the Ark Society before and after the meteoroids arrive. With that little teaser, I will change the topic to future stories.
Most of my effort has been focused on Opening Earth Part 2. It is currently at 20 chapters, and I expect it to be somewhere around 40 chapters when complete. For a change of pace, I have also put in a bit of time on Time Scope Part 2 and The Ark Part 2. In addition to these stories, I have several new stories that I have done some work on, but they are a long way from being complete.
As I said, my focus has been on Opening Earth Part 2. I am not sure which story I want to focus on once that is complete. The following is a brief status and where needed a description of the stories I have been working on. If you have a preference for what you would like to read after Opening Earth Part 2, let me know and I will let my readers decide what my next major project will be. The stories currently in progress include:
Time Scope Part 2 - currently at 6 chapters, and I expect it to be somewhere around 20 chapters when complete.
The Ark Part 2 - currently two or three chapters containing some disjointed ideas. It needs a lot of work before it will be ready to post.
PM Chronicles - currently 6 chapters. I have gone through several evolutions on this story in order to develop a decent setting for the storyline. I thought of the story's concept while looking at chart that depicted all of the various branches of human evolution. I had also recently read a newspaper account about the research a group of scientist had conducted using monkeys. They took a small group of monkeys and dyed the fur of one monkey pink, and then put it back into the group. Their observation was the group attacked the pink monkey because it was different. This started me to thinking. What if there were a second branch of our human ancestors that were living at the same time as our current branch, and what if it were a less populous group and was more intelligent than our current group. If the scientist's research were applied to these two groups, the smaller group may have hidden their differences and lived among our current group. My story uses this concept and extrapolates on how the smaller group might have evolved and survived.
The Footlocker - about 4 chapters developed. The storyline is based on a young German college student becoming involved in the political party that Hitler was a member of during the early 1900's. As Hitler rises in power, the young student becomes involved in the Nazi party as a political supporter. Then when the aggression that led to WW II begins, the young student becomes involved with the group that helped Hitler loot Europe during the war years. Toward the middle of the war, this young man has his eyes opened as to what is actually happening within his group, and he decides to thwart the groups plan to conceal their wartime loot for personal use after the war is over. Once the young man successfully completes his plan to thwart his associates by creating false records of where the loot is concealed, he defects to a neutral country, emigrates to the US, and eventually dies. A young American gains access to a footlocker containing all the deceased man's diaries and records of where the loot was actually stored. The story goes on from there.
An Old Man's Lament - A monologue of an old man talking to himself about his life; to include, the conclusions he reaches and what he decides to do to change the course of his current life. Growing old is not a nice experience for most people, so this story will probably be dark and probably depressing. It will be an amalgam of personal experience, comments made by my friends, family, and others that I have known. While it is totally fictional, it will portray the evolution of an average person's life based on what I have noticed of our society's treatment of the elderly by the younger generation.
Officer Symms and Sam's Hopping - two short stories set in the D-Hopping Universe. I expect both to be multi-chapter stories, but do not plan on sequels.
Not My Fault - A short story about one male's opinion of the comments often made by women while bashing all men for not meeting their expectations of what a man should be in a long-term relationship.
Please Don't Help Me - so far just the bare concept of a story that came to me one day, and while I like the concept, I am not sure if it is something I really want to write. The premise is based on peoples desire to help other people with the various problems that life presents to us. In other words, the central character, probably a man, will be one of those people who believes he can fix other peoples' problems even though he has had no personal experience with resolving that type of problem. He devises plans to help his friends fix their problems, and doesn't understand why they won't accept his help.