It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve sorely neglected this website. Bad me! I’ve started and/or progressed on several ideas since my last post, but over this past July I came up with a new idea that I think is a keeper. Right now it’s flowing and fun though I have had to stop and redo my outline and make some charts to help me keep everything straight. I like charts, though, so we’re good there.
Writers are notoriously private about and stingy with their in-progress works, and I’m no different. Just ask my husband, he’ll confirm that. Over the weekend I shared my updated outline with him, he went to work on Monday and talked to a coworker about it {not in any great detail, thus he’s still among the living}, he told me that he did that, I freaked out a little bit, but then I got over it.
So, today I’ve decided to suppress that “keep it all to myself” part of me and to “go public” with the skeleton {hehhehhe, er, sorry, inside joke, inside my head that is} of the idea, and ask for input on the topics of death and after. I’m also hoping to motivate myself to kick things into a higher gear and get the rest of this one ground out into electronic ether so I can start revising it and then shopping it around to agents. Tomorrow, or even later today, maybe right after I post it, who knows, I might revert to my instincts and delete this post. No promises it will remain.
Here we go. {deep breaths, deep breaths}
It all starts with death. That’s death all lowercase. This is a pretty commonly accepted thing, and it happens to everyone. Oh, but what if it doesn’t? Or what if it does and what if what happens after death is more complex than some of us might think?
Next there’s Death. That’s Death, uppercase D, rest is lowercase. This is the bureaucratic department which handles the business of death, staffed by the dead. The dead working after death? Yup. Think Beetlejuice (1988) and Reaper (2007-2009), these give glimpses behind the curtain though they largely remain rooted in the world of the living. Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality (8 books) gives a broader view on the business of handling life and death from a variety of viewpoints — Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Satan, God, and Night.
Then there’s DEATH. That’s DEATH all uppercase. That’s the being who personifies death, heads the department of Death, and oversees the day-to-day operations of the business of death. What if bureaucratic bullshit abounds? What if DEATH has so many responsibilities, meetings, duties, inter-departmental conflicts, budgets, schedules, quotas, etc., etc., to deal with he just can’t deal with the dying personally anymore? You know, he becomes management instead of hands-, well, bones-on.
Then. Then we get to the underlying structure of my series-in-progress: reapers. DEATH has often been referred to as The Grim Reaper. {Grim. 1 “m”. Not to be confused with Grimms. 2 “m”s.} However, a long long time ago when he realized he couldn’t attend every death himself, he built a band of Grim Reapers. The living, er dying, might think it’s one Grim and that it’s DEATH himself every time they see one, but that’s not been the truth for a very long time.
Is every reaper grim? {Funny you should ask as that’s what I asked myself that kind of started this whole line of thought. I had this thought ,and many which followed, while riding my motorcycle — who just happens to be named, wait for it, Grim.} No, as a matter of fact, not all reapers are grim or even Grims. After bringing on the Grims, eventually DEATH and the head Grim brought more and more reaper types on board. Each type has a specialization, and the Grims eventually also grew into more of a managerial role, solving conflicts, handling special cases, and overseeing all of the other reapers.
The Grims also have one very special duty, yet not even all Grims can perform this duty. What is this special duty? That, my friends, will be revealed later. {How much later? Well, you’d have to read the book to learn that. I’m not going to spill all the bones here. So, let’s all hope this book gets finished, agented, and published down the line, shall we? :0) }
This brings me to the first book in the series. {Everything’s a work-in-progress and subject to change and this might all be good for a laugh down the road, eh?}
NOVEL’s BLURB: Someone murders JASMINE thrusting her into the business of Death as a Grim Reaper trainee. While learning her new occupation and adjusting to the whole idea of being dead she also wants to discover who killed her and why. As TIME ticks down the seconds – sometimes annoyingly literally – JASMINE must navigate the maze of Cyclics (BIRTH, LIFE, DEATH) and Eternals (NATURE, TIME) who each seem to have their own sets of rules designed to delay, discourage, and deflect JASMINE from her path. If she doesn’t learn the answers soon and prevent whatever the next nefarious step might be it could well mean the end of DEATH himself. Tick. Tock.
NOVEL’s GOAL: Save DEATH. Duh.
JASMINE’s DRIVING INTERNAL MOTIVE: Find purpose in her own life, er, death.
Still here?
Great!
Here comes the ask portion of your visit. I’ve created a brand-spanking new free forum over at ProBoards, Inc. and would like to ask that any who wish to talk about the concept of death, what happens after death, the business of Death, and any other such things. C’mon over!