MY NEXT PROJECT WILL BE DARK AND CREEPY!
Posted on April 19, 2019
I'm three weeks away from a 17-day stretch where I can write a ton (my spring track-out). I'll be starting a trilogy of short reads (three books that are around 20,000 words each and tell a story in three acts). The series is called Arcana Creek and is very influenced by my grandmother's house, which did indeed have a creepy dirt-floor basement and garage that was off limits to my cousins and me. It also had a creek at the edge of the property that we called a run. We did countless paper boat races along its watery length. We also chased bobbing branches and leaves along it until they disappeared under the bridge, which we were forbidden to visit much less enter. The impressive oak tree that dominated her backyard produced a sea of leaves we could almost swim through if we tried. All of that will be thrown into the mix to tell my first creepy story for both young and old. There will be dark things. I can't wait for readers to meet the Fraught. They are the nasty inhabitants of the rough waters. Here's my initial stab at a summary. I'm sure it will get tweaked, but it's a good first go at the project.
Arcana Creek
Ten-year-old Max Edgars would rather be anywhere else than his grandmother's house for a week this summer. With her creepy dirt basement, oppressive household rules, and cryptic warnings to steer clear of the locked-tight storage under the garage, his one escape is playing along the gentle creek that hugs the far end of her property. When it floods on the second night, even that option is taken away by his increasingly unhinged grandmother. Only when he braves the basement and forbidden garage does Max begin to understand his grandmother's past and her hidden loss. Even worse, the darkness that spawned her dogged adherence to 'the rules' returns with the rising of the creek's chaotic waters. Max must trust a magical stranger and brave a journey through the frenzied waters to its dire source if he has any hope of unlocking the mysteries of Arcana Creek.