Here are some of the writing projects I am working on and where they stand in relation to completion;
Snow Babies has been accepted by PDMI Publishing. I signed the contract this week. It will become a book both in print and in e-book form. It is the story of Valerie Clarke (in the Paffooney with the barn and the snow) and four boys who have run away from foster care who are all trying to survive a deadly blizzard in Norwall, Iowa. I like to say it is a comedy about freezing to death, but it is also much more than that. You can look for that book to be published within 12 months.
Superchicken is a novel I started writing in the 1980’s. It is about the secret origins of the infamous gang of Norwall Pirates, a secret society of young boys dedicated to 4-H softball, fighting evil, and seeing girls naked. Edward-Andrew Campbell, in the Paffooney, is the title character. Superchicken is his nickname. He struggles to make a place for himself in the close-knit Iowa farm town where he is the new kid, the weird kid, and the only kid so gone on the subject of superheroes that he doesn’t even notice when the Cobble sisters trick him into going to a nudist camp with them just so they can get revenge and a naked picture of him. It is not a comedy about freezing to death because, fortunately for Edward-Andrew, it happens in the summer of 1974. I have finished the manuscript and it has been revised twice. It is time to start submitting the dang thing.
The Bicycle-Wheel Genius is a novel half-finished in rough draft form. It is a novel starring Orben Wallace, one of the heroes of Catch a Falling Star and Tim Kellogg, son of an English teacher and also the Grand and Glorious, Mostly Notorious Leader of the Norwall Pirates. It is a comedy about science and never really knowing what it true and what is actually possible until it has been proven by experiment. The primary theories involved include the impossibility of time travel, turning rabbits into people, defeating evil government secret agents who want to take away your Tesla ray and intelligent machines, and the answer to the very important questions; “Are all people good?” and “Will you be my friend?” I hope to have this thing finished shortly after Superchicken gets submitted to a publisher (or two… or seven).
I have also started a novel about being a teacher and fighting the good fight in the war against ignorance. It is called (as a working title) The Magical Miss Morgan. It, of course, stars the teacher in the Paffooney, Miss Francis Morgan, who is really me (in a very weird and almost perverted sort of way). I have two Cantos done on this one. It may be the next big inspiration after The Bicycle-Wheel Genius.
The final bit of nutbread I am going to give you a taste of here in this goofy future-looksee postie thingie is the sequel to Catch a Falling Star. I have written four Cantos in this one (Canto is the inexplicable name I use for chapters in my goofy books). It follows the aliens after their failed invasion of Earth as they reach and are forced to colonize an even more dangerous planet than Earth (if you can get your mind around such an impossible concept). It will be called Stardusters and Lizard Men. I have to confess that I do indeed write more than one story at the same time. It will probably continue to grow as I write The Bicycle-Wheel Genius and will probably be finished some time after I finish The Magical Miss Morgan.
Now, if you are one of those brave, weird people that actually make it this far in this silly post, I hope I have caught your interest in at least one of these ideas. If not, I may have scared you off and permanently scarred you. I apologize. But if you didn’t read this far, I don’t apologize, because I didn’t actually apologize until the very end. I’M SORRY! OKAY?
Catch a Falling Star 