A month ago, I learned of a forthcoming open-call anthology with a rather unique subject matter.
I read about it, thought it was a neat idea, printed off the submission guidelines, and then did very little.
Oh, I spitballed a few ideas on the train one morning, filled a whole sheet of notebook paper with little half-blurbs of possible ideas.
One I liked a great deal, because the more I thought about it the more potential I saw in it. I saw depth to this idea, and thus I loved it even more.
Then I did ten minutes of research. And discovered that two people who I thought were near contemporaries (within a decade or two at most) were, in fact, separated by 150 years.
Obviously, the idea needed a rethink.
An idea did suggest itself. The century and a half could actually work; perhaps the story would be best served by exploring the things we think we know (near contemporaries) with what is real (that 150 years thing). But I wasn’t sold on that, and I thought about some of the other ideas that I’d dismissed.
Still, I downloaded a book for research purposes from Google Books, and I found another researchy book at Edward R. Hamilton for very cheap.
And then I didn’t think about anything at all; the past month has been somewhat hectic.
The book from Edward R. Hamilton arrived yesterday. I read a little of it in bed last night.
This morning, the story practically screamed at me on the train.
I wrote a page of notes. Something I thought would be important I ditched entirely. The whole century and a half thing disappears by ditching that aspect I thought was important. In so doing, some new angles suggested themselves.
And now I see theme. I didn’t see theme before.
I don’t have the time to write this just yet. I have some research still to do, like finish the two books, one downloaded, one bought. And I should take a look at some history books, too. But I also have other writing that’s screaming at me — and is also more pressing and more important.
That said, I am coming back to this story, before the end of the month.
For right now, I shall call it “TSS.”
It’s going to be really cool. And that’s all I have to say about that. :spock: