A new story is in my head...

I wish I could switch off the “story generating” part of my brain until AFTER I have written whatever is next on my list. I am still in the note-taking and plotting stage for THE LAST SON OF YUMEA (the latest in the Dishonored anthology). I fully intend to make that my next project. Lord willing, I’ll start on it this autumn and finish it around Christmas. After that, I had planned on sequels to 20K LIGHTYEARS FROM EARTH and FROGGY WENT A-COURTIN’. Those might have to wait.

I’ve got this idea about a troll hunter that is really starting to take off in my brain. I had an hour or so of free time this afternoon and quickly began writing whatever I had. What resulted was 1,200 words that could be the prologue to a novel or the first act in a short story. It’ll probably be the former, but for now I’m posting it as a freebie.

I envision this as a fantasy story that I can read to my sons at night, but without being the kind of overtly “childish” stories I’ve written for them in the past, like CHUMPTY DUMPTY or THE GREAT MOUSE ESCAPE. It’s about a troll hunter, but it’s nothing like THE TROLL WHO CHOSE TO READ. Those books were inspired by the works of Dahl, Cleary, and White. This story is tonally inspired by the works of Miyazaki. It’s not so much Charlotte’s Web as it is Spirited Away.

Here’s the (tentative) cover art…