Tuesday, June 23, 2009

#195: The First Novel

I first wanted to be an author sometime in the late 1980s, early 1990s. It wasn't until second grade, roughly 1991-1992 that I knew I wanted to be a writer and write I did. In about 1993, I began writing what I wanted to be my first novel. A comedic science-fiction story kind of like the British television series Red Dwarf. I read and skimmed through the Red Dwarf book, Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers to prepare to write it. I even got my best friend at the time, who was a bigger Dwarf fan than me, to help out. In 1993, Space Dork was born.


For several years after that I had planned for Space Dork to be my first novel. I figured it was a story that would pull readers from several genres. Unfortunately, I learned that I am not good at really writing science fiction stories. I've written very few since I figured this out. As I wrote more, I figured that Space Dork wasn't going to be my first novel and soon Harter Union became my first novel. I kept Space Dork in my mind but sadly, it was to never be a novel.

I then planned for it to be an entry in a collection of short stories I want to publish after my last book. I began writing it and got to the end of Book Four before stopping and working on something. It's still only a third of the way finished. So, since Space Dork is still turning into a novel, I decided to publish my novella length stories separately. These would include Space Dork, Suicidial Tendencies, The Kings of Framingham and one other story that has yet to be written.

Then I started this blog with the hopes of posting some of my writings and when I started the Story Series, I made the decision to rewrite Space Dork and turn it into a Story Series. I couldn't get it rewritten. I skimmed through multiple sci-fi books but couldn't get the juices flowing. So I gave it and Space Dork became the first casualty of the 2008-2009 Story Series season after only one entry.

But, the story lives on. I still have the first four books written down and am now typing them and posting them. Book One is finished now and can be read here. Let me know what you think. I'm hoping to get a book a week posted and even finish it. Last I remember from the outline I wrote, it had twenty books and an epilogue story. I'm hoping it'll be finished by the end of the summer but I have couple wicked-busy weekends coming but I'll do what I can.

I do want to thank Alex Wickersham, the aforementioned friend who helped me with this back in 1993. While our original concept is no longer there, I still haven't forgotten who helped me with the preliminary draft.

Until next time, I remain...
~Brian