Something Stirs

Over the next few months, I’ll be writing an online novel entitled THE LIVING for Victoria Blake, a former editor at Dark Horse Comics, who is in the process of launching her own publishing company, Underland Press.

The novel will be written a chapter a time and structured as a choose-your-own-adventure story. To my knowledge, this has not been done online before, and I’m eager to see how it plays out. It certainly presents a unique challenge for me, as I’ll basically be writing a book in which the major plot points will be decided by the reader. I’m not accustomed to collaborating, nor have I ever written a novel without planning ahead, even if only in my own mind, but I can’t help but think that this “wovel”–to use the publisher’s term for a web novel–will push my skills as a writer and help hone them. Perhaps when I’m done, writing a novel under ordinary circumstances won’t seem quite so daunting.

Here’s the synopsis of the story:

THE LIVING

A virus has wiped out three-quarters of the world’s population.

For Madison McKay, nothing is more important than escaping the city with the child she carries inside her. Her destination: Salus Island, the last remaining sanctuary for those of her kind.

But outside the walls of the farmhouse in which she is hiding with a ragtag group of allies, left behind during the exodus to Salus, a desperate enemy awaits-A horde of murderous, bloodthirsty animals known as Humans. They are the Uninfected, doomed to live life as it always was, as it used to be before the Great Plague, leaving them mere mortals, vulnerable to injury and sickness, and death. Their only hope for a future is to capture Madison, and the hybrid baby in her womb, so that they may discover the secret to everlasting life.

And nothing will stand in their way.

With the help of her fellow Reborn, Madison must escape the farmhouse and make it to the coast and sanctuary while battling impossible odds.

How will they make it out alive?

You Decide.

For more info about this project, “wovels”, and Underland Press, please visit the publisher’s blogs at Foreword Publishing here and here.