Yesterday I was able to fully outline a new dark academia/magical realism novel titled These Violences We Crave (based on an idea I had 3 years ago). The story is really dear to me, so much so that I decided to pause my Rapture edits and serialize this one instead. I believe the format will be much more adapted for this purpose. I also believe I can write the whole thing in under 2 months, provided I remain focused and concise. I realized this weekend that Rapture requires too much editing and that I would rather write a new serial instead of adapting a novel into a serial. I will, therefore, focus my energy on writing this serial. I believe I wish to write it all in one go, then publish it. I do want to keep a tight control on the big picture and ensure the serial as a whole delivers. It also means I will post less short stories on here while I work on TVWC. But as an offering, here’s my little synopsis. Hopefully you’ll be along for the ride, for it’s going to be quite the trip.

1961. Yelena Nazarova leaves Soviet Russia for a small New England town to study at the prestigious Attwell Institute for Advanced Studies. Secretly, she is searching for a powerful relic said to bring the dead back to life: the Promissum Mortis. There, she forms an uneasy alliance with three misfit students—Oscar Whitley, Augustus Attwell, and Thomas Barlow—who help her hunt for the relic. But when they attempt to pierce the veil of the past using an experimental drug, they are drawn into a liminal space and confronted by a faceless entity known as the Collector, who feeds on raw human emotion. In exchange for seven gruelling “Leechings,” he promises them the relic. Desperate, the students agree—only to discover that each trial grows more twisted than the last, testing not only their resolve, but the limits of their morality.

Interested? Let me know! It will definitely motivate me to get to it.