Writing Hooks — 15mar26

As many of you are already aware, I have been trying to create and add more prose content to the site after a very lengthy hiatus away from the habit. What many of you may not know is that Sunny Day Parasol Co. was going back to when I first started trying to post long fiction online around 2000. I had a small site I named after my spoken word salon in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle in the mid-90s, “Sweet Immolation” and, at the time, I envisioned fiction in the age of the internet being an episodic or serialized thing.

Old history

I wrote a very bad serialized “novel” called Drifter: A Love Story. It was a tale about a guy with a cursed touch which turned living things to ash. Like a reverse Midas touch, if you dig. He was tasked with stopping a young woman named Logan from opening the door (along with angle travel skills, she was primarily an opener of locked doors) that let in bad things from the “otherside”, by any means necessary. Including turning her to ash, if needed. His reward? Finally having the curse lifted so he could touch other people without turning them to so much dust. The only problem was, he started to fall in love with her as he tried to catch up with her. They both traveled though the angled space between spaces, she a natural and he a poorly-trained novice.

And, of course, there was an evil overlord playing chess with them, wanting to make sure the door was opened. I had to get all those tropes in. I was going to take the internet by storm, dammit.

I got about 45 episodes into the tale (all about 800 words each, this was before the term “flash fiction” had really taken off), painted myself into a corner that I couldn’t get out of and… well, that was the end of that tale. My chance at greatness stymied by my own hands.

There was only one teeny tiny problem. The story was bloody awful. I mean, it was a foul turd that no one had the decently to tell me was sitting on a virtual shelf with my name on it.

I like to think that I’ve learned a few things since that time.

But maybe not.

Anyway, I did a few other serialized tales since then, most left unfinished. But Sunny Day? That one’s now in the can. If you’ve been reading it, your long torture will be over in just five more case files and a short epilogue. May the strongest survive!

Future thoughts

A couple of days ago, I asked how you folks felt about “Cobblestone Macabre” versus “Gothic West”, the first a subgenre of my own devising, and the latter one that exists but has been largely underexplored — as opposed to Weird West, which has been explored under several names relatively well, although not as extensively as cyberpunk or steampunk.

The big reveal here is, based on limited responses about what sounded more interesting and my own inclinations, I have elected to pursue the Gothic West concept for my next tool of torture.

In 2006 (apparently) I started something along the lines of what might fit into that Gothic West label. It was slightly more sci-fi than what I currently have in mind (cyborg horse is one indicator, monofilament blade another). I abandoned it after about 2000 words. I’m not entirely certain why. When I “discovered” it a few years ago, I was baffled by my decision. Here was something that held some promise and I just… abandoned it?!?!?

Chances are, I thought no one would find the idea or story compelling at the time. A drifter type in a broken, dying and corrupt world? Nah, never.

Anyway… the story fragment, after rework (yes, I did a minor bit of cleanup on the content to see if it will work), holds significant promise and I think that will be the next thing I attack.

Some of you may have seen the story a few years ago. I think I posted an edited version as a curiosity (“Look what I found”) in earlier iterations of the site. I think I will reclaim the original title I used on the NaNoWriMo project because it is one of my better titles and more suited to the general theme of this story than the NaNo fail: Vengeance, My Heart.

Look for the first episode in the coming weeks, shortly after I wrap up publishing all of the remaining “Case Files” of Sunny Day Parasol Co.

Thanks for everyone who has read my most recent attempt at being a real writer in the way that Pinocchio aspired to be a real boy. I really appreciate you taking the time to read and give your positive feedback. I appreciate it.