So, I had this vision of a character who walked around all day with a gun to his head. The world operated on a strike system. Ya know, three strikes and you’re out sorta thing, except in this case out is—

Anyway, I never went anywhere with the story idea. When I thought about it throughout the day it never felt like a story, it seemed more like a painting. A cool concept that would require too many “whys?” to actually get the plot off the ground.

Last week I finally decided to do something about it. As I think I’ve mentioned before I’ve been on a bit of a short (long) story kicker and have a few projects on my computer that are in the 50-70 page zone. Not ideal for a marketing standpoint, not something I’m ever going to build a career out of, but long enough to tell the stories that have been on my mind lately.

This is the working cover for the story. Please be polite with your criticism of it.

When I started writing the story, I kept the general concept. The world was based on discipline, everyone inside it operated within a strict framework and any wavering from their orders would cost them.

The deaths became less graphic in my writing than they were in my head. People weren’t literally carrying around the device that would kill them if they strayed. Instead, it turned into an old video game style death. Lose three hearts and you just sorta blink out of existence.

What really took this story off the rails though was all the “whys?” Those pesky whys really make or break the story. This may be a piece of shit but damn it’s got some layers to it. Some I try to make obvious, others less so.

As some of you know my current obsession with writing has been technology vs. nature. The QT Pi series I’m working on is ALL about that. This story is unique in that it isn’t necessarily the nature of our planet.

It’s not much of a spoiler to say this since the whole concept is built around lives inside a video game, but this doesn’t take place in our world at all. It’s a nature verse technology fight in a realm of technology.

I’m trying not to say too much cause I’m worried I’m gonna give something away, and it’s probably all sounding like gibberish, but I’m really excited to share this story with you. I think the next few projects I publish will be short 50-70 page stories. I’ll probably bundle them all together too, all while I continue editing The Pathetic Tycoon and The Absolute.