I haven’t had any new writing to post here in quite some time. However, I have been writing. Way back in August I posted a short, 1,000-word piece I’d written for a flash fiction prompt. I decided to expand that out into a short novel; this past week I was able to finish that and get it sent out to some kind folks who volunteered to be early readers. Stay tuned for further updates as I get feedback and decide how to move forward with that story.
In the meantime, I don’t want to lose my momentum. I have a couple projects or ideas that have been stewing for a while (in various stages of the writing process). Since Substack is where most folks who read my writing see it (or at least see it for the first time) I figure that there’s no better place to gauge what I should work on next than here.
Gilbert, King of the Americans
First of the possibilities is an alternate history novel that is probably about half done. It’s set in the 1820s in a United States where, after gaining their independence, the colonies establish a constitutional monarchy. Family scandal and political unrest threaten the King of the Americans unless an up-and-coming politician—Winthrop McLoughlin the private secretary to the aging Foreign Secretary—can steer him through.
This would be similar in style and tone to my previous alternate history novels, Defying Conventions and Fit for Freedom (both of which can be read on Substack for free or purchased in physical copies from Amazon). I’m going to post the prologue that I’ve drafted for that one so that you can get an idea of what it’s like.
The Immortal Irishman
The second possibility is a story idea that I’ve started outlining and writing part of an early (maybe the first) scene. It took inspiration after listening to the audiobook version of The Immortal Irishman by Timothy Egan (I highly recommend it). The book follows the life of Thomas Francis Meagher, an Irish revolutionary who was exiled to Tasmania, eventually made his way to the United States, became a brigadier general during the American Civil War, and briefly served as the acting territorial governor of Montana.
Meagher died under uncertain circumstances, so I had the idea to come up with a “What if?” scenario. The one-sentence pitch for this story is: “Exiled Irish-American governor battles vigilantes and Irish nationalists to keep Montana Territory on the road to statehood.”
I have a general outline started; it would still need to be fleshed out a bit before I started writing in earnest. To give myself a taste of what the rest might be like I wrote the following little vignette.
He looked at the body hanging from the tree and sighed for Éire. It was the third lynching that week and Thomas Meagher was not sure that his tenure as Governor of the Montana Territory could survive another.
“They’ll see you hanged too, you know, if they can’t run you out of the territory first.”
Secretary of the Territory, Charles Gates, said it very matter-of-factly, as if it would not have bothered him much one way or the other what happened to the Governor.
Meagher’s sense of being regarded as an outsider had never been stronger than since he had arrived in Montana to take up his appointment: he was a Democrat, a native of Ireland, and a Roman Catholic (a “papist” for those who preferred to talk of his religion behind his back). He scolded himself for thinking that Gates’ indifference to his life should have come as a shock.
“I don’t doubt they want me gone one way or t’other, Charles, but I’d sooner transport myself back to Van Diemen’s Land than run away from this fight. No, if the blasted vigilance committees want me gone, they’ll surely have to string me up.”
Gates shrugged and rode back into town.
Another C.R. Moultrie story
I hope you’ve already read and enjoyed “Sheriff Moultrie and the Sulfur Springs Bandits” here on Substack. I have two more stories with the same character: “Ithuriel’s Spear,” which is published in the Winter 2023 issue of Cirsova Magazine, and “Range of Deceit,” which will appear in the same magazine this summer. I have a few more story ideas for that character and I’ve enjoyed writing each of the stories. I don’t have any ideas for full-length novels for him, so for now C.R. Moultrie likely continue to live on in he short story format.
Another Abishai Godfrey story
I introduced this character in my short story/novelette, “Beneath the Hill” which I published directly to Substack. I intended him as a kind of modern-day (well, post apocalyptic, I suppose) Solomon Kane (one of the famous character creations of Robert E. Howard). As with C.R. Moultrie, I have some more ideas percolating with this character, each of which would come out in short form rather than a novel.
There are some options. Which one appeals to you the most as a reader? Is there something else that I’ve written that you really enjoyed? Let me know in the comments.
Happy to see that C.R. Moultrie might be getting more stories in the future. He’ll always get my vote!
I like the first two ideas best, personally.