The Stranded

    As I stated before, my writing has taken a different turn. I will be putting One Small Wish on the backburner for the time being until I have a point where I can dedicate more time to the story. It is one I feel very passionate about and to try to rush it around my schedule would be a mental injustice for me, even if people hate it. But my dream to write is far from dead......

   Tonight, I began work on another idea I kicked around for a d20 system game once upon a time and I considered it as a story at one point and now it has come together in my head. The book will be entitled The Stranded and it will be the story of a different type of apocalypse, not one of zombies or meteors or weather patterns going berserk, but a silent one where the people left standing will be faced with a world slowly falling apart as the things we take for granted slip away, how they will handle the simple task of survival and what each will do once society and morality disappear. I am currently only two pages into the book, but I am feeling very passionate about it. I am looking forward to filling in the cracks around the path and deciding how the world will rebuild itself and who is willing to make that happen.

   As for One Small Wish, I will still be kicking it around a bit as I shape up the flow I want it to take as I expand the story longer. I have only sent the rough drafts of that book to one person and while they liked it, it is now only half the book. I hope The Stranded proves enough of a success that this can become my way of paying the bills so I can eventually throw myself 110% into OSW.

   Now the tricky part. It will be a while before I am ready for this, but I will be looking for a few proof/beta readers once this project nears it's finish. I will keep this close to the belt and wait until I am comfortable with it as a finished product before I bring in anyone to read it, but it's better to look now. If interested, you can e-mail me at kennethlashley@gmail.com and I will take the 1st 5 people I feel comfortable enough with to proof it. My primary concers with that process are:

Holes in the story
Issues with any turns taken
Able to read and critique quickly
The ability to be objective and honest

  I will be looking for readers of different genres for this process as well, so if and when you contact me, include your favorite genres. I want this to be as right as it can be and able to be picked up by anyone and enjoyed. Again, it will be a few months before I will have the finishing touches on the ending (projected), so if you volunteer now and cannot then, no harm and no foul.