What did you do before the war? -- Antebellum

So...I've been gone a while. Yep. Sorry. Back to work now.

For those who missed it, I release episode 3 of "Paradise Remnants" last week. You can find it at Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble, as usual.

Today marks the release of a new story...which is actually an old story. "Antebellum" is a story I wrote a couple years ago, and was easily the best thing I wrote that year. I was a much different writer then than I am now. I certainly had no conception of length, and how much I could accomplish in a couple thousand words.

(Sometimes I think I still haven't learned that lesson. *shrug* Oh well.)

Gotta say, best cover I've designed so far.

"Antebellum" is presented to you as-is, but it's also the start of a much bigger project.

Earlier this semester, in Mythology class, we talked about the fallacy of the ur-text -- the idea that all myths (or at least the more commonly seen mythological arcs) can be traced back to a single myth in the far distant past. We've also been discussing ideas about the solidity of a myth. Basically, even though you encounter a mythological story in one context, with certain events and themes, it doesn't make a different presentation of that myth less valid. Think "Cupid and Psyche" vs "Till We Have Faces." Same myth; different tellings; both valid.

That's what I'm going to be doing with "Antebellum"

Last semester, I mentioned my English Honors Project. My goal has expanded somewhat. In addition to the novella I am writing for the honors project that expands "Antebellum" and firmly grounds it in a post-apocalyptic plague-era England. It features more or less the same characters, but expands the story and considers what effect the specific setting of plague-era England has on their behavior.

Similarly, I'll be expanding "Antebellum" in a completely different direction by writing a novel that sets the characters in post-World War I Europe, and exploring that historical setting as if it were a post-apocalyptic one.

In this way, "Antebellum" is like the precursor or the ur-text for these upcoming projects. So, in preparation for those releases, check out "Antebellum" and start considering where the story might go if it were set in England, 1351, or in mainland Europe, 1919.

What did you do before the war?

Until next time...
-josh k.