I kept it under wraps for nearly a year, and now seems like a good time to spill the beans: I've been writing a secret book, and I shall name it Perplexity. It is my first attempt at horror.
Pictured art subject to change.
What is it?
Perplexity is a psychological cosmic horror isekai. "Psychological" as in it plays with your mind, "cosmic horror" as in fear of one's own puny insignificance and uncontrollable, unknowable forces, and "isekai" as in being transported to (or from) another world (specifically in the Japanese storytelling format of light novels, anime, and manga).
It's also an original English light novel (OELN) and will feature manga-style character artwork, similar to my other two series The Integrity of the Super Club and ANNO DOMINI ~Allium~. That said, its writing style and tone will be nothing close to Super Club. Instead, it takes a lot of the psychological, uncomfortable techniques I devised for Perfect World, but I expanded on them. This is my debut into horror, after all.
The artwork is done by Mizael Tengu. I've wanted artwork from them for a light novel project for a long time, so I'm honored to have their talent for this story's aesthetics. You can check out their gallery here.
The Synopsis
The story follows a struggling author named Candice Dermott. When she meets a person who arrived from another world, she consequentially suffers from a resulting affliction. I won't go into the details of said affliction here, but it's the source of the story's horror elements and her mind-breaking plight. All I'll say is her condition has a little to do with writing (at least how she interprets it), and aspects of writing and storytelling make up the main themes of Perplexity.
Cool, but when's it come out?
That's something I'd like to know as well! Most likely toward the end of 2021, but that's tentative. I'm focusing on other things besides writing for now. Luckily, the perils of being a writer is another big theme for the story, so the more I struggle with it, the more fuel I have for it! Right???
Last thoughts...
I missed last month's blog entry, the reason being I had nothing new to report, and rehashing the previous post felt pointless. Because of this, I'm brainstorming ideas for future blog posts, more than just updates on my writing. There are a ton of possibilities, so if I keep my mind open, this blog can continue to improve.
If you have any ideas or suggestions for topics I can cover, send them my way with my website's message form here.
As always, thank you for reading!