The Ultimate Works-in-Progress List!

In which I attempt to remember all the books I've semi-planned, and am appalled to discover that it's over forty. Really need to learn to be a faster writer now!

I have a story problem.

The story ideas come to me, looking all pretty and shiny, and I poke them a little and next thing you know, they blossom into intricate wonders that I simply must write. I’ve tried keeping them to a minimum, to no avail. They come, and I give them the attention they ask for, and maybe, someday, I’ll write them all up. It would be splendid to have this library of potential books someday become actual books filling a real shelf, wouldn’t it?

For now, though, I must content myself with one story at a time, one novel finished, one more word set down. The human, nitty-gritty, yet somehow beautiful way.

And I think it would be a good idea to introduce them to you. All of them (or at least all that I can remember off the top of my head). Because I refer to them fairly often and if I say something like “Oh, this picture has Belongside vibes!” or “This book really reminds me of a theme in We Are Old,” I’d like you to be able to come back to this post and figure out what I’m talking about.

So hang on to your hats for a long list of stories-in-progress!

Firstly, some groundwork.

I have three distinct, non-intersecting universes into which (almost) all my books fit. They’re separate, because there are unique events in all of them and the future of the world is different in each. And all my stories (with one possible exception) take place in the “real world,” because that’s how my brain works (alternate-world doesn’t make sense to me, and yes, I can explain that more if you like lol)

The Fairy Tales (FT) is the main one I’m working in and might be my favorite. It includes fairytale retellings, but mostly is epic original fantasy.

The Weaponsverse (WV) has aliens, interstellar warfare, time travel, and superheroes. I love it lots.

The Cybermancyverse (CMV) is a complex blend of mythology and cyberpunk. I think it’s brilliant, but it’s also temperamental and includes lots of dystopian elements, so it can be a struggle to write.

The following list won’t be in order, exactly, because I’ll write them as they come to me, but I’ll designate which universe they belong to by abbreviation.

Here goes!

Photo by Daria Kraplak on Unsplash

“Locks”

My current WIP. A dark fantasy retelling of Little Mermaid + Rapunzel in an early medieval Nordic setting, with epic quests, feral merfolk tribes, a cursed mermaid cast into a terrifying labyrinth, and a pirate hunting a legendary treasure that might save everyone.

Part of my series “The Floramancy Archives.”

FT

“Locks” will probably have a sequel titled "Wake,” which will be a Sleeping Beauty + Arthurian legend retelling, but underwater among the merfolk. However, I’m not actively planning that so no more details for now.

“The Floramancy Archives” as a series began with “A Time of Mourning and Dancing” (already published), and will continue through at least twelve books, most including the twelve dancing princesses featured in the first book. The setting is early medieval northern Europe, among small kingdoms and faery tribes, riddled with curses and magic and terrors behind every door. The word “Floramancy” refers to the plant-magic tied to the faeries and given to many of the royal and noble-born humans as christening-gifts. This plant and nature-based magic will feature in many of the stories (though my magic system tends on the softer side in this series).

I have plans for almost all of the books and several short and spinoff stories, including:

“The Mapmaker King”—short stories connecting the books and following one of the original main characters through various adventures. I’m hoping to write these and release them along the books as a sort of introduction.

“The War of the Fae”—a prequel novel exploring how the faeries came to be so closely tied to the people of this area.

And others!

I’ve done more planning work on some of the “Floramancy Archives” books than others. Here are the ones I know are coming after “Locks,” all with temporary titles:

“Bear With Me”

An epic fantasy retelling of Snow White and Rose Red + Tam Lin, about two exiled princesses who get drawn into a desperate war with neighboring fae, and make dangerous allies.

Part of The Floramancy Archives.

FT

“Wild Goose Chase”

Epic fantasy retelling of Goose Girl + The Gnome, about a princess tricked into carrying for a flock of geese that may be more than they seem, a strange tale of missing damsels, a huntsman who gets in over his head facing dragons and dwarfs, and sudden war.

Part of The Floramancy Archives

FT

“Swanning Around”

Epic fantasy retelling of Swan Lake+The Seven/Wild Swans.

This brings to a conclusion the story begun in the previous two books, as dwarf armies invade, sorcery is set to entangle all, and a lady-knight must make her final stand.

Part of The Floramancy Archives

FT

The preceding three are their own semi-independent trilogy, following the lady-knight Romarin as she first confronts the dwarf threat as a goose girl and then rallies her sisters and their various kingdoms into an epic fight. I think of this as “The Bird Trilogy,” which is a really silly title, but oh well. (This series is prone to having puns as working titles, in case you hadn’t noticed!)

My intention with “The Floramancy Archives” as a whole is to have each book stand alone as much as possible, so that readers can jump in and out if they want, while allowing greater depth across the whole series.

Anyway, carrying on!

“The Beasts of Blackwell”

A retelling/sequel to Beauty and the Beast, with elements of Scarlet Pimpernel.

Freeing a cursed lord from his beastly form is only the beginning, as a secret sorcerer threatens the lady and an army invades with a terrible dragon at their head.

Part of The Floramancy Archives.

FT

Untitled dark fantasy/horror retelling of Hansel and Gretel+Sleeping Beauty+Sir Orfeo.

This book will be toward the end of “The Floramancy Archives” and is set more than 100 years after the rest.

A girl slips through a portal in a witch’s oven into a strange wood to search for her brother. By the time she realizes it’s the Realms of Death, it’s too late to go back and she must rely on the mysterious knight who meets her there.

FT

I also have plans to retell Snow White, Maid Malleen, Jack and the Beanstalk, Bluebeard, Alice in Wonderland + The Masque of the Red Death, Little Red Riding Hood, a few of the Arabian Nights tales, and more as part of The Floramancy Archives. But these are all a little less solid for now.

Moving on…

“Reflection’s Curse”

Epic fantasy trilogy, finished but in edits.

A quest for a lost enchanted sword leads a young adventurer into confronting magic, monsters, and the weight of heritage. Meanwhile, a princess seeks to break her own curse, and finds court intrigue along the way.

Arthurian vibes, plus a modified Sleeping Beauty retelling.

FT

“Belongside”

Epic portal fantasy.

A modern young woman is drawn into another world by her brothers to quest for a cursed mirror. She might be the only hope in a terrible brewing war—if she can bring herself to believe that any of it is real.

Retelling of The Snow Queen, with a dash of the “Susan Problem” from the Chronicles of Narnia.

A more adult story that I think will be a trilogy.

FT

“Belongside” has grown as the implications and worldbuilding grow. It has several companion books, prequels, sequels, etc., so far, and I suspect there will be more. It’s one of my most elaborate and detailed settings and just begs for further stories. I’m a little in awe of it, to be honest!

I’ll tell more about these spinoffs later as I expand on them.

“The Snowbound” is a written-and-in-edits novelette prequel to “Belongside.” It’s a dark fantasy retelling of Snow White + Beauty and the Beast, with vampires that push it into horror territory in places. It’s set to publish in an upcoming anthology!

FT

“The Rise and Fall of the Dragon Empire”

A trilogy/series about a certain city in the mountain ranges that chooses to partner with/domesticate dragons. Things don’t go too well.

The individual books should be really fun, though, with an emphasis on adventure even as they track the empire’s descent.

FT

“The Book of Stories”

Fantasy/dystopia

A young woman born into a realm of archetypes discovers that what she writes sometimes becomes reality. But this magic is only associated with royalty, making her a target.

Meanwhile, a prince born without this magic discovers the curse locking their realm away, and must decide to act or leave things as they are.

FT

“Happily Ever After, and Then…”

Fantasy. A prince brings the lady he has rescued back home to become his bride. But a war looms and a political marriage may be expedient to fend it off, complicating the romance.

A powerful wizard says that war is inevitable, however, and it’s up to the lady to raise a band of adventurers to prevent the worst of it.

FT

“The Masked Actor”

Fantasy/original fairytale.

Kept prisoner all his life in a solitary cottage because of his hideous appearance, a prince breaks free and sets out to meet his family, including his twin who is courting the world’s silliest princess. Mistaken identities, court conspiracies, and other hijinks ensue.

FT

“Empty Corners”

Fantasy

A penniless lady is taken in by the lord of a haunted castle, shortly before his daughter’s wedding. The problem: anyone marrying in the castle is cursed to disappear on their wedding day, as if taken by the sunset itself. Our heroine resolves to get to the bottom of the curse, before it threatens the whole land.

FT

Gah! I could get derailed right here and tell about the five or seventeen other amazing projects I’ve come up with in the Fairy Tale world! Like:

The Garden of Crowns

The Bodyguard and the Princess

Dierdre and her criminal sorcerous family

The huge moving city one.

All of the contemporary projects.

But I’m trying to keep this list focused on stories that are in some level of development beyond the idea stage, so moving on to the Cybermancyverse (CMV)…

“Olympus Has Fallen”

A late antiquity fantasy set in Greece in the early days of Christianity.

Seeing their fall from power, some ancient gods raise up for themselves heroes among men in an attempt to reclaim the dominion they once held. War and tragedy follow—but also a strange glimmer of hope.

CMV

The Danny Grey series

Urban fantasy.

When a teen is sentenced to a detention facility in Albuquerque, what he isn’t expecting is to find a school for training magic users—still less that he is himself a talented wizard. Dealing with technofae is almost as complicated as handling fellow offenders, but neither is as bad as the prophecy that Danny’ll cause the end of the world.

CMV

“We Are Old”

Contemporary YA fantasy.

A teen thinks she’s losing her mind, but the truth is far more bizarre: She’s inherited centuries of memories, and danger threatens as the assassins who killed her predecessor are now on her trail.

CMV

“We Are Old” is the central work in what I’ve temporarily titled my “Reincarnates” series, which explores the many lives and adventures of a group of people who pass down complete memories from generation to generation—not souls, just the memories. They are very secretive and abide by strict rules, because this has been necessary, but every once in a while things go haywire.

The Reincarnates are very interesting, and this is actually the first time I’ve talked publicly about it so I’m a little nervous!

“Labyrinth”

Contemporary fantasy/disaster.

A dozen people win a trip to explore Mediterranean ruins with their plus-ones. But the expedition quickly turns into something darker when they’re cut off underground and face a terrifying proposition: solve a set of challenges and win freedom, or die in the attempt.

CMV

“A Wasteland Called Peace”

Near future dystopian fantasy.

A young man just trying to live in a technocratic state is suddenly plunged into something much deeper and older when visions of an ancient god invade his consciousness, and an old man warns him of a coming change.

CMV

“Riders on the Storm”

Post-apocalyptic fantasy.

The world has been remade by a magical catastrophe and one man leads his family across a land riddled with chimeras and cyborgs, while facing the darkness within himself.

CMV

There’s much more to the Cybermancyverse, with lots of worldbuilding, several more in-developments stories, and complex themes about nature, magic, materialism, the nature of divinity and humanity, and more. But the above are the main books/series.

So, moving on to the Weaponsverse….

“Weapons”

Contemporary YA sci-fi.

A group of teens discover that they were altered as children to make them into the ultimate weapons in a fight against invading aliens. The world has been nominally at peace for years, but the invasion is set to begin again and the Weapons will be called to war.

WV

“Weapons” is the original and centerpiece series within this universe, which is why I mention it first. I plan on it being quite long, comprising several series-within-series as the war and the world changes, but other stories will lead up to, away from, and intersecting with “Weapons,” MCU-like. Except hopefully I can keep my head and make it good!

“Treasures of Darkness”

Sci-fi/portal fantasy.

In 1929 England, a discontented youth discovers a door to another world. Meanwhile, a young lady sees visions of impending horror.

Soon, they are caught up in a war for the fate of a distant planet—and the universe.

WV

(This is my first ever book! I wrote quite a lot of it ages ago, and while it’ll need to be rewritten, it’s surprisingly not awful. And the bones are fantastic!)

“Off the Map”

Steampunk/sci-fi/time travel/horror

A mail-order bride on a train out west in 1876 suddenly must fight off attacking vampyres and strange stuff happening to time. But she has a secret: she’s an anomaly herself, from the year 2007, and just might be the key to saving all her fellow passengers.

WV

This one started out as a Doctor Who fanfic, but grew and changed. It never was a true fanfic, with an emphasis on story that has nothing to do with any established DW ep. It needs a lot of work—mostly to remove the Doctor (sadness!), but also to trim its sprawl down to book-length.

I developed quite a lot of DW fanfic, featuring both this character (Lydia), and her cousin Isabel. Most of it is quite strong science fiction and I fully intend to use it as part of the Weaponsverse. First, though, I get to develop a character to take the place of the Doctor, which is a fun challenge in its way since I get to reverse-engineer the Doctor and extrapolate from that. I have two characters who will take his role in the Weaponsverse—and one for the Fairy Tale universe, because the Doctor cannot be contained! Lol

“Under the Radar”

WW2 espionage/sci-fi

Apparently disparate people around the world come upon a technology in development that could change the course of the war in the Axis’ favor—and change the world. With a power-hungry madman intent on gaining control of this tech, the group must come together to fight back by whatever means necessary.

WV

“Under the Radar” started as a book with multiple POVs, but each character had such interesting sections that they ended up novel-length. So now it’s a series. I’ve written lots of it but it’s still only just beginning. Someday, though, I’ll return and finish it.

Fun fact: You can read a tie-in short story now! “The Man on the Train” published here.

The Academic Adventures is a loosely connected series set in the fictional Pemberton University. It has dark academia aesthetic, but a fun and playful spirit, inspired by those cheesy live-action Disney movies of the ‘50s. I’ll share more about them later, as I have time to work on them again.

OK, I will finish with the Weaponsverse there, even though there is SO MUCH MORE!!!!!!

Too much.

Maybe.

It’s a really fun series, with lots of interconnections and cools stuff.

What I haven’t covered because those stories haven’t solidified into actual plans yet: The space opera stuff, the ancient historical stuff, the entire superhero series…

One day, though!

“Figlio Fortunato”

Historical fantasy.

In Renaissance Italy, a young nobleman teams up with an older soldier to fight monsters, face down injustices, solve mysteries, and delve into the stranger side of the changing times.

A series that I’m mostly writing just because the research will be fun.

Unassigned.

“Four Calling Birds”

Victorian Gothic fantasy horror

A poor young lady goes to spend Christmas in a distant relative’s mansion. But something is wrong—and not just because the house is haunted. Unfinished business from centuries ago threatens them all, because something lingers that even the ghosts fear.

Unassigned

“Harness”

Urban fantasy/horror

When a young woman discovers that she’s become a werewolf, she resolves to hunt down the attacker who turned her and, if possible, break the curse. What she finds, though, is a tangle of organized crime and experimental science that wants to use the werewolves for their own ends.

Unassigned, though probably will end up CMV

“Five Days to Treasure”

Pirate romantasy/thriller

A ruthless pirate ship takes a small colonial Caribbean city hostage, demanding they reveal where a rumored treasure is hidden and swearing death to all. Desperate to save anyone she can, the governor’s daughter offers to help, even though she doesn’t know anything about the treasure, and she and the pirate captain must follow magical clues before the literal deadline.

Unassigned, though probably FT.

“The Tale of Two Cities”

Fantasy trilogy

In a world of monsters, darkness, and hatred, a young woman finds a man who seems ruled instead by light. His very presence challenges the lies that have built her city, but she can’t deny the truth he brings—or the attraction she feels. Rebellion is coming—and utter change.

Unassigned.

*

So, there you go!

Two notes.

First, I titled this “The Ultimate Works-in-Progress List!” and I should admit now that’s not quite accurate. I get new ideas all the time, refine old ones, forget and revisit things, and this list will be an ever-changing one. But for now at least, as of this early June day in 2024, these are the projects uppermost in my mind, which I am most focused on and hoping to complete.

Second, No Promises!! I want desperately to complete and publish all these ideas, but there are so many and I don’t want to promise you that I’ll get to them when I know perfectly well that may not be possible.

For now, though, which of these interests you most?

And be sure to subscribe to follow my madness, and share to make others follow along too!