You know, if there's one thing that I really needed to do -- now, while I've got two book-length writing projects in progress -- it's start on a third such project. But one of my favorite authors, Lilith Saintcrow, has a third Underdark book in the works, and that got me to thinking about how I might approach a similar format.
The Tales of the Underdark books aren't a series in the usual sense of the word. Instead, they're a collection of variations on a theme, with a woman who finds herself thrust into a strange but half-familiar world and forced to navigate unexpected dangers, unlikely allies and possible betrayers, and doubts about her own sanity.
I'd like to try my own hand at this. It won't be set in the same world, of course, because the Underdark books aren't set in a single world. It will be a portal fantasy, and my protagonist will be male -- not because he has to be, but because that's the variation I'd like to introduce and (if we're being completely honest here) because I'm liking the fantasy of taking a mortal man of my age and giving him the chance to return to physical youth, forgotten skills, and magic.
I also like the elements of Horror inherent in a setup like this: can you trust your own perceptions? Can you escape the things that are hunting you? How do you figure out who to trust? And, from an author's perspective, just how weird and terrifying can I make this world?
I don't write a lot of pure horror, and this book won't be that. But it will be a nice chance to wade out into those waters.
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