As a safety valve to blow off pressure caused by designing a blog and website, using WordPress, I've been writing a couple of short stories.
Only visiting them once every few weeks has made the characters militant, and they've hijacked the plot, taking it in directions I hadn't anticipated. One story is about a hedge witch intrigued by a newcomer to her village who appears to have arcane knowledge. I intended it to be an unusual love story with spells, curses, blessings and bindings—mild enough to be printed by a women's magazine, but it's strayed into malevolent voodoo territory.
The other story is intended as a giveaway for subscribers to my Cornish Detective website. Featuring an early investigation by my protagonist, I planned for it to be an introduction to his characteristics and how crimes committed on the spur of the moment have consequences through the ages. Instead, a ghost of one of the victims hijacked the narrative adding spookiness.
At least these tales only wandered into a similar sub-genre, but it set me to thinking about how I could introduce bizarre elements into Detective Chief Inspector Neil Kettle's investigations. He's already tapped into lessons his farming ancestors taught him, so I could take things further. Crime writers James Oswald, James Lee Burke and John Connolly use supernatural forces to assist their main character.
I like the idea of writing a stand-alone novel based on a mashup of eras and genres:
Mashup novels - Wikipedia
5 Mashup Novels That Offer Worthy Twists on the Originals
A mashup of cavemen meeting cyborgs could be fun.
What mashup do you fancy writing?
Only visiting them once every few weeks has made the characters militant, and they've hijacked the plot, taking it in directions I hadn't anticipated. One story is about a hedge witch intrigued by a newcomer to her village who appears to have arcane knowledge. I intended it to be an unusual love story with spells, curses, blessings and bindings—mild enough to be printed by a women's magazine, but it's strayed into malevolent voodoo territory.
The other story is intended as a giveaway for subscribers to my Cornish Detective website. Featuring an early investigation by my protagonist, I planned for it to be an introduction to his characteristics and how crimes committed on the spur of the moment have consequences through the ages. Instead, a ghost of one of the victims hijacked the narrative adding spookiness.
At least these tales only wandered into a similar sub-genre, but it set me to thinking about how I could introduce bizarre elements into Detective Chief Inspector Neil Kettle's investigations. He's already tapped into lessons his farming ancestors taught him, so I could take things further. Crime writers James Oswald, James Lee Burke and John Connolly use supernatural forces to assist their main character.
I like the idea of writing a stand-alone novel based on a mashup of eras and genres:
Mashup novels - Wikipedia
5 Mashup Novels That Offer Worthy Twists on the Originals
A mashup of cavemen meeting cyborgs could be fun.
What mashup do you fancy writing?