Project Shadolure

Hi guys,

I would like to just take some time to put my thoughts on this cyber page for a minute. Things have been going well for a while... With everything, actually - so much so that I'm a little suspicious of what life has in store for me. See, things had never gone this well for me for a very long time. Whenever something good happened in the past, there's always a catch. But now, it seems that life is just good - My job as a tutor has reached maturity, and I could be pulling in $2,400  by next month. This is accomplished with not even half the amount of time I'm putting into my previous job.

Anyway, let's talk about Project Shadolure. It's the very next thing I'm working on. It's an interquel to The Keeper of Pulau Purba, one that will join an ever-expanding shelf full of it: Parade Day in Through the Abyssal Gates and His Model Son (formerly A Model Son).

I haven't even named the new novella yet. Project Shadolure is just a working title. The plan though is that it's going to be offered as the loss-leader of the franchise. It will be available for free on Amazon.

However, this is where I stumble. Admittedly, I'm unsure if the story I've planned is good enough. This time, the story concerns a pair of Full-Time National Servicemen, conscripts who are made security troopers and transferred to Pulau Purba after they graduated from their vocational course.

The story begins on the night just before the ill-fated parade when the nightmare begins proper, and half of it will be told in flashbacks before they have their own run-in with the darkness that plagues the titular island.

So far, the only concrete thing I've worked out are the co-protagonists. One of them is a brainy, if frail, academically-inclined young man who just wants to get out of the army to take his place in a university, while the other is more into the martial pursuits, have a rich family background stretching back hundreds of years, and is deciding between a career between the army and police.

I will be avoiding stereotypes though - the former may be brainy, but that doesn't mean he's going to be a push-over. It's very hard to be a push-over when your life's on the line and you have so much to live for. Similarly, the latter fellow isn't going to be stupid just because he's strong and athletic and wants to be a soldier or police officer. He's actually going to be streetwise in his own way, complex in personality and motivations, and his patriotism does have limits.

My hope is that this dynamic between them, plus a slightly more ambitious story structure (it won't be so linear this time) that's developed on top of the lore I have already developed for the universe, will carry the day this time.