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The Looming Threat
Despite the existential horror of a world in quarantine and the economic fallout that comes from that, I’m actually talking about my novel series here.
Real World Concerns
First things first, the picture up there is actually referring to Empire City. The setting of my current work in progress is a parallel universe analog of New York City. Empire City first appears in my 2019 Holiday Season Serial Romance, A Misfit Christmas.
The real New York City in our world is currently in a complete world of 💩 due to the inept leadership of both the Mayor and the Governor. Please, please, please, stop voting for Democrats.
In my own state, our inept Governor has locked down even the most sparsely populated counties ostensibly for our own good. Give me a break. The whole nanny-state approach is causing unsustainable levels of stress, economic hardship and doesn’t actually seem to be having any positive effect. Obviously, if everybody has to stay home, there will be less spread of the virus. The thing is, only a small portion of the population is actually susceptible to the worst effects of infection. The rest of the population is actually free to mingle and build up a “herd immunity” and restore the faltering economy.
Quarantine should be applied to those who are at risk rather than everyone. Mitigation strategies should be designed with the health of the community in mind rather than simply implementing knee-jerk panic responses. We’ve tried shutdown and it doesn’t seem to be doing a whole lot of good. It’s time to start letting the lower risk members of the population out to start restoring the economic health of the community.
The King of Existential Horror
Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown
Full Movie | Snagfilms
Howard Phillips Lovecraft introduced the world to an entirely new sub-genre of horror fiction. While most horror stories before him usually involved creatures who could be defeated in a world with a generally optimistic worldview, the stories of Lovecraft focused on characters who came to understand that the universe is vast, we are insignificant and there are things that can and will destroy us without a second glance because they just don’t even care.
Check out the biographical documentary film above for a look at what made Lovecraft write in this way.
I, on the other hand, am more optimistic and my fiction reflects that. My characters aren’t necessarily plucky but they are (I hope) emotionally and behaviorally believable. Heroic fiction often relies on plucky or gritty protagonists who push through seemingly insurmountable opposition throughout the classic three-act structure.
It’s been said that “Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.” As an INTP, I fall directly into the Thinking camp.
I’m capable of laughing at completely inappropriate things. I’m also capable of delving into deeply horrible things and still maintaining my basically optimistic worldview. Hopefully, my fiction reflects that and resonates with people who wind up reading it.
The world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind. ~H. P. Lovecraft
Progress Toward A Conclusion
I’ve been cracking along at an admirable rate. Somewhere between 3000-6000 words per day has been my average. That will get the story done fairly soon.
Plotwise, we’re approaching the big reveal. The big bads have been mentioned, remembered and somewhat explained but we haven’t seen them yet. The moment for that is coming. The thing is, they’re not the Legion of Doom or the Slave Lords. They’re not some band of supervillains to be thrashed. In fact, they’re not actually even the big bads.
They’re the big bads of the novel but they’re not actually the big bads of the series. The problem runs deeper than the quasi-immortal shadow government of Empire City. They think that they are using “The Visitors” to prolong their lives because they are supremely egotistical but it needs to be considered that perhaps the Visitors are actually using them for some unknown purpose.
The Visitors are not cosmic horrors in the tradition of Lovecraft monsters. They are not so powerful and so far removed from our scope of perception that simply knowing that they exist leads to insanity. That was Lovecraft’s bag. The Visitors aren’t exactly space-baddies like the Chitauri or Parademons who can simply be bopped by an adequately powerful superhero either. They’re going to be different.
I can’t say much more because of spoilers but mostly because I haven’t really figured out what their game is. The series is an eight novel collection that follows “The Hero’s Journey” for The Sentinels as a whole while also exploring “The Villain’s Journey” for The Visitors at large.
That’s the plan. For now, I have to get through the first book in order to get on to the others.
Hold tight, folks. The government is going to eventually figure out that they can’t keep us cooped up indefinitely. They’ve been operating on fantastical models and theories. Theories eventually need to be proven or disproven. I think we’re pretty close to disproof at this point. It’s only a matter of time before reality bursts their theoretical bubbles.