Originally Posted by Chiomara

Does anyone else get the majority of their story ideas from dreams? That's where most of mine emerge. I've long wanted to write a two-part book (one set in the 1930s, the other in the 50s) loosely based upon a distressingly vivid recurring dream I used to have which took place in a tiny, cloistered town in the 1930s that was terrorized by a religious cult leader and a family dispute. (With some magical realism, mental illness, abuse and murder thrown in. It will not be an easy thing to write due to some of the subject matter.)

The research involved will take a couple years. And will likely involve traveling to various tiny Appalachian towns as well as various small southern evangelist churches.. So, I've no idea when that process will start. Also, halfway through planning all this years ago, I discovered that there in fact existed a real, long-running school that was almost exactly like the one I'd imagined/dreamed called the Dozier School for Boys. (A horribly abusive place that was responsible for countless deaths.) So I now feel the need to do some in-depth research about that place as well.

Shamefully, I'm not even entirely sure what the core plot will consist of exactly. I know that book one will end with a murder near the juke joint occurring during the cult's nocturnal river baptism, and that book two will focus mainly on the adult children of those in book one.

Truly, it would all work far better as either a film or a graphic novel (storyboarding it was a breeze, though unfortunately I never finished that process) so I probably ought to practice drawing again... Which I haven't done in, oh, about a decade or so. Although if I went that route, I'd likely make it more of a southern-gothic vengeance tale.

I would also LOVE to write a brief illustrated history of some of the more eccentric and neurotic famous women (including minor princesses and empresses) of yore. Little Edie Beale, Empress Elisabeth of Bavaria, Zelda Fitzgerald, etc. Or perhaps not, seeing as Kate Beaton (of the Hark! a Vagrant webcomic) has already done that far better than I ever could.



Ah, thank you (I was aware of that thread but couldn't remember if he'd posted in it)

Originally Posted by Oriphiel

Hmm, what's this in my pocket?

*epic guitar solo blasts into my face*

DAMN IT MONDO