When Asaad fell in Syria in December 2024, it began the mental wheels spinning. Apparently, it happened so quickly that no one was prepared for the aftermath. What was expected to take months took days. Not for the first time, I found myself thinking about what happens after the uprising. Surely, there is no “they lived happily ever after”. It’s messy and complicated, and as the country lurches forward, what happens day-to-day? What is the impact on the people?
I’d play around with the idea, with mixed results, in my contribution to the original Thrilling Adventure Yarns, but I wanted to expand on the ideas.
I spent the first half of 2025 thinking about it, and finally, on July 2, I opened a document and began worldbuilding. I figured out the main characters, secondary characters, and some thoughts on the world itself. I then had to figure out why there was a rebellion, which led me to trace the country’s history. I needed to determine the nature of the geography involved, since such a regime change would be welcomed or feared by their neighbors. I figured out the level of technology, economic output, and so on. I needed to create a religion (if L. Ron Hubbard could do it, so could I) and consider what the conflict would be.
I spent much of the summer going down these rabbit holes, and finally began drafting a short précis of the story to turn into an outline. After discussing some of this with members of Crazy 8 Press, who had been asking when I would write a novel for our imprint, I realized the time had come to outline.
Of course, teaching derailed active outline work for much of the fall, so I didn’t really work on the actual chapter-by-chapter outline until winter break. Somewhere along the way, I managed the first 12 chapters of what was projected as a 40-chapter work, broken down into four 10-chapter blocks.
Twelve chapters became 14 and then stalled out again, since this was always intended to be done when clear chunks of time were available for me to really dive in. I have never written an original novel and wanted to take my time, work on the plotting, and later work on the wordsmithing.
Much to my surprise, more chunks of time opened themselves up, so I dove in. After each 10-chapter block, I paused to reread and tweak before forging ahead. I did the same thing at the halfway mark. I then made bullet points for things that could happen to characters and the country. Slowly, bit by bit, those got fleshed out, and I reached the 30-chapter mark and then the 40-chapter goal. I was surprised when I finished considering how long I had been thinking about this.
I let the outline sit for several days, then dove back in and, over three days, revised and tweaked it, and this morning decided it was as done as I could make it for now. Two people had volunteered to act as beta readers, and the outline was sent to the first, so now I get to wait for feedback.
It’s an odd feeling to have never done this before and to be this nervous.
What We’re Watching
We continue to rotate through various series. This past week, we finished Starfleet Academy, The Lincoln Lawyer, and Bridgerton, while staying current with The Rookie, Grey’s Anatomy, and The Pitt. We’re finishing up Industry and The Night Manager this week, and then we will select from the ever-lengthening Watchlist to see what we feel like. Rounding out the list are Matlock S2 and Family Law S3. And when Deb is out for the evening, I am trying to catch up on Evil and Monarch, plus my West Wing rewatch.
Starfleet Academy grew on me after a very rocky start. I think there were some serious missteps, such as conducting diplomatic relations in public, or the trite ‘guy has to give up his dream to honor a marriage contract’. The two-part finale was marred by the ridiculousness of Omega 47 bombs encircling the entire Federation and apparently having no friends beyond their borders. It felt contrived that only the Athena was free. And too many countdowns when the audience already knows they will succeed. Some of the characters have grown on me, although I find SAM (either version) annoying and Genesis underutilized. Tarima has the potential to be the real heart of the show. Caleb Mir started off overly angry, and then, as happens with every ST series, the edges are quickly sanded down. Not that he’s cuddly now, but he’s less annoying and nowhere near as interesting as the others. The adult characters are all fine, and I appreciate Holly Hunter’s efforts to differentiate her leadership role from what came before. Thura Lok had a lot of promise as a distinct character, but then they stopped using her effectively. The real scene-stealer has been Tig Notaro, as seen in the tenth episode.
As the Big Bad, Paul Giamatti chewed the scenery with glee and was fun to watch. I just wish he weren’t given so many Terran colloquialisms, making him sound far less alien.
What I’m Reading
My pal Robert T. Jeschonek hit on the brilliant idea of celebrating the independent creators of the 1980s by asking them to take their creations and pen brand-new prose stories. He has successfully Kickstarted not one, but two volumes of Legends of Indie Comics: Words Only. I recently completed the first book and really enjoyed revisiting some of these characters, and was impressed by how adept many of the creators were at adapting their comics to prose.
I also just finished Kevin Baker’s Dreamland, a historic fantasy set in and around Brooklyn circa 1910, mixing real people with fictional creations. He played a little too fast and loose with the real events, but overall, I enjoyed it.
I also liked Louise Erdrich’s The Mighty Red, a contemporary fiction story set in North Dakota, and featuring a stratum of society I was largely unfamiliar with.
My current audio listen is Coco Mellors’ Cleopatra and Frankenstein; on the tablet, I am about to begin Chris Ryall’s Daredevil: Born Again; and on the nightstand is the mammoth Locas by Jaime Hernandez (speaking of 1980s creators).
#Tags: Bridgerton, Chris Ryall, Cleopatra and Frankenstein, Coco Mellors, Crazy 8 Press, Daredevil: Born Again, Dreamland, Family Law, Grey's Anatomy, Jaime Hernandez, Kevin Baker, Legends of Indie Comics, Locas, Louise Erdritch, Matlock, Starfleet Academy, Syria, The Lincoln Lawyer, The Mighty Red, The Night Manager, The Pitt, The Rookie, Thrilling Adventure Yarns, West Wing