So, as part of the Murder in March promotion on Facebook, I got to talk about various stories I’ve got brewing in my head. One ‘lucky’ winner will get to die in one of the next stories I write.

Since I’m also working to create a series bible, here is what I’ve got so far. I have a few more ideas under my hats, but here are eleven concepts to start with, [My lists almost always go to Elevensies.], I’ll share the first five today.

Setting: My world, THE DESERTED LANDS, is an alternate future with the crux point of separation occurred around 2008. Major differences are increased investment in renewable power and national power grids. So when the bat flu strikes in 2019 many places retain power. The pandemic kills 95% of the population and leaves another 1-2% with impacted mental functions, referred to as dog-people. With most of the population dead there is plenty of food, gas, and other supplies…

Deserted Lands #1

SPOILER ALERT near the end of this concept…

Book I – Lizzie Trilogy – ALL IS SILENCE, STRAIGHT INTO DARKNESS, and NO MAN’S LAND. [SPOILER in the next paragraph.]  — In a future that could be ours, Lizzie, a suicidal teen-age girl, barely navigates her own life. Then everything falls apart. In an apocalyptic land nearly deserted by disease, she lacks reasons to live until a shocking turn of events reveals a phone number. Her call pulls her dangerously cross-country to meet a stranger she thought was dead.

Lizzie’s story continues into Book III – In NO MAN’S LAND, my current work in progress, there are many shady dealings between several factions of survivors. [SPOILER-avoid by skipping to next paragraph.] The man who helped pull Provo and most of the rest of Utah out of the Quieting has been assassinated and the assassin is dead. So, there are lots of opportunities to die. All I ask is that it is a realistic death. No zombies, magic, paranormal for me.

Deserted Lands Series #2.

Parallelequel to ALL IS SILENCE  and Prequel to Grace Series – TOILS AND SNARES — Untouched by a global pandemic killing over 95% of the population, Samuel’s family fears a mutated virus and the people who have survived it. Is this apocalypse an act of God? They may escape into the wilderness to find a place of safety as civilization dies around them, but can they escape each other and their pasts?

Deserted Lands Series. Concept #3

TOILS AND SNARES characters will eventually connect with folks from Lizzie’s storyline and become Grace’s Series [2-3 books] – Follows the family in the wilderness 16 years after TOILS AND SNARES. Everyone is related to everyone else, so now that the children are becoming adolescents and noticing the differences of the sexes, we must send at least one of them out into the world or bring back some eligible folk for them to be interested in.

Deserted Lands Series. Concept #4

Female cop who has only ever worked as a dispatcher loses her family and must take arms against posse’s of AR-15 toting vigilantes who are shooting anyone symptomatic. Probably a short story or a novelette. Working TItle: “Serve And Protect.”

Deserted Lands Series. Concept #5

A touring actor from France, stuck in New York City. Short story. Working Title: “Strangered in the Night.” May eventually appear in the novel about folks stuck on a cruise ship, (or sailboat?) crossing the Atlantic to Italy. The tell stories a la Boccaccio/Chaucer. Standalone Novel. Working Title: “ Voyage of the Decameron.” Not sure that any character is “murdered” in either of these.

Saving the rest for next week… Send me a comment if there is one of these that you really want me to write next.