Works in progress...

A brief guide to my imaginary worlds. . . and beyond!

Photo by Jan Kahánek on Unsplash

Welcome! Whether you’ve been following Pagerturning since the beginning or whether you’re new here, I’d like to invite you to join me on a brief overview of my current works in progress (WIPs).

For the last four years, I’ve mostly been writing creative nonfiction — essays, reviews, opinion pieces, interviews, and spiritual reflections.

But I’ve always been a storyteller at heart, and my great dream is to write fiction for a living. I always have several writing projects in the forge at once. Below you’ll find historical fantasy, sci-fi/horror, portal fantasy, space opera, and more!

Think of this post as an introduction to the landscape of my imagination. As a certain grey wizard said once upon a time. . . . “I’m looking for someone to share in an adventure!”

Dragonslayer Saints

This book was originally conceived as a collection of dragon-lore from the lives of the Christian saints—straightforward retellings of the hagiographic legends—crafted especially for young readers.

Every time I’ve told someone about this book, the immediate reaction is something like: “I need this for my son!” “My nieces and nephews would love this!” “That would be a perfect gift for my godson!” . . .

Obviously, dragons strike a chord with people, young and old alike. Just look at the enduring popularity of The Hobbit. The How to Train Your Dragon movies were so widely beloved that Hollywood has already decided to greenlight live action remakes!

Also, I think that people are hungry for stories of heroism and the clear stakes of good vs. evil in a world that is becoming morally confused. The legendary feats of saints like George, Martha, the Archangel Michael, and others, are sure to find an eager audience.

Miniature from a Passio Sancti Georgii manuscript (Verona, second half of 13th century)

As you may know I pitched Dragonslayer Saints at the Catholic Writer’s Guild online conference earlier this year and was invited to submit the complete manuscript to a publisher. Unfortunately, it was rejected.

I’m currently working on a completely revised draft based on an editor’s gracious and insightful feedback. All fourteen chapters will be rewritten and expanded. No longer simple retellings, these stories will be more like reimaginings—exciting tales that (I hope) retain the spirit of the original myths.

And here’s the really cool part: to help keep me accountable and motivated, I plan to post each revised chapter right here on Pageturning! No paywall.

This is going to give you, my subscribers and supporters, a front row seat to my revision process. I’d welcome your feedback, critiques, and encouragement along the way!

Sword of Arathain, Book 1: The Pilgrim Prince

Ever since I first read The Lord of the Rings when I was thirteen years old, I’ve wanted to write an epic fantasy novel. Over the years, I’ve played around with many different ideas but none of them bore any fruit.

Then, about a year or two ago, an idea game to me out of the blue—What would happen in a fantasy world after the Dark Lord is already defeated? That got me thinking: What would it be like to be the son of a hero-king like Aragorn or Arthur? Imagine the weight of responsibility and expectation on the shoulders of that young man! Could he ever live up to his father’s mighty legacy? What would his fears and anxieties about “measuring up” eventually drive him to do?

Photo by Ricardo Cruz on Unsplash

From these questions emerged the outline for an epic fantasy novel that I’m calling The Pilgrim Prince, the first in a series of adventures titled The Sword of Arathain. Inspired by Tolkien and by the Arthurian legends, this series will follow the adventures of Prince Tiran across an enchanted realm full of wonder and terror, as he seeks to restore balance after the fall of an ancient evil.

Here’s the brief logline that I’ve come up with for the story:

After crown prince Tiran steals his father’s enchanted sword, he must atone for this grave mistake by finding the fabled Shrine of Silver Flame before the entire realm of Arathain succumbs to a curse known as the Withering.

As I mentioned above, I have a working outline for The Pilgrim Prince thanks to the patient assistance of my book coach Katelin Cummins. Using the Blueprint for a Book method, I was able to identify the core themes of my story and build outward from there.

I’ve tried a few times to begin writing a first draft of this story, but I always seem to crash straight into writer’s block. I’ve decided to take a step back from this project for the rest of the summer. I’m still working on it bit by bit (I recently started drawing a map of Arathain!) but I’m not going to focus on it full time until I can accomplish a few other goals.

Encounter at Hangman Hill and Other Perilous Tales

Reading the work of Ray Bradbury ignited my love of short stories, especially in the sci-fi/fantasy/horror genres. I’ve written a few unpublished stories, but I have entire documents filled with ideas for more!

Encounter at Hangman Hill is a collaboration with my friend

Paul Leone

, fellow writer and proprietor of

The Scriptorium: Paul Leone's Writings and Musings

. This book is a collection of “weird tales” that will pit daring heroes against both supernatural threats and the unyielding forces of nature in remote locales, ranging from the Wild West, to the Sahara and Gobi deserts, and far beyond!

In a similar vein to Paul’s other recent collections (including Kung Fu Antipopes and The Third Crown) many of the stories included in Hangman Hill are set in Paul’s “Championsverse.”

Concerning Champions

The first story in our new collab is already finished—the 12k word sci-fi/horror tale “Field Station Delta.” I’m also in the early stages of drafting “The Beast of Oak Point”, a werewolf story set in my native stomping grounds on Long Island, New York. Notes exist for at least three more stories, including the titular “weird west” yarn “Encounter at Hangman Hill.”

With Paul’s permission I will likely post early versions of these stories here to Pageturning. My goal is to finish writing most of these stories by the end of the year, so previewing them here on Substack will help me stay motivated throughout the drafting process.

Untitled Science-Fantasy

This is envisioned as (possibly) my first novel-length work. Currently without an overall title, it’s in the very early stages of development. I like to imagine it as the Netflix series Stranger Things meets That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis plus a dash of Stephen King’s Fairy Tale. Everyone with whom I’ve shared that premise has shown immediate interest, so I must be onto something. . .

In any case, this project began as a short story that I wrote during a fiction-writing boot camp hosted by my friends over at the

LegendFiction

community page. The initial plot device is very simple: A teenage boy discovers a locked trap door in the basement of his grandfather’s old house. . . What does he discover inside?

My ideas have continued to evolve until the original story, entitled simply “The Trap Door”, became Chapter 1 of a science-fantasy novel. I plan to put this initial chapter through a revision or two before I decide whether or not to post it here. I’d like to hear your thoughts though: What do you think of the premise?

Other stuff…

Of course, I also have many other ideas bouncing around my head at any given time. One of these is a science-fantasy world inspired partly by Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series, as well by as her lesser known duology The Mystery of Ireta (a.k.a. Dinosaur Planet). That’s all I’ll say about it at present. Don’t worry, I may flesh out this world for you in future posts.

On top of all that, I also dream of writing a sprawling space opera, kind of like my own answer to Dune or to to Christopher Ruocchio’s The Sun Eater. If The Lord of the Rings in space sounds like your jam, well. . . Let’s just say you may have to wait a while (probably a long while. . . ) I hope you will see it in print one day.

---

Thanks so much for enduring a barrage of all of my crazy ideas!! (At least, on certain days, they seem crazy to me.) If you’ve just found my little corner of Substack, I’d like to invite you to subscribe to this newsletter. If you could also share it with someone who might enjoy my stories, that will really help this venture grow!

My author newsletter exists because of the support of readers like you. I love to engage with my audience, so please leave a comment below! Is there one of my WIPs that particularly piques your interest? I’d love to know! Let’s get a conversation started.

And please, tell me all about your own WIPs. My fondest hope for Pageturning is to build a supportive community of writers and other creators. Until next time, God bless and happy reading!