Marion G. Harmon, A Writer in Vegas.

“Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

Well, nobody’s reported me dead but I just looked up and realized that I haven’t posted here in months so people might have been growing concerned.

So, I am well.

Oh, you want to know more? Like “Where the heck is Capes?”

Capes has been delayed by the Worst Writer’s Slump Ever. It started with struggles over plotting/characterization for a brand new Main Character who is definitively Not Hope. It continued with hangups over the antagonist. It deepened as I mastered various avoidance techniques (mainly lots of editing, research, “de-stressing”, etc). I’d thought that, after ten books, I was past this kind of crap. Nope. BUT. I’ve overcome the legitimate issues and am now plowing ahead. I know What, Where, and Why, although the How is still in drafting mode.

The upshot is that I hope to have a finished draft by the end of May and a publishing date of June 1. I’m even looking into doing a Kickstarter campaign to launch the new Capes series with a hardback printing.

So what is Capes about?

Capes introduces a new hero: Killjoy. Born Kingston James Parks (his parents had a thing about naming their kids after cities and his sister’s names are Paris, Sydney, London, and Sophia), Killjoy is a C Class Jumper-Type. Think Nightcrawler without the mutant physique and extreme acrobatics. He experiences his breakthrough during the Chicago Attack that kicked off Repercussions, and it takes during and after the events of Repercussions and Joyeuse Guard. In plot structure it resembles Wearing the Cape more than any other book in the series, since it’s dealing with events that unfold over the course of months.

Beyond introducing a new MC, I also decided to write Capes to dive into the post-Repercussions direction of the WtC world, with all the consequences and ramifications of the Ascendancy’s attempt to take down civilization. A bit of that was covered in Joyeuse Guard, but the more Astra-centric stories missed a lot; among other things, worsening anti-breakthrough sentiment with nasty social and political trends. The Future Files predicted a deepening spiral of conflict; well, it’s beginning.

Worsening public sentiment towards breakthroughs, heightened by follow-on attacks by the Ascendancy (which has metastasized from a tight-nit group of fanatics to a breakthrough-supremacist movement). In response there is growing Humanity First influence, with Paladin attacks, driven by an evolving anti-breakthrough dogma centered around Intruder Theory (the belief that breakthrough powers are the result of possession by extra-dimensional beings inimical to humanity). Under Intruder Theory, breakthroughs are no more human than vampires in the Buffyverse; their minds have been replaced by the intruder’s minds although they retain their human memories.

And of course, Kingston gets caught up in all of this. Joy. No, the WtC world isn’t going grimdark, but shadows are deepening. The story introduces a bunch of new heroes, and brings back others we already know.

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Beyond THE WORK, other things are happening. It looks like I may be attending more cons this year than I thought. The only one locked down so far is Gen Con, but three others are in the pipeline. I’m moving forward slowly on the Meridian RPG System, although that takes a back seat to finishing up Capes. There are other things I can’t talk about yet.

So that’s what’s going on, and I hope everyone will be patient with me.

Be good and do good.
MGH