A Little About A Lot of My Works In Progress

WLRD IN PROGRESS: My Next Six Titles Are Here To Immerse - Not Introduce - You To My Fiction.

I feel like I say it a lot, but you ought to know: I've been writing my ass off as of lately. I think it's safe to say that since releasing We Missed A Meeting in 2018, I've gotten more ambitious about finishing writing projects, and more importantly, I've taken serious the impact my work can have on my life and the lives of my readers. Since 2018, meeting people in public who have read my work has only gotten to be a more fulfilling experience than I thought.

There's a huge difference between fire emojis under posts announcing titles and the head nod you get from someone who genuinely felt anxiety for Richard Ferguson in They Chose You, Mr. Ferguson. It's a no brainer that people connect to characters and situations in the work the read and watch, but when those characters and situations are inspired by your thoughts, your experiences, and in worlds you've created, it honestly hits different.

And so, since October of 2018, I have been going through a tough process of going from a guy who published a book to a full-steam self-published author, and one who owns a publishing-adjacent creative company. I have a lot of faith in my projects, and that is where ORIGINS24 comes into play. The anthology series is wildly different from We Missed A Meeting and, honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the reader base don't overlap. At first it was something that I was struggling with accepting, but since beginning my work on A Boy Bathed In Blood, I've just come to grips with the fact that it's supposed to be that way.

And so, what I have now in my arsenal is two starkly different fiction titles: We Missed A Meeting and Origins24.

The former exists in a world that feels so familiar and adjacent to our own. The characters work jobs like we do, they live in a city like we do, and the events of that story, though, bizarre and controversial, have direct real-world connections that, to folks who don't often read contemporary fiction, pulls you in quicker than you're aware of.

The latter, though, is for the most fantasy-leaning reader, who looks for deeper meaning, and is alright with committing to liking characters for shorter spurts compared to a novel series (I should let y'all know that I had quite a group of people upset with the ending of We Missed A Meeting, by the way).

Either way you look at it, I now have readers or an audience - or as I should say with a stint of humblebrag: fans - who are looking to nix the whole "my first book has a cliffhanger" thing and keep the dope storytelling going.

WRLD IN PROGRESS

When I talk about WRLD In Progress, I talk about this (it's across all of MRVL WRLD, though, as you'd imagine by the name).

Some time in the last year, I decided to outline and give timelines for writing, marketing, and releasing all the 24 titles of Origins24 and the sequential titles to remain in We Missed A Meeting. The timeline gave generous consideration to the fact that change happens, but still managed to scope the last title out to 2029.

So, yeah, I plan on working on continuing to publishing stories that are part of We Missed A Meeting and Origins24 until 2029. The last story in We Missed A Meeting is titled, The Orpheus Conflict, while the latter's final title is The Collective Awakening. Now you know the first titles, and the last, so let me in on how we get there from here.

Here are all upcoming titles in progress currently and their potential (if applicable) projected release dates.

We Missed A Meeting: Some Assembly Required

I sometimes do wish that I could have finished and published Some Assembly Required in 2020. After all, releasing this sequel on the exact date that the story opens up would have made for one of those cool, Hollywood-style releases like when The Omen remake released on 06/06/06. The remake was nothing like the original, and that's as much as I learned about rushing into sequels (or remakes).

So, Some Assembly Required is a fitting name for this story for a couple of reasons.

First, it brings the inevitable crossroads where nearly every character you've met thus far eventually crosses paths trying to do what they believe is in the best interest of fixing the boiling tension in The D. It also means that all of these characters will eventually at some point utter the name Richard Ferguson and come into contact with Alexander. The story is going to position Unity and Division as two backdrops and consistently force readers to decide whether the situations presented ought to be moments of unity, or moments for the tough decision of opposition.

The second reason the name is fitting is simple: Since October of 2018, I've written and rewritten chapters of this story as though they were stand-alone stories. One of those stories broke off and was published on its own as Don't Go Playin' In the Hills, and during editing each one of these individual chapter-stories had to be merged with the full story. Assembly.

Some Assembly Required picks up where They Chose You, Mr. Ferguson left off, adding more characters to fall in love with, hate, and more suspense to keep the page turning.

We Missed A Meeting: Some Assembly Required will be releasing on Amazon in hardcover format on December 8, 2022. Pre-Orders for the book will be announced in July as more information and content become available online.

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
Release Date: Dec. 8, 2022
Format: Hardcover / Paperback
Availability: Amazon Worldwide
Pre-Order Opens: TBA

The Man on The Bridge (Origins24)

The Man on the Bridge picks up right where A Boy Bathed in Blood left off, and takes our time-traveling insurgent, Sterling John Grace, onto the Time Path to learn what it really means to be a traveler under the questionable guide and direction of Eldridge, the man who saved him twice now. Worried on what to do next and where to go, Sterling John decides to pay off his debt to Eldridge by helping him with his "final" mission to get himself home to his original history.

Eldridge identifies himself, not as a traveler, but a wanderer. He's been traveling through time so much that he loses his sense of what is his actual history, memories, and what may just a dream. With the teen agreeing to help him, he quickly takes advantage of the him to do the work he's unable to do because of his allegedly weakened state of mind.

Eldridge's character is inspired by two unrelated real-world conspiracies. His character is fashioned after the supposed "Time Traveling Hipster", a man who was photographed in 1941 Canada and believed to be wearing shades and a graphic tee. The second is the disappearance of the USS Eldridge in the 1943 Philadelphia Experiment, where reports alleged that the US Navy may have transported the aircraft carrier to another dimension and back.

Grief, abandonment, and purpose are the three themes that hold strongest in story as each page only finds Sterling John drifting further and further away from his original intention: to find and save his mother and grandfather. You'll remember that another central element to Sterling John's character is the power of choice, which is relevant in him previously being a slave. His fear of being alone forces him to cling to Eldridge, a decision which will continue to make him question his choices.

The Man on the Bridge is still in progress, but is expected to wrap up by September, with a March 15, 2023 release date. Unlike its prequel, I'm expecting to release this as a hardcover book.

THE MAN ON THE BRIDGE
Release Date: Sprin 2023
Format: Hardcover
Availability: Amazon Worldwide
Pre-Orders Open: TBA

THE BOY WHO FINALLY SPOKE UP (ORIGINS24)

For Origins24, we take a bit of shift away from Sterling John Grace, and introduce another line of very interesting characters, while also understanding how all of them do have some overlap and intersecting.

Rather than a far distant past, this story takes place in 2009, and follows a blind private investigator named, Alfred Sears, who is commissioned by a client to do an independent investigation into the 2002 "Torrington Boom". Though happening just seven years prior, not many in the city even remember the case, but it involved a 10-year-old boy named, Ralph Ayers, who was arrested and charged with multiple charges after he managed to detonate an explosive, nearly killing his mother's boyfriend. Hoping to get paid the big bucks for the case, Al Sears and his team, commit to using as much of their abilities, their network, and resources, to interviewing Ralph Ayers and getting the conclusive information they needed for their client.

The Boy Who Finally Spoke Up is one of the most all-around important stories I've ever worked on. For one, the story carries a heavy undertone about domestic abuse and it's negative impact on Black families and Black children. Ralph Ayers and his mother Vanessa Ayers were often physically abused her boyfriend Benjamin Yates. Rather than seeing her as a victim, though, the state decides she had been complicit in Ralph's abuse, and she would go on to eventually lose custody of him altogether. The Torrington Boom, though widely forgotten in the city, has shockwave between mother and child that becomes nearly impossible to repair, even as Ralph prepares to be release from a correctional facility on his upcoming 18th birthday.

Much like Ralph Ayers, who is often described in the story as sitting in his room alone, listening to house music, my own life experiences when I was 12 helped shape this story with a lot of first-person experiences. At 12, I my mother was struck by her then-second husband in our home in Miami. While my family and I never endured nearly a quarter of what happened to the Ayers, I find it important that no matter the level of trauma, it has its way of shaping who we become. In upcoming posts to follow, I'll dive more into this as an individual topic.

In writing Ralph Ayers, the Torrington Boom was just that: a "Stop!" shouted so loud, it not only destroys the house, deafens the abuser, but is also felt across history and even the Time Path.

The Boy Who Finally Spoke Up is set to release just before its counterpart, on February 1, 2023 in hardcover format on Amazon.

THE BOY WHO FINALLY SPOKE UP
Release Date: Spring 2023
Format: Hardcover / Paperback
Availability: Amazon
Pre-Orders Open: TBA

STRANGERS EARS (Origins24)

What if I told you that one of my first stories I had written in 2016 had become part of the Origins24 anthology series, and its late arrival to the series is fitting since its main character is sort of a villain who also makes a late and problematic arrival into the Universe and is ready to f*$k s#i@ up? Would you say that was meta, or nah?

Well, that's Strangers' Ears. It's an oddly-paced story about a home visit by a newly-onboarded psychiatrist for a patient who doesn't really seem to have any condition at all. The only issue "Patient C" seems to report is that his house, which he claims was originally a studio apartment, keeps expanding. According to the patient, every time the home does expand, he gains a new, clearer sense of life and makes jokes and analogies about how these expansions are metaphoric for life as an adult. Delivering messages and monologues that do often touch the soul, the patient is anything but a benevolent patient in need of treatment.

While each major story of Origins24 will go on to tap into concepts of time and history, mental health, and eventually spirituality, Strangers Ears goes existential, playing on the concept about life being a simulation, the possibility of each one of us being a Boltzmann Brain. I try to refrain from labelling my characters as heroes or villains, and try to make their behaviors in situations more based on a spectrum, but this? Nah, this is our villain.

I'm excited for Strangers Ears because it was a story long before Origins24 was conceptualized, and even that in itself plays out in the character's development. And while his intentions are far from inspiring, much of what comes out in a very monologue and dialogue-rich story will hopefully attract more readers to this story and this character.

Strangers' Ears will release on January 10, 2023, and will be one of the only paperback releases in this group. #8 out of 24, pre-orders will be announced soon.

STRANGERS' EARS
Release Date: January 10, 2023 (updated)
Format: Paperback
Availability: Amazon
Pre-Orders Open: October 18, 2022

BLACK GRASSHOPPER

Before there was a We Missed A Meeting, and before there was an Origins24, there was The Garden. Black Grasshopper is one of the lasting stories from a Wattpad collection I had been writing, and while it stands independently away from any of the series I'm writing now, it shares with Strangers Ears a strong, parable-like message about how we block our own blessings the further we go to sabotage the blessings of others. The story is about self-sabotage, self-discovery, judgment, and the weight envy has on us spiritually, mentally, and physically.

Black Grasshopper is a young nymph (or baby grasshopper), who has been struggling with molting for some time now. In the garden, nymphs typically molt their old black exoskeletons for a shiny, yellow build and take their first flap of their wings in the Great Gust that comes at the beginning of every spring. Black Grasshopper is now approaching his third spring without a molt. The community has since begun to believe that it's only a matter of time before he dies, and his progress is usually something left out of conversation altogether. But before the gust comes, he decides to venture out of the safety of the garden to find where the gust comes from so he can stop it. This will assure that no more of these ceremonies can take place ever again. If he can't molt, no one will. Instead, he embarks on a journey that nearly costs him his life as he is left crawling and at the mercy of The King Slug, who bargains that if he can't stand on his own, the slug will eat him.

I know I've said I didn't have plans for any children's books, but the closest I may ever get to one is Black Grasshopper. It does have a very strong message that is both great for children to learn early on, while also addressing adult emotions like imposter syndrome.

THE BLACK GRASSHOPPER
Release Date: Nov. 1st, 2022 (Updated)
Format: Paperback
Available On: Amazon
Pre-Order Opens:

It's been a busy writer's winter. And I'm excited to get the marketing going for all of these titles. In addition to my own personal page (@IAmAlexAuguste), you can expect to see in-depth content about these titles on my new page, @StoriesByAlexAuguste. But as usual, there's no better place than right to get readable content like this, so be sure to subscribe to join the Mailing List.