Talk about an idea you wish you had the time / talent / energy to do.Back in 2015, I signed up for the Highlander Holiday Shortcuts for the third time--and got matched to someone who indicated interest in a crossover with the TV show
Forever. I'd just finished watching the show, so I laughingly suggested to my beta,
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htbthomas, that that's what I should do. Barb, sensing an opportunity, threw herself on the idea and began some hardcore brainstorming.
The first draft of the resulting story,
Something Called Living, took me eight days to write. Before the year finished, I also wrote 90% of a sequel story,
Something Called Justice, and about 50% of a second sequel that would become
Other Halves. Over the next few years, the universe continued to expand.
I'm now five years into trying to finish the fifth story in the series,
Something Called Honor (the last two of which have mostly been me saying "don't wanna" at the final chapter. I
will get it done this year.
But ... I'd planned
1 several other stories,
and I have a strong feeling that once SCH is done, I will be done with the universe and those stories won't get written. So, here is their acknowledgement:
SCH ends with Liam planning to leave New York City because the Game has drawn too close. Before he can, he presides over a funeral at his church when he meets an old woman Immortal. She died for the first time at age 86 (from slipping on the ice down on her front steps), about 20 years ago. The funeral is for her grandson and only remaining family member. Liam quickly realizes that she knows nothing about the Game and--more importantly--is not in any shape to play it. In their interactions, she decides that she wants him to take her head. If he agrees to do so, she'll leave her estate to his church. This leaves Liam with a choice, the making of which results in him staying in NYC.
Jo gets assigned to go undercover to investigate some dirty cops. As part of their efforts to find out whether she can be trusted, they demand that she participate in a shakedown and an "accidental" shooting. Basically, they want her to murder someone to prove her loyalty. She lines Richie up to be at the determined place so, when the time comes, she can shoot him. Unfortunately, the pieces don't fall right and she's forced to choose someone else. That someone happens to be the waitress at Clancy's bar, Zoe, who we meet briefly in both OH and SCH, and who is a pre-Immortal. While it's one thing to know that Zoe will survive the shooting, Jo & Richie both still have to grapple with whether it's right to knowingly trigger someone else's Immortality.
A hostage situation at the ME's office requires Methos & Richie to kill themselves in order to infiltrate the morgue and get information to Henry, who is trapped inside. Henry then has to kill himself to get back outside to relay the new information back to the police. Somewhere in all this, Lucas realizes that he's met everyone before. Unlike the other two stories, this one has 1600 words of start--and there it shall likely remain.
1When I say "planned," I meant bandied around some ideas. I'm a panster, so the mere notion of trying to plot or outline a story before writing it is completely anathema. Trying it only leads to early story death.
back to where I left off
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argentum_ls
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Date: 2022-01-19 11:02 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2022-01-20 08:59 pm (UTC)Thank you! :)
I would love to read all these ideas. Maybe someday someone will help them come to fruition.