Gods help you, but you've stumbled into things I wrote.

 

You probably got here via my blog, but if not, I linked it in case you want to check it out. It's even possible - though not likely - you got here via my writing site, where I write about, um, writing? At the same site I also maintain a photography gallery and the blog of a gaming character.

 

Here, on the other hand, is where I keep my NaNoWriMo novels. Every November, tens of thousands of people attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I have done this for several years. My NaNovels aren't great - or even good, really - but they're done and I'm the one who did them. It feels good to be able to say that I didn't let my own lack of confidence - and gods, but I lack confidence - stand in the way of doing it. At the very least, I believe, I can say that I didn't let a wish for better words stand in the way of a flawed execution.

 

2014 – A Fall in Autumn is a novel set in a world developed with friends during two sessions of the game Microscope from Lame Mage Productions. It's a fun game, and we created a fun setting. So far it's sci-fi detective-y stuff set in a post-post-apocalyptic culture: the one that rose after ours fell. We'll see how it goes.

 

2011 – Tricks Up My Sleeve is a novel about a gay teenager who's a self-styled private eye in his school. Well, sort of. He thinks of himself that way, but other people think of him as a fixer in general: when they can't solve a problem, he can. It was intended to be Nancy Drew + Brick + But I'm A Cheerleader + Dresden Files but the magic got axed almost immediately and it wound up being a lot more Brick than anything. Like, I could have just watched Brick every day for a month and had basically the same artistic success. I enjoyed writing it, though, even if I slammed home the ending in a rush because I wanted to be DONE DONE DONE.

 

2010 - Deal With the Devil, a semi-sequel to Tooth and Nail. This one sees Withrow trying to find a strange vampire he's found out is operating in Durham, NC; this coincides with the appearance of Durham's first vigilante hero, known as the Bull's Eye, as well as Durham's first self-styled super villain. Withrow and the Bull's Eye wind up with each other's problems and wacky hijinks ensue.

 

2009 - The novel I wrote in 2009 was so bad - is so bad - that I refuse to link it. I didn't just hate it, I hated writing it. I refuse to let anyone else see it, ever. However, I did complete NaNoWriMo that year.

 

2008 - Particular People, a trashy noir sex-and-murder story about a gay insurance agent in Nashville, set in 1983. He winds up wrapped up in the life of a client who's a rising star in the country music scene while in the background gay men are dying mysteriously around Nashville. The title comes from the apocryphal story of one method gay men used to identify one another back in the day: leaving out a pack of Pall Mall cigarettes so that the motto, "Wherever Particular People Gather," was displayed.

 

2007 - Tooth and Nail, a murder mystery noir thing with a lot of redneck vampires. One of them is a familiar face if you by any chance have read my other stories or have been in a roleplaying game with me in the last ten years.

 

2006 - The Palanquin Cat is a sort of urban Edwardian fantasy noir detective adventure mystery. Yes, it's a train wreck. Immediately upon writing it I hated it. I can't emphasize that enough. There aren't enough bold or italics tags to get that across. I went back nearly a year later and really loved the opening two scenes and then really liked everything else of it I read at random so I'm finally linking to it because, what the hell. I do think that's a good opening scene, even if I say so myself.

 

2005 - Root Shell is a sequel to Shell Access, and I am never, ever writing another sequel for NaNoWriMo ever again. It hurts my brain. I think this one is better than Shell Access, but I think the end fizzles. I tried not to Neal Stephenson all over it in that respect, but I was rushed and I was afraid I wouldn't finish by the deadline and so I hammered the last nail into place with the heel of a shoe, if you will.

 

2004 - Shell Access is what one friend described as "gay cyberpunk space opera," which is a damned fine summary. I describe it as "gay Rockford Files goes to the moon." It's about an industrial spy on a lunar colony. I really enjoyed writing it, but I think it's pretty awful. That said, I really liked writing the foot-chase through a low-gravity alleyway.

 

2003 - Life, Liberty And... is a novel about a Libertarian who accidentally gets elected governor. Along the way, she makes a promise that sounds good in the moment she says it but sounds terrible the moment after. It's not a political screed, really, and I'm not a Libertarian. In fact, though I really like the main character, I think she manages to pretty royally screw things up. The novel isn't about one party vs. another, though, so much as it's about responsibility and personal guilt and how we deal with fear and the death penalty. OK, so it's a political screed, but I like to think it's a character-driven political screed.

 

If you've read this far, I guess I should note that these are available under a Creative Commons license? I guess? Hell if I know whether anyone would ever want to reuse it, but if you do, go for it, just follow the CC guidelines and letting me know via email would be a nice touch.

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

 

At any rate, I can be reached via email at robustmcmanlypants@nc.rr.com.

 

No, really.