New Fiction Idea #29

This one's going to be fun.

Working Title: Blood, Brain, Body

Genre: Horror/Adventure

Protagonist: Felicia, an 18-year-old vampire girl who appears about 14. She has straight, dark red hair reaching to the middle of her back and is pale with blue eyes. She's a crybaby and doesn't like that about herself, but her recent infection of vampirism has left her physically weak as well. She's generally been a bit of a loner, and the apocalypse hasn't helped.

Other Main Characters: "Rachel" (actually Rachelle, but she thinks that's too girly, French, and weak-sounding), a 19-year-old girl of mixed European and Japanese descent. Still a human, she's sarcastic but cheerful and very much a survivalist. She has no qualms about firing on attackers or engaging in cannibalism (the most extreme case of her hangup on wasting things).

John, a 20 year-old zombie man who was loose friends with Rachel during high school. He has short, black hair and amber eyes. A joker, he can be just as sarcastic as Rachel but has feelings for her.

Antagonist: Pretty much everyone they meet.

Setting: Mid-apocalyptic modern-day America, in the heat of summer. Two big plagues are going around, of the zombie and vampire varieties (both transmitted by bite). Zombies take on a mottled appearance, develop an obsession for eating brains, and become quite strong and fast. Vampires go pale, develop an obsession for drinking blood, and become quite frail. Zombies have a very limited lifespan, usually ended when they go mad enough from hunger to attempt to eat their own brains (which doesn't end well), although this can be delayed by throwing out all human nature to eat more brains. Vampires are immortal but can be murdered.

Plot: Rachel and John take an SUV across America for sightseeing before the apocalypse (they call themselves the "Bucket List Gang"). Rachel takes pity on Felicia and lets her join (mostly because she looks so young and innocent), and happy murderous times ensue.

Point of View: First person (Felicia).

Pitchapalooza: The Sequel, in Amazing 3-D!

Well, I've gone on ahead and written up a pitch for The Winding Road. I'm sort of unsatisfied with that title now that I've thought about it more, though, so I refer to it as The Long and Winding Road in the pitch. If anyone has other fitting title ideas, feel free to (read: please do) let me know. Also feel free to critique this first draft of the pitch.

Clocking in at 239 of 250 allowed words, we have:

The zombie apocalypse was years ago—old hat. Besides, there’s a cure and plenty of bullets yet to take care of the rotting stragglers.

No, the threats these days are the survivors.

Charlotte Heiman has finally achieved a stable life in the walled remains of Killeen as a zombie hunter, but she can’t stay any longer. She hasn’t seen her little brother Blake since her family dropped him off at camp that fateful summer, and now that she has the supplies, she’s headed his way.

Arthur Deering has finally achieved a stable life in a rural home with no companions but his bow and arrows. He has long since come to believe that he’s the only man alive—so it comes as quite a shock when Charlotte finds him. Quite an infatuating shock, as a matter of fact.

Although Arthur turns out to be much more of a suitor than a menace, he’s not the only survivor Charlotte meets. It’s a long walk to Hunt, filled with those who lost everything and aren’t afraid to take whatever they can. It will take both Charlotte and Arthur to get past survivors that threaten to take their supplies, bodies, and lives.

A tale of the numbness and the hope humans can achieve in the aftermath of atrocity, The Long and Winding Road will appeal to all post-apocalyptic romance lovers from the realm of The Hunger Games to that of Warm Bodies.

New Fiction Idea #3

This idea was sort of awkward, since it hit me in the middle of singing a hymn. I managed to push it down until the devotional was over, though it still interested me afterward.

Title: Crumbling

Genre: Sci-Fi/Thriller, perhaps?

Protagonist: Emilia, a ghost of undetermined age that was about 16 when she died. She has long, wavy brown hair and is rather tall and thin. She's a sort of hesitant person and can be a coward, but she's capable of really caring for others.

Other Main Character: Joel, a 16-year-old Protestant boy of about half-Latino blood. He's rather fun to be around, though he's usually shy, and he has the ability to see ghosts.

Antagonist: Not sure—probably just time.

Setting: Earth, somewhere in the future during a cumulative apocalypse, including a lethal virus, major storms, and tectonic actions. I haven't yet determined what I want to cause a dead person to be trapped as a ghost, but I'm aiming for something different since I don't want this to be a murder mystery.

Plot: Emilia hadn't taken action to free her soul for years, but when the world starts to crumble, she has no choice but to take action if she wants a fate other than perishing with the earth. The first Seeing human she can find is Joel, who may not be an expert on ghosts but promises to do what he can.

Point of View: Third person, omniscient.

This one's certainly not as fleshed-out as some of my others, but I thought it was worth noting here.