The Anythieves Cycle- An Overview

I had mentioned in an earlier entry that I would provide some information about the writing projects I am currently plodding through. I have mentioned before the travel log project, The World, And How To Get There. This entry is intended to provide an overview of The Anythieves Cycle, as it is currently called.

The Anythieves is set in a shared, strange, universe. Each story is connected in at least one way- sequentially, by character, through passing reference- to at least one other story in the sequence. They are intended to be read in order. Since some of the stories are very far from completion, this may not be possible for quite some time. However, each story can be read by itself for its own sake, and be judged on its own merits.

What follows is a summary of the individual stories, and some commentary regarding my intentions as the author.

Jack, Mary, And The Anythieves- In Progress

This is the story of a proper woman, Mary, brought back into the strange, dreamlike, lifestyle she lived as an orphan in the back and south of London, when her former companion, Jack, finds her in her new life to help care for young the daughter of one of their murdered friends. Jack and Mary's youth was halmarked by a secret life, centering on the knack of some of their young companions to carve and enter tunnels in space that let them travel undetected all over London and the rest of the world. While the mortal embodiments of Peter Pan and Mary Poppins are distracted with the decision of whether they could or should fall in love again, they are driven from their sanctuary by a sinister force of hard, evil men known only as the Parliment Of Black Coats. The Parliment wants the child, that the three must flee or suffer the grizzly fate of their young charge's parents.

Author's Note: This was the first story I started writing and I'm still not satisfied with my progress in it. I have an outline and the first, small, chapter, as well as several excerpts throughout the story that need to be linked together. However, I have also found that by writing the other stories in the sequence first, I may be saving myself some editing down the road as I decide what details to disclose along the way.

One Night At Goodman's Place- In Progress, due for completion by November 31, 2007

Billy, a drunk in a bar, tells a story about a remote island in the Atlantic where he and a business associate attempt to locate and pillage an archeological dig. The discovery of the site and the nature of the treasure (and what guards it) wrap the characters into a literal battle between Good and Evil.

Author's Note: The story told by Billy is set in the early 1980's, and serves in some ways as a prequel the Jack, Mary, and the Anythieves. It was influenced by the works of H. P. Lovecraft, and personal historical research into the early church in England. I've patted myself on the back with this one by creating a narrator- a man listening to Billy's story in the bar- who doesn't have a name, and never speaks himself throughout the course of the story.

The Hour And The Thief- Completed

A young priest, Owen, is challenged by the vision of a boy breaking into his church and disappearing after pleading for Sanctuary. As the priest sees this happen repeatedly at hourly intervals he begins walking backwards through the conversation as he retraces the boy's path. He finally comes to what the boy is running from, and has to face his own demons before the night is through.

Around Eleven- In Progress, due for completion by November 31, 2007

A nameless narrator is haunted by both visions of a couple running from unknown danger and strange shadows that prowl the corner of his vision. The couple, in their own time, is troubled by similar visions of shadows that distract them from the web of mob intrigue they must survive in order to get out of town alive and together.

Every Kingdom- In Progress

A drifter with a shadowed past finds himself pursued by intrigue and occult magics as he tries to help a young woman escape a backwater town in the heart of the bayou.

Ring The Bells- In Progress

A priest, Matthew, is woke in the middle of the night by his brother, an unrepentant thief, who needs his help in covering his tracks from a recent burglary. A simple errand embroils the priest in assasination plots and a criminal underworld he had been blissfully unaware of. Meanwhile, his brother, Patrick, triggers a mystery, a curse, and a love story, none of which he feels equipped to cope with either.

Stay For The Pie- Completed

A small slice of strangeness just for the fun of it. A person is told a strange story for the sake of a writing excercise. This, is that story. It's and epilogue of a sort, a coda if you will, and a good way to tie things off until the next batch of stories come out of my head.

Author's Note: I was told the story in this story and was, in fact, requested to write it, just as the character was. The pie was my idea. I enjoyed writing this, because I found halfway through it that I was writing a story completely populated by dialogue- wholly in quotes without even as much as a 'he said' to distract the reader from what was being told.