Inventory: The Nightingale's Curse (Patreon)

The Nightingale's Curse was written originally during NaNoWriMo 2014. I wanted to challenge myself creatively in a different way from comics. I succeeded in hitting the 50,000 word mark in time, but I didn't quite get to the end of the story I was writing :)

The story I wrote was set in a world that I had been tinkering with for a long while. The objective of this story was to give myself a chance to explore Science Fiction, and also writing for a Young Adult audience. I wanted to write a story that explores the ideas of some nonfiction books I've enjoyed (like Seth Godin's Linchpin or Matt Ridley's The Rational Optimist) and exploring how those concepts may be presented to a younger audience. Young people today are already emerging into a world the education system is not preparing them for, and I was hoping to show at least one version of how things could be different (or may indeed be in the near future). 

This particular story was my first crack at it, and it took the structure of a mystery (something I've never written before). I kind of mashed it out crazy quickly and didn't give much advance thought to where I was going. I honestly haven't cracked open the file since I put it down, and I have no idea whether it's any good or not! :) I don't know whether I will continue to develop this as a novel, or whether I'll respin it into a series of SF shorts.

I'd like to write more science fiction (whether in prose or comics) and I would like to return to this world in some fashion. As for this particular story, I may return to it because it might be good practice learning how to self-edit my writing. This is something I've never done, but it's a very important skill, and I would like to practice. 

I think it would be useful to have beta-readers for this story. I don't have much experience sharing my writing with others, and I'd love to know whether it's interesting or not. I would be polishing up the text and posting it in short chunks. Let me know if this interests you!

(Attached is another science fiction short story I've written as a sample. The story attached is horror!).