So I’ve finally managed to come up with an idea and a title for my NaNoWriMo 2009 novel. So without further ado, here’s a bit of a teaser of what I’m going to be writing about.
Michael Jennings used to be a rock star. Michael Jennings used to headline venues across the world. Michael Jennings used to grace the pages of Rolling Stone and NME, offering unique insights in to his particular brand of genius.
Michael Jennings also used to frequent back alleys and shady warehouses looking for any fix he could get his hands on. His career had never been stronger. His records never sold better. And yet, as the millions poured in, life lost of all its flavor. His once glamorous lifestyle faded in his mind to vapid mendacity. His music began to feel hollow. Even looking at a guitar would cause a wave of despondency to wash over him.
Then he discovered Clay. This, the newest and trendiest of designer drugs, promised to solve all of his problems. It would gently peel away his memories of the past and replace them, for an hour or two, with only the finest of hallucinations. He was in heaven.
Michal began scheduling his days around his Clay use. He’d set aside an hour or two in the afternoon to slip in to his own little dream world. As time wound on, his began taking these sojourns more regularly. What no one told him was what this was doing in his head. Slowly but surely his memories began to completely escape his grasp, and his grasp on reality began to leave him.
One day his manager wandered in to his dressing room to find him staring at the ceiling, drooling slightly, with a huge grin on his face. He had disappeared completely inside his own mind.
Cracked Pillar Overture is the story of a broken rock musician stuck inside his own drug induced dream world. As he tries to grasp on to his surroundings and make sense of this new reality, he is joined by a cast of characters, aspects of his own personality, that pull him in different directions. It soon becomes clear that Michael must pull together the pieces, reconnect the wires, and try to find his way back out of the dream.
So that’s the idea, as it currently stands. I’m busy fleshing out the secondary characters and the antagonist. I’m also busily putting together a soundtrack and trying to delve as completely in to rock history as I can. I’m really looking forward to writing this, and you can be sure I’ll keep you up to speed as NaNo progresses.
And now, for the hell of it, a little banner I put together for my signature on the NaNo Forums.
Ciao,
– B
Extant Musings 
Leave a Reply