Next Writing Project?

My brain, unable to power down for the holidays, insists on thinking about writing. Discovering that the ebook editions of Passion and Peril enjoyed some success behind my back, I'm hot to develop an electronic oeuvre. I pulled out my first novel, The Underground Athletic Club. I developed the characters of Jackson and Dan O'Hara in this murder mystery, set in a decrepit downtown Rochester building, during a snowstorm. When I tried to peddle it in 1990, I got kind, encouraging rejection letters, including one that told me the problem was that "it is too dark for a first novel."

It is no longer a first novel. And what was dark in 1990 -- is there anything too dark as we slouch into 2012?

I dug out my old Wordperfect files and wrestled them into Word format. Apparently I'd started a revision in 1999, so have an outline and a couple chapters for that too. As I started the re-read, I wasn't wincing... so that's a good sign. Seems like a perfect project for direct-to-Kindle.

But, of course, I can't leave well enough alone. Some of the plot points have a 1980's feel. I need to hit the right balance between getting it in front of an audience fast and making it great.

Lightbulb: If it is already dark, why not go all the way and make it dystopian? Throw in global climate change. Make the snowstorm part of an endless winter. The main character lives in Rochester, not because he is grieving for [blah, blah, blah] but because his NYC building was the first to slip into the sea as the rising ocean creeps into lower Manhattan. Intriguing possibilities...

It's been a long time since I was into science fiction (grad school, early '70s, a notebook contains quotes from Nicolai Amosoff's Notes from the Future -- dystopian for sure). So, to test my interest, I downloaded the Audible version of William Gibson's classic Neuromancer I'm several hours into it, so that tells me something.

Stay tuned...