{"id":5456,"date":"2025-07-23T18:23:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T01:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=5456"},"modified":"2025-07-23T18:23:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T01:23:22","slug":"sowhats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=5456","title":{"rendered":"So…What’s Next?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I took a couple of months away from major writing projects after I published The Everything Machine<\/em> on KDP. It’s sold reasonably well, but it needs more reviews and probably more energy in marketing than I can afford right now. So I\u2019ve been poking around in my writing folders looking for notes or unfinished stories that might be finished. The other day I read through the 38,000 words I have on my non-SF novel Old Catholics<\/em>. I\u2019ve posted some excerpts here a couple of times across the last seven or eight years. If you\u2019re new to Contra and curious, you can find the excerpts and brief synopses here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Like all my plots, the story is complex, and depends on several key characters, including a resigned priest, the woman he loves, and the cardinal of Chicago. Those three attended Loyola University together and were close friends for\u2026awhile. Many years later, Fr. Rob, who now works at a Catholic goods store selling rosaries and statues, runs into a psychic little old Polish lady from an Old Catholic community that meets in a converted bungalow in Chicago\u2019s Rogers Park. It\u2019s just a few eccentric souls who don\u2019t feel like they belong in mainstream Catholicism. Fr. Rob persuades his college girlfriend, who was excommunicated for divorcing an abusive husband, to attend the church with him. At that point, all sorts of interesting things begin to happen. Then, after the climax, the existing Pope dies, and\u2026you guessed it\u2026the curia elect Chicago\u2019s Cardinal Peter Luchetti as the new Pope, John XXIV. He\u2019s the first American pope, which seemed (back when I wrote what I have) a little far-fetched. And now, surprise! It\u2019s not SF, but I nonetheless predicted something I thought would not happen for decades, if not centuries.<\/p>\n

We have an American Pope. Who was born in Chicago.<\/p>\n

Wow. Just wow.<\/p>\n

Before you jump to conclusions, I know very well that our new Pope Leo XIV was never Chicago\u2019s cardinal. But our new Pope was indeed born in Chicago and did a lot of globe-trotting missionary work before taking the papal throne. So consider this: If I finish and publish Old Catholics<\/em>, using the notes and plot that I already have, people will assume that I got the idea for an American pope from our new American pope. Not so. Alas, what might have been a startling conclusion for the book in 2015 is just how the church works now in 2025.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m conflicted. I may have to throw away big honking chunks of the current text and probably rethink the ending entirely. Will I? Not sure. There are other unfinished projects in my folders, including The Molten Flesh<\/em>, which has fewer words down but a lot more plot problems. Clearly, there\u2019s some thinking to be done. And brainstorming. And who knows? Maybe I\u2019ll start something brand new from scratch.<\/p>\n

Watch this space. When I make a decision, you\u2019ll see it here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I took a couple of months away from major writing projects after I published The Everything Machine on KDP. It’s sold reasonably well, but it needs more reviews and probably more energy in marketing than I can afford right now. So I\u2019ve been poking around in my writing folders looking for notes or unfinished stories […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[104,270,271,42,20],"class_list":["post-5456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ideasandanalysis","tag-fiction","tag-novels","tag-oild-catholicism","tag-religion","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5457,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5456\/revisions\/5457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}