This work was done in marker on paper and then digitally enhanced. I was playing with the theme of digital avatars as aspects of person-hood.
Something pleasantly surprising happened today. 
The rest of the day was average. I worked my news job and had an afternoon coffee at my regular spot. Work's been slow this week. I'm waiting for a client to get back to me and waiting for the printed proof of my upcoming book Psychic Avalanche. It'll be at least a week until the new book arrives in the mail and probably longer until my editor gets back to me with the corrections that'll need to be made. But I'm still excited about it.
To be honest, I'm happy that work this week is slow, as this gives me plenty of time to pursue my new writing project. So far, it's about a guy given a special mission by the Fairie Queen. It begins in New York, and writing this setting is reminding me of the years I lived in Brooklyn. I'm leaving many of the places I frequented while living there out of the story. So far anyway, there's been no need to include the world of art galleries and underground warehouse parties in the new work. But who knows how the story will evolve.
In the background, of course, is society's tilt into madness. My strategy with this new story is to include hints about this in the narrative/dialog without focusing too heavily on it. This may change as the insanity that's taken hold of society's leaders intrudes further and further into everyday life.
One small example of this madness. When covid first hit, we were told that lockdowns were necessary to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. Obviously, hospitals were never overwhelmed. But now, due to a shortage of healthcare workers willing to get the vaccine, some hospitals are no longer able to provide essential services like baby delivery. So the virus didn't overwhelm hospitals, but poorly-formulated responses to the virus have themselves produced this undesirable outcome.
Writing science fiction set in such a society feels funny. It's like, real life has become so weird that everything I write seems almost banal in comparison. The Fairie Queen may preside over a parallel world where chairs are made out of blooming flowers. But we have a government articulating totalitarian ambitions, headed by a visibly senile liar, forcing people to undergo a medical procedure that lines the pockets of pharma execs without meaningfully impacting the spread of the virus. Compared to that, my Fairie Queen seems downright normal.
The next thing I have to decide involves fairie magic. How does it work? How does it look? How powerful is it? These questions have suddenly become pressing. Which I love.
