Terrance (to Others): They Say A Watched Pot Never Boils, But They Never Said Anything About A Saucepan.

The Murder After: Profile

Title: The Murder After (links to Amazon) Series: Terrance's Story #1 Genre: mystery, dramadey, psychological fiction Year self-published: 2024 (through KDP)

Copyright status: CC BY-SA 4.0. (Do what you want as long as you give credit and use the same license.)

Blurb: Terrance is one person to a body and lives in Lakewood, Colorado. One morning, he woke up next to a dead body. Now, he wants to know what happened one night because he became a suspect in an investigation. Do you want to know what happened too?

Format: chapbook Page count: 52 (fifty-two)

MPA rating: PG-13 Reasons: some language, violent death (off screen), drama, suicidality

Price: $5.95 Note: This is specifically SL's story.

SL: I should point out that I tried narrating in the British dialect. Our official story is that I was challenging myself. Then, I learned the second person is Terrance's natural perspective, but I was too lazy to change anything. So if I sound like an American trying to sound British, that's why. (Please don't get mad at me for saying "closet" instead of "wardrobe.") [T: I roll my eyes and go with it.]

F.M.: The Birthday Massacre released a new single and will release a new album on April 11. I'M SO HAPPY!

Terrance (to others): We have a title for our new project: Le Prince and Disney (no relation.)

Iris Le Prince is the one describing the silent films. Her surname comes from Louis Le Prince, the guy who made the first film. Benjamin Disney is the one making the dark ride. His surname comes from Walt Disney because he has big ideas.

Reanna: Classwork is like doing dishes. You put off the easier one because it was hard last time.

SL: You know what I should have done for The Murder After? I should have shared Terrance's notes from his exercise book, so the readers could have seen the clues he found. It would have been much better than sharing chapter one of The Year After.

Reanna: I wonder if Le Prince and Disney will be our first novel. So far, our stories have been shorter.

Carnival is a novella, and so was Nightingale. (I pulled that one from publication.) The Murder After is a chapbook, and The Year After seems to be going in a similar direction. (At least people read romance novellas.)

Now, for Le Prince and Disney, we have the dark ride's sections planned: Three Precursors and the First Film, Animals, Animation, Trick Films, and Phantom Rides. That's five chapters. And they have a few films in them. There will also be five chapters that Terrance categorized as being outside the ride. So, that's ten chapters in all.

After the story, we'll list the films used. That might take a few pages. What if all these pages come together and make a novel?

16 January

Testing psychologist: "Reanna doesn't have a social circle, so she uses [or goes into] fantasy."

Me (Brian): "Fantasy!? Say that to my face, you limp noodle!" (In-headspace)

Present Day

Me: "I am not a fantasy."

Reanna: "She didn't even know you exist."

Me: "I am still not a fantasy."

The next time I think I'm fake, I'm going to remember I had a negative reaction to being unintentionally called a fantasy.

SL: I still don't like that The Year After is going to be longer than The Murder After. If the first book were fifty two pages, I'd be fine with it.

I know there's more to say this time, but I worry readers won't see it the same way. What if they don't like that the first story is a chapbook while the second is a novella?

Or maybe, a potential reader will find The Year After on Amazon and want to know what happened first. Maybe they won't care that the first book is short.

Maybe I should worry once we gain readership.

Reanna: You know what? We're not going to share the playlist for Carnival. You're just going to have to buy the book to see it.

SL using the British dialect in the headspace:

"Good, we still have purple napkins."

SL trying use it out loud:

(*Garbled mess*)