A New WIP: That Sinking Feeling

"The Dude abides."
                     --The Dude


My new work in progress is called "That Sinking Feeling".  I began this story back in February or March after hearing a news story about a woman in Florida falling into a sinkhole in her garden.  The hole was something like seven feet deep and she was in there for a few hours before someone discovered her.  That got me thinking about the disastrous possibilities of someone evil making the discovery of an older woman in such a precarious situation.

I had written the beginning of what was supposed to be a short story up to the point where Francine, my protagonist, is discovered in the sinkhole by her neighbor, but I was also working on my second novel and reading for Through the Eyes of the Undead 2, and so I filed the makings of "That Sinking Feeling" into the Works in Progress folder.

I looked at it once or twice, but didn't get shocked with inspiration.  Not until I finished my second novel, edited several TtEotU 2 stories and saw some of the degradation of the Wall Street protesters.  Defecating on a police car, public sex, lost fools wandering in for the cheap drugs and free food in a particularly unsavory New York park.  People making ridiculous and unreasonable demands.  I found the people who were to come across Francine.  I've seen their faces on the TV and heard their screwy blather on the radio.

What was supposed to be a short story is turning into something that will likely become novella sized.  This wasn't the next long story I had planned to work on, but when the muse strikes, it is wise to abide.

Cheers!