Doug Goodman

Okay, so I kind of ran out of gas on the last book I wrote somewhere in the rewrite phase. I got to the point where I got reviews in from some family members, made changes to the book based on their very good inputs...and then I started wondering if the whole setup is wrong.  For whatever reason, I also was not digging the voice.  So I started a complete rewrite to the novel and lost traction.  I decided I needed/wanted to work on something else.  Which brings me to novel number 3.

This novel is my take on a post-apocalypse.  But instead of being about full-fledged adults dealing with the loss of their society, I decided I wanted to write about teens whose world falls out from under them.  So far, I think it has been a good direction to take.  Some of these teens are becoming more adult while others are still firmly in terra teen-firma.

The first thing to decide before writing any post-apocalypse story is whether or not you reveal what caused the post-apocalypse.  I am thinking of The Road, which only alludes to a nuclear war but does not give any details.  This is the "War of the Worlds" direction (WotW was written with very little full-disclosure moments -- most of the book centered around the war's affect on the primary characters and did not describe, for instance, what was happening in France or what the Prime Minister was doing to stop the Martians). 

Then there is the why and how.  I don't want to get into it too much, but I am an animal lover and a monster lover.  Post-apocalypse or not, these kids need to be fighting some monsters!  So in this one the creatures are monstercized animals.  Dogs, cats, cattle.  I'm sure there is a monstercized goldfish in there somewhere, too.  My question to you, though, is what animal do you find monstrous or that you think would make a good monster?  Feel free to respond in the comments or email me.