I am currently working on an old project that I'm finally ready to truly work on and complete. Here's the synopsis:
David Han is kidnapped from his place of work and is taken to an underground laboratory. A power outage allows him to escape, but later that night, his body experiences drastic transformations. He finds himself in the forest the next morning, alone and naked with no memory of the night's events. With help from zoologist Jade Lin as well as her assistant, Brian Kendall, Han discovers that his DNA contains similarities to that of a wolf's. His escape from the lab launches a manhunt for him led by the same operation that imprisoned him and reconstructed his DNA.
That is the synopsis for the first "episode." Book one will involve further confrontation between Han and his team and the government operation. The overall series will revolve around Han's struggle to accept his lycanthropy and his ultimate goal to find a cure.
I said "episode" as opposed to "chapter" because the format of this novel will be slightly different than most novels. I originally began working on this series as a television script, but as I had no serious intention to ever become a screenwriter full time, I decided to write it as a novel instead. But I still preferred the idea of writing each section as episodes instead of chapters. Chapters are merely convenient separators for a story. They blend with each other and surround a single storyline. While television seasons of a series typically revolve around one storyline, each episode contains a separate storyline of its own. Sometimes the storyline is entirely separate to the main storyline, and sometimes it aids in telling the main story. Either way, television episodes typically have a beginning and some sort of conclusion in the same episode, and that's what I'm going for with this series. Since this series drew inspiration from the works of Joss Whedon, I'll use Buffy the Vampire Slayer as an example. Take season five for example. The main storyline of this season revolves around the gang's battle with Glory, a god who becomes trapped on Earth after being unable to find the key that opens the portal to the hell dimension she ruled. But every single episode of season five does not revolve around that. In fact, Glory doesn't even make her first appearance until the season's fifth episode. It just seems like a unique way to write a novel.
As I said, I created this series with inspiration from the work of Joss Whedon. There was a character named Oz (played by Seth Green) on Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He's introduced in the second season of the show as the quiet guitarist for a band. He begins dating main character Willow (played by Alyson Hannigan) in this season, but his storyline obtains a huge twist when he's bitten by his little cousin Jordy. Little Jordy just so happens to be a werewolf. Oz remains in the main lineup for the rest of season two and all of season three. But his time on Buffy ended at the beginning of season four. Actor Seth Green began taking movie gigs that gave him leading roles as opposed to the secondary role he had on Buffy. So, Joss Whedon and his writing staff needed to twist Oz's storyline in a way that would allow Seth to leave the cast permanently. The crew hired guest star actress Paige Moss to play Veruca, lead singer of a band that performed at The Bronze (a club in Sunnydale, the fictional setting of the series). She was also a student at UC Sunnydale, but the plot twist doesn't appear until it's discovered that she is also a werewolf. Oz finds himself drawn to her in a very primal way, and Veruca reciprocates his feelings. She believes the wolf inside of her is her true self while Oz believes that his lycanthropy is a curse. This causes friction between the two, and when Oz is afraid that she'll harm someone on the night of the full moon, he locks her in his cage with him. They sleep with each other during the night when they transform. Willow finds them spooning together in the nude the next morning and is absolutely distraught. When Willow attempts to curse the two of them, Veruca comes after her. Oz finds them in time and kills Veruca. The episode concludes with Oz packing to leave with the intent to travel the world in search of a cure. That is, ultimately, what inspired me to create Han. Oz and Han are very different characters, but the overall idea of trying to overcome and control the beast that lies within is what I intend to focus on. I believe Oz's story was continued through comic books and novels, but I've never personally read them myself.
I'll be posting character summaries, episode synopses and even the entire first episode later on. I plan to have the novel released by fall or early winter. I'll post regular updates.
I'd like to end this with a special thanks to Joss Whedon.
