The Idea

So once upon a time, a million years ago when I was in highschool, I tried writing a story about a guy named Ratched who was really good at this card game called The King's Arena. He was so good, in fact, that he played in international competitions. At one point, he got a little bit on the wrong side of one of his competitors, and BAM his life becomes a large-scale version of the high-stakes card game. I was not quite good enough to write this story yet, and it wasn't quite ready to be written. Fast-forward to about five months ago. 

Often, the way a story starts for me is a line of dialogue, then I'll build a scene around it. About five months ago, I wrote the following in the notes on my phone: 

John glanced over at Nora, starting when he realized she was staring at him. Her gaze was intent, making him immediately question everything he'd done in the last twenty minutes. Had he slipped up?

Wesley, still sipping his drink, had noticed the staring. He raised an eyebrow.  Nora still didn't look away. 

John frowned. "What is it?" he asked. 

Her eyes narrowed. "I was just thinking that you would be pretty good in bed." 

Wesley choked on his drink.  

The scene snowballed from there, and thus Nora and Jon were born!  (You'll probably get to see the rest of this scene at some point, once I've caught up to this part.) They weren't aliens here yet, and they were spies rather than bounty hunters. And this still has nothing to do with Ratched. So what happened next?

Dirt Poor Robins happened next. 

I was just browsing through Spotify's recommendations for me one night when I came across "Welcome to Lady Hell" (which is a delight, you should listen to it). Intrigued, I clicked on a few other of their songs. They are bizarre and WONDERFUL. It was a great time! Then, I heard "Great Vacation." The lyrics just begged for a story.

Wake, you sleepers 

It's time to get dressed

Somebody's coming

So, you better look your best

Here, I had the image of Nora and Jon springing out of bed one morning as they were called on for a job. But that wasn't all! Somebody's coming and all of the world / soon will be gone gave me some serious Something Wicked This Way Comes and Umbrella Academy vibes. I needed a creepy ringmaster-type character, and an apocalypse. So, how about our creepy ringmaster-type character is trying to stop the apocalypse? Enter Marci! Let's make her an alien! How does she know Nora and Jon? They're also aliens! And bounty hunters sounded cooler and more action-y than spies in stopping the apocalypse, so that's how we got that. 

But we still need Ratched!

I think about Ratched and The King's Arena fairly often, and I'm always looking for ways to combine my different story ideas. I've been thinking for a long while that I wanted to set his story in a speculative setting, perhaps in the future. And a few weeks ago I got the idea that perhaps Ratched was working as some sort of spy for someone, with a handler and everything, when I listened to "One Night in Bangkok" on the radio one day. (Did you know that was originally written for a concept album called "Chess," which became a musical? Wild!). Then the other day, the stars aligned! What if Ratched is working for Marci too? 

So there you have it! The foundations of this Apocalypse Serial were laid! (Someday I'll have a real title for it).  My goal is to post a new episode every two weeks, possibly alternating between Jon & Nora and Ratched. Thanks for reading this far! I hope you enjoy the ride. It will be wild!