Upcoming Projects
- Jon Musgrave
- Nov 18, 2020
- 3 min read
Sometimes the hardest question is when someone asks about the next upcoming project. Right now, it maybe a history books, a novel or screenplay, and if the latter it may be one of mine, or one I'm doing a rewrite for a producer. Who knows? The scary part is I should, but I don't.
NONFICTION BOOKS
The Warring Twenties in Southern Illinois is my next big nonfiction book. It's been apart of my research efforts for the last decade. While it's taken a long time, at least it's been time well spent with the publication of Secrets of the Herrin Gangs and Inside the Shelton Gang as well as my 18 x 24 inch poster of the Birger Gang at Shady Rest. This project started out as an idea for a pictorial history of the era, but has expanded as I've found new caches of information untouched by previous writers.
As serious as true crime and gangsters can be I've also been considering one or two anthology books, either a general regional history using the title Egyptian Tales of the Heartland, or something even more fun, Big Footed Hoaxes, Horrors & Hype, about the various Big Foot and creature stories around the area. While there is a Big Muddy Monster book already published (of which I'm also distributing it), there are some great stories from around the region and surrounding states. Both of these would be mostly my writing but I'm going to be open to submissions from other writers.
NOVELS
I'm not sure if I'm finished or just halfway through the manuscript for my next novel, The Dragons Within. Set a thousand years ago this is a historical fantasy based on the first season's worth of scripts for a series. Do I take it up to the midseason cliffhanger which makes for a long novel (120,000 words thereabouts), or do I go all the way and make it an epic length book which is more typical of the genre. I haven't had a chance to work on it in a while but I'm itching to get back to it.
Another novel itching to get loose is Vengeance at Ford's Ferry, a 1963-based retelling of the assassination of James Ford of the Ford's Ferry Gang, the legend of Billy Potts and Anna Bixby's War With the River Pirates. It too started out as a screenplay which means it's sitting there as a 20,000+ word outline ready to be fleshed out.
SCREENPLAYS
Depending on how you count I have three or four projects still in the writing phase (at the very least). Love is the Answer started out as a rewrite for another project. It's done if the producer accepts it. If not, this romantic comedy/coming of age is getting another massive rewrite so I can claim it as my own.
The Starstruck Kid is halfway done and I need to get back to it. It's yet another period piece, but this one a superhero movie with a kid.
Dead Girl No. 2 started out as a joke. My cousin asked to be in a movie I was writing. I told her she could. She could be Dead Girl No. 2. Over the years the joke works even better when it's a guy. A few years ago I wrote a synopsis for a script competition using the title as my inspiration. This was supposed to be my summer writing project for an online class but work intervened and put it on hold.
An untitled horror project which consists of a major rewrite of two scripts I've already written and a third I've co-written with three other writers. If that sounds complicated it is. I'm not a horror guy but this is an idea inspired by our region's history and folklore. Rather just tweaking what's already written I'm back on focusing on the basic outline after taking an online horror screenwriting class this spring.
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