Clarkwoods Disassembled

Since the 2002 publication of Those Little Bastards, my first collection of short stories, I’ve been proclaiming loudly to anyone who would listen that all of my creative work—fiction, comics, music, short films, and plays—is set in the same shared universe. I was a Marvel kid, and the idea of a universe where Spider-Man could bump into the Fantastic Four has been blowing my mind since I was taking hardcover comics collections out of the Children’s House at the Chelmsford Public Library.

That said, trying to explain to potential audience members what the Clarkwoods Literary Universe is all about? That’s been a challenge.

A couple of months ago, I attended a Sage Seminar here on World Anvil where Janet Forbes asked us to answer a question about our worlds, and to make sure the answer to that question was clear on our homepages. The question was “what kind of fun are we having?”

Thinking about how I might answer that question has led me to the following conclusion: it’s time to break up the Clarkwoods Literary Universe, at least as its presented on World Anvil and to the general public. Because the truth is that the answer to the question “what kind of fun are we having?” is very different if you’re talking about my Stains of Time series of novels or my ongoing The Blood of Seven Queens comic book.

My plan, such as it is, is to split those two areas of my current world into distinct worlds of their own. Then, going forward, if I start a new project and the answer to the question “what kind of fun are we having?” is distinct enough, I’ll open a new world to house that idea. I have a Sage-level membership, for Pete’s sake. I can have multiple worlds. This is a thing I am allowed to do.

Eventually, I can see a disassembled Clarkwoods Literary Universe with the following distinct worlds:

1. Eden. The fantasy world of The Blood of Seven Queens
2. Stains of Time Earth. The suburban fantasy world of the Silver family.
3. The Young Chris Stuff. All the comics, short stories, and aborted novels written and released prior to when I started grad school in 2003.

Additionally, I might eventually flesh out some of these concepts I’ve hinted at but not really fully explored:

• Earth-665: The world of my half-naked Bekiskapan, their halfling allies, and the dinosaurs and mega-fauna out to kill them. Think Conan, Red Sonja, Ka-Zar, the Savage Land—that kind of stuff.
• Earth-666: Steampunk World. I don’t have much more than that at present, so I’m not sure this one will ever come to fruition.
• Earth-667: An Earth where monsters are real and have been for some time. No idea about when this would be set. If I’m honest though, right now I’m kinda digging the idea of setting this one in the 1990s—as an homage to my teenage years but with preppy vampires, slacker zombies, and jocky werewolves or something.

I’m still figuring out where I’ll store overarching concepts that apply to all of the worlds, so please drop any suggestions you have below.

It’s also worth noting that I’m approaching this as a long-term project without a specific deadline. I’d like to get some of the basic splitting done before WorldEmber, so that I can flesh out empty areas of the Seven Queens world during that event—including blank spaces that may only become illuminated as I haul the cruft of the older, currently “finished” project (Stains of Time) away from the current project. BUT—and this is a really big but—I need this to be a project that I can just chip away at as time permits, and not one that I feel obligated to finish on a definitive schedule. My comic is my top creative priority these days, and I can’t take on another daily/weekly big thing with my current schedule and state of mind. Spooktober proved that to me.

Finally, I believe this will help me start worldbuilding my next project—a naughtier comic that I’ve been teasing to my friends and acquaintances for years now, something adjacent to the series of erotic novels I published under a pen name a couple of years ago.

And yeah, whoops, I just revealed my secret. Don’t hate me for having a naughty side!

I mean, you can hate me if you read the books and think they’re awful, but, yeah…