The Ringer’s League

I think I’ve decided to write the Ringer’s League next. It’s the most marketable I think, with the easiest pitch of all my ideas. The big problem I run into with fantasy, specifically with epic fantasy like with When He Returns, my third book, I find it really hard to pitch. There are just so many facets to it.

Ringer’s League isn’t so hard. It’s Pokémon meets Animorphs with a little bit of Hunger Games. The story focuses on Greyson, the son of the greatest “ringer” to ever live. Just as he finally finishes the preliminaries to join the next season of the league, news breaks that his father was found dead in the mansion of a rich man, but only after brutally murdering everyone in the house.

Greyson has always lived in his father’s shadow, and has worked very hard to make his own way, not accepting any help from his father. This strained their relationship. Now, his father’s shadow is no longer one of awe and inspiration, but of hate and vitriol.

After returning home, Greyson finds a note hidden in his fathers desk addressed to him. His father explains in the note that not everything is as it seems, but that Greyson isn’t strong enough to deal with what is actually happening, so he can’t explain it all.

At the end of the letter, his father charges him with winning the League, then talking to his father’s life long friend. Only then will he be prepared to learn the truth behind his father’s actions.

So, Greyson sets off to do something that has never been done: win the Ringer’s League as a new contestant.

I think there is something there. It’s interesting enough, and is easy to write. I like writing in the 90’s aesthetic. Tube televisions, pay phones, and old technology is fun to write.

Hopefully in a year I’ll have a full draft, and can look back on this and see how it’s changed.