I see wide stone stairs leading up from a plaza to a vast silver building held up by columns all around. The building is the seat of a mighty government that plans to stop at nothing until it dominates more than a half-dozen universes.
Or is the real source of villainy a secret cabal that meets at a log cabin secluded int the woods somewhere, its machinations more subtle than outright tyranny and sapping liberty patiently and by increments until the chains fit snugly but invisibly around us all?
I see a young woman whose best friend is a vampire, and a large man who teaches her how to wield an elegant weapon that appears to be nothing more than a walking stick, and a reluctant prince and his loyal aide, and I see a strange creature called a snoggle who is far more than he seems.
And over in the corner is a private detective working in the shadow of his far more famous private detective father, but the son has a secret ally — a six and a half foot pookha who manifests as a humanoid skunk-like apparition.
And finally, a man and the very attractive young woman who befriends him and asks for his help against what appears to be an alien invasion of the strangest kind.
The young woman who befriended a vampire holds the key to turning back the tyranny or the secret cabal, but the key to her success may very well be the other new friends she meets along the way.
How is it all connected? Is it connected at all? I step back from the canvas to examine those questions, as they percolate in my addled brain.
Someday I’ll look back at these words and marvel that I paused so long before taking the next step. Or, worse, I’ll look back and wonder how the story could still remain untold. I lift my foot to take that next step, and universes hold their breath.