Back on my routine. 7 days of walking, 10,000 words written on the new story.

The new story in no way resembles what I thought I was going to be. I thought it would be a sort of take off on "Brave New World," but instead of the drug Soma, I was going to stipulate VR called Stimu.

Along those lines. Thus the title "New Brave World."

I still think there is a story there, but this ain't it.

Instead of being about where the characters are going, so far, this is more about where the characters have been. At least a third of the book is going to be  set in the "Stasis" or "Refuge." A survival story,

The "real" world is the Second Republic, where the environment is totally destroyed, the oceans have risen, and the country is controlled by The Founders, who pretend to be inheritors of the First Republic but who are in fact tyrants.

There is a rebellion going on, and in the midst of this comes the heroine of the story, who has spent her entire life inside the "Stasis" or "Refuge" with only her mother, at one with nature. A noble primitive, if you will.

No terribly original, but then...it's all in how you do it. More of a "Stranger in a Strange Land" than "Brave New World."(Though there are similarities even there.) Lots of low-grade philosophy.

This is the second straight out SF novel I've written, after avoiding the genre my entire career.

To hell with it. I'll try to have the science make sense, but dammit, I want to tell stories. Soft SF, I guess you'd call it.