What's Coming Up?

 -Oh, I've Been Workin'-

So far-in the year 2026-I've published two books. My horror anthology "The Mirror Stares Back" and my third poetry collection "Gutshot". Since the latter, I've been rattling around a few ideas in my head for my next book. Whatever it ends up being: it'll be my eleventh book and what I consider to be the start of a new era for me.

I've got weird thing about numbers. Maybe you do too. Tens are big for me, as are ones, even nines just by being penultimate. So, I want number eleven to be something big and special and cool. Like, "get ready for the next era of Rafael Ayala books!" Like a premier or something. I guess I'm too TV-brained.

So, for book number eleven, what are my options? What have I been working on? Let's take a look.

-Some Totally Normal Stories-

-About Totally Normal People-

That's not the name of the book, by the way. I've been working on the next entree in my "Addiction 2 Fiction" series. Those are my anthology books, and often the short stories in there have a theme. This one is called "Fourdinary People".

I'm used to writing bizarre, surreal stories that I wanted to try writing more grounded stories this time. No robots or monsters, just people having normal people problems. I know how to write character drama, but I wanted to see if I could do it without crazy sci-fi/fantasy stuff acting as a "crutch" or "fluff" to the story.

The stories in A2F: Volume 4" are:

"Omar & Cruz Pay Rent"

Says it all on the tin. Our two crude protagonists experience adult life for the first time and have to juggle employment, relationships, and the absolute dystopian hellscape that is finances.

"If You Let It"

This story follows the life of Sedeline, a woman who grew up in an abusive, pseudo-religious household and was born with CIP, a genetic condition that prevents her from feeling pain.

"Dirt"

"Dirt" is about a young couple leaving the West Coast to visit the man's parents in the deep South. When our female protagonist knew our male protag on the West Coast, he was creative, sensitive, and patient. But the longer is he back home with his "traditional" family, the more he's turning into the person he used to be. And she does not like that person.

So, that's one project, but there's also...

-My Fighting Game Isekai-

I've had this idea for a while and now I can finally talk about it. A big entree in stories nowadays are what anime refers to as an Isekai. Its a story where a character from a normal world (like ours) is transported into another world, usually fantasy.

Sometimes the character will be themselves or they'll possess the body of someone from that world. Sometimes the main character will be clueless and other times they'll use their real world knowledge to their advantage.

In terms of American stories, you could classify "Army of Darkness" or "The Wizard of Oz" or "Alice in Wonderland" as Isakais. Or, of course, the 2000's cinematic masterpiece that is Martin Lawrence's "Black Knight".

Now, my story is called "Versus-Verse". It's about these cousins named Danny and Hannah getting sucked into an arcade machine for the fighting game "Top Fighter". The kids get put inside the bodies of the game's two lead martial artist characters; Chip Damage and Hit Stunner. To get out, the cousins have to win the tournament of the game. That's what they think, at least.

Personally, I am not good at fighting games. I'm good as Super Smash Bros, but that's pretty far from the typical 1-v-1, joystick fighting games you see in arcades. But I love them. I think Street Fighter has interesting characters, Mortal Kombat has a rich variety of places, Tekken has some really cool character designs.

So, I wanted to explore the kind of world a fighting game would create. For example, in the universe of "Top Fighter" any argument or arrangement could be settled in a fair fight. From paying for a meal to settling peace treaties between countries. This also means even the oldest, most out of shape people are at least decent at fighting. And things like money, property, and secrets aren't important or useful. Of course, this world isn't the one I've been thinking about.

-Back To Fantasy-

It's hard to believe it's been two years since I wrote "Ravenous: The Ballad of The Hungry Squire". Ever since I finished writing it, I've been thinking about a sequel. Same with "Zeus Did It Again", since I wrote those books back-to-back. When we do return to the world of Ravenous, the stakes are going to be higher, the cast is gonna see some shake-ups, and I'm hoping the story leaves readers in great anticipation.

I don't want to say too much, but our lead character Jack is searching for a remedy for his new culinary master and on his journey he'll meet a whole slew of new friends and enemies. All the while, Pepper is going to try and hold down the fort back at Jack's restaurant, as chaos breaks out in the North Kingdom.

So stayed tuned because I have a lot of projects set in front of me. I can't say what my next book will be, but I guess that makes it exciting. Even I don't know what's next!