State of Sin: The Synopsis

It may seem a little cryptic, but I wrote a book called State of Sin from 2013-2014. Publication is... taking a while, but it wouldn't be publishing if it didn't. Self-publication as a possibility is on ice for now thanks to time constraints.

Anyway, here's a fun little synopsis meant to draw the reader into the book. Hopefully it gets you excited for this very much finished and at some point totally purchase-able masterwork!

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The world of State of Sin is a reflection of our own – unchained. Corrupt officials are power players. Organized criminals advertise freely. Rural preachers rouse their constituents while mainstream urban churches become indistinguishable from banks. At the heart of the bedlam is one elegant tweak to the workings of society: there is no more criminal law. Instead, there is moral law, an intricate point system that sorts everyone in the country based on morality set out in an arcane, inaccessible document called the Moral Code. Station in society is based on social pressure, and no one can escape moral law even in innermost privacy.

In response to these developments, society has broken into factions. Moralists believe in amassing points for their own sake. Levellers believe in balancing points based on the obligation to do good and the temptation to do bad. Hedonists believe in doing whatever feels right, disregarding the system. Immoralists believe in an iconoclastic restoration of the old order, and will go to any means to prove their point. Political parties have become branches of the factions, each attempting to use the electoral system to shape the country according to their agendas. These missions range from introspectively challenging to outwardly violent.

State of Sin is a cross-section of its world. Of its 29 narrators, each one holds his or her own perspective, shaped by his or her faction, location, age, gender, race, class, and lifetime of experiences. State of Sin is unique in that the reader never sees the same character twice. What does become apparent is that within such a fractious environment, no two people perceive their surroundings the same.

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Doesn't that just make you want to read all 347 or so pages in one go?

A fun little addendum to my 2014 entry on State of Sin's last day, linked above: in it, I say...

Whether I'll write another novel after State of Sin, I'm not sure. I might get so wrapped up in other pursuits I only ever have time to write short stories. Alternatively, I might want to take the plunge of writing a novel again at some point. At my current rate, having started novels in 2007*, 2009^, 2010** and 2013^^, I'll be back on the trail in a year or two. Part of me hopes I will be. Part of me hopes I won't be. I suppose it'll come down to whether I feel I have as compelling a storyline again.

In addition to a few planned short story projects - one of which I'll blog about in the near future - and one finished short story in the hopper, I indeed have a new idea for a novel. We'll see how it pans out.