My Novels (I)

Keep in mind, some of these I'll probably never finish, some have only a couple of chapters, some are only an idea, but I have a great story and willpower to develop them all.

Also, some of the excerpts I'll post here were written quite a long time ago, give me a break if there are some grammatical errors.

Here it goes:

• 'The Faceless Brotherhood' - Crime. In the 21st century a group of 20 year-olds create the biggest organized crime organization their country ever knew. A mix of '25th hour' with 'The Goodfellas'.

Excerpt:

I stop for a moment thinking on how the hell did this culture began. Was it television? Marketing and advertising? Globalization? Even fucking athletes don’t care about their athletic success anymore; all they care about is bigger paychecks and sponsors, so they can spend huge amounts of valueless paper on things they don’t need. Consumption generates more consumption.

“Anyway… The funniest thing about drones is the transition from student to worker, when they start looking for a job. This is the time they realize they’ve spent their whole life studying and they don’t know how to do anything! Some of these guys spent more than 15 years studying!! This is also the time they try to find the person they wouldn’t mind to screw, and to screw with, for the rest of their lives. It’s nice to notice the resemblance between looking for a job and looking for a partner: they’ll do anything to get it, and the moment after they have it, they get lax and test every possible limit to lose it. Fucking genius...”

I look at my cigarette and notice it’s ruined. Blood and filters don’t match. I take a mental note and throw the thing away to get a new one. It’s the last one on this pack. I throw the pack away too. I still don’t want to light it.

(More can be found here)

• 'Rodrigo Biaggi - Rise to Made Man' - Crime. Mafia in the 30's. A bit of a tribute to Mario Puzo's books.

Excerpt: (It's on my laptop, I'll log in there later and add it)

• 'Rodrigo Biaggi - War of the Three Cities' - Crime. Mafia in the 30's. (optional follow-up to the above)
  
• 'Rodrigo Biaggi - The New Godfather' - Crime. Mafia in the 30's. (another optional follow-up)
• 'A Tale of Kings and Merchants' - War epic, set in the classical era. A tribute to George RR Martin's 'A song of ice and fire'. I'm writing this one in Portuguese (don't know why anymore, but here it is)

Excerpt:

A dor agonizava.

Era preciso todo o autocontrolo que tinha para não agarrar o peito com a mão, para apertá-lo, bater-lhe, qualquer coisa... Mas se o fizesse era sinal de fraqueza, e hoje não podia haver algum: hoje precisava de ser o líder histórico e forte que viam nele, que esperavam que ele ainda fosse...Que não sabiam que ele já não era.

A dor era insuportável... E o suor... O suor era o pior. Sentia-se constantemente a escorrer, escorria como um animal no matadouro, tanto por dentro da roupa, como pela cara. Esse suor na cara atraiçoava-o: revelava o imenso desconforto que a tanto custo tentava esconder. A sua esperança é que os seus longos cabelos brancos lhe escondessem o suficiente a cara, para que pelo menos os mais novos e menos perspicazes não se apercebessem do estado em que ele estava. Pior que isso, mais importante que a sua figura, era a sua voz: há dias que não falava, das últimas vezes que o tinha feito, revelara-se um esforço muito grande, pois tomava todo o seu ar, e ficava a respirar em dificuldade durante imenso tempo a seguir a esse esforço. E se a voz lhe faltasse? Ou se fosse demasiado baixa ou fraca para que todos o ouvissem? Como esconderia a dificuldade de respirar depois de falar? Todo este sacrifício podia estar a ser em vão...

(I actually started to write this one in English, and you can find it here)

• 'A Tale of Kings and Merchants II' - Set in the world created by the above, but in the Medieval era, the characters will be much more flawed, better constructed and unpredictable.

Excerpt:

Man-in-the-middle: And I’ll tell ya’ somthin’ else: Mereen was in my bed mo’ times than in yours… I’d say that boy is meh son, but he’s a worthless piss, so he must really be yours. (He laughed then) Look at that, if the wind blows any harder I believe he’ll wet his undies. Do you wear women undies son? I bet ya’ do. Ya’ have some nice woman hair; I bet you have nice woman undies. (He laughed again).

Eadgyth saw the kid they were talking about: tall, skinny, with long black hair that the wind insisted on shoving on his face. He seemed no older than sixteen, not the youngest aboard, but surely seemed the one with less experience, at least. He was trying for some time, without much success, to roll a ballista that had broken from its place, right to where it belonged, on the right side of the ship. The slimy deck and the movement of the ship as it sailed through the rough, tempestuous sea, were making his job impossible, making him crawl, and fight with the ballista not to roll to the opposite side he wanted.

Man-in-the-middle: Son, d’ya need help? Trade with ya’ father. (Another deep laugh) Even that old cock without a leg might be stronger on one leg than ya’ in ya’ both.

The boy seemed not to be listening, but was coughing hard as he fought to pull the ballista.

The-man-far-away: You ugly son-of-a-whore, the kid’s sick; get him down before he is thrown off the ship!

• 'The (other) History of Portugal' - A humorous, satirical viewpoint of the history of Portugal, it's written in Portuguese and this is actually the only one I'll never translate to English (because it doesn't really make sense). Something like Jon Stewart's 'America - The Book'.

Excerpt:

Prefácio

D. Henri de Borgonha, é com um enorme prazer que conseguimos que participasse no nosso livro, com uma pequena entrevista no prefácio.

- Oui.

Ainda bem que toca nesse assunto, comecemos por aí, muita gente não faz ideia, ou esquece-se que o senhor era um nobre borgonhês, antes de lhe ser atribuído o condado portucalense. Neste livro explicamos as suas raízes e algumas das dificuldades que enfrentou na mudança de cultura.

- Oui, oui.

Não quer elaborar quanto à veracidade dos factos apresentados?

- Non, non.

Ok. E o que o fez querer mudar de ares? Porquê viver aqui?

- Bien… Portucale já na altura tinha um… je-ne-sais-quoi.

Ok, podemos largar as expressões em Francês? Não sei quem está a querer impressionar…

- Oui, pardon.

(A discussão que se seguiu após esta resposta foi editada, por não contribuir para o desenvolver do prefácio. Um pôr do sol mais tarde conseguimos retomar…)

(Continues in the next post...)