An original story world · Book · Game · Film
An original comic-philosophical universe where mischief becomes a route to self-discovery.
One degree left on the quantum axis, Genies play tricks on humans, on one another, and on almost anything unfortunate enough to become interesting. The humour opens the door. What sits behind it takes a little longer to notice.
You are currently seeing this page the way adults see things. Shift it one degree left on the quantum axis using the dial, or press L.
A creation story
In the very beginning, Genies were made to help people and enhance them, to lend them powers from other realms and other dimensions. Humanity was supposed to end up superhuman. That was the plan, and everyone was quite pleased with it.
The Genies arrived ready to teach telepathy. The early humans were thinking about lunch. The most abstract thought then available was can I outrun this thing before it reaches the cave. Boredom, in a creature built entirely out of joy, is a serious medical condition.
They cannot touch anything in our world. Not a hair, not a flowerpot. But they are connected to the human subconscious, and that turned out to be more than enough. The first ghost in recorded history was several Genies with a cloth over their heads, calling each other booo, which in their language means brother.
A trick is a small hole punched in an automatic life. Sometimes it is the only thing that gets through. The Genies were playing. They were also, without particularly intending to, waking people up. Neither side has fully worked this out yet.
Which is the whole book, really. The joke arrives first. The meaning arrives later, inside the consequence, after everybody — including the Genie — has misunderstood what the joke was actually doing.
The rules of the place
They live on this Earth, on the same streets, just shifted along the quantum axis. Lighter, brighter, and not quite solid. Angels, elementals, dwarfs and elves are neighbours.
Not a hair on your head. Everything a Genie does, it does through your subconscious, or occasionally through the quieter voice above it.
This is what imaginary friends are. It is also why nobody believes children, which the Genies find funny and a little sad.
Blue is sad. Red is anger. Pink is true happiness. Yellow means a trick is being planned. They can hold a poker face. They rarely bother.
Genies choose their age on arrival, and they now all choose to arrive as children with a clean slate, so that the past cannot sit on them and spoil the present.
Play plus work. They have never needed a second word for it, and they consider our having two words a symptom of something.
Life is a game. You must not take a game too seriously or you will miss it entirely. This is the closest thing the city has to a law.
At the most recent count. There is a government department that does nothing but keep the list, and the list refuses to hold still.
The face colours
The palette on this page is not a design decision. It is the book's. When a Genie's mood changes drastically, the colour of its face changes with it, and the expression feeling blue came into the human language the long way round.
There is also green. Green means a Genie has eaten something disagreeable, and is given no notice.
The citizens
Drawn by hand in pencil, ink, wash and coloured pencil, in sketchbooks. Nothing here was generated, and nothing has been tidied up.
From Book One
There is a whole world that most people can't see. It's the world of angels, elementals, dwarfs, elves, and fairies. They live on the same Earth people do, just one to five degrees to the left on the quantum axis. The ones who can see these worlds almost all the time are… children. That's the reason why they have what adults call "imaginary" friends. But the reality is that these friends are not imaginary at all. They are as real as the table leg where you hit your pinky toe and cry like a baby from the pain.
The world of angels, Genies and other creatures is fluffy. It's mostly made of light, and not even your smallest pinky finger can touch it. This probably explains the typical adult response: "If I can't see it, it doesn't exist." Which, if you give it some thought, is ironic and childish. You can't see air, but you breathe air. You can't see gravity, but our feet don't leave the Earth because of it. How about love? You can't see love, but you can feel it, and everyone knows it exists.
"So, what is real in this world, dear adults?" a Genie asks.
The Genie City, Book One — A Creation Story
One world, three doors
Book One is finished. Adult crossover fantasy: written for teenagers and adults, and readable aloud to children. Terry Pratchett's warmth with The Little Prince's questions.
Complete manuscript · U.S. copyright 2018 · Book Two in progress Enter → Door twoA narrative stealth-god game. You are the Genie. You play tricks on five humans in one small district and slowly discover that every prank rewrites a life. Untitled Goose Game, if the goose had a philosophy.
Live Godot feasibility prototype · seeking a vertical slice Enter → Door threeA boy from Earth finds his way into the Genie world, forgets it as he grows up, and remembers it as a man. Spectacle and comedy on the surface. Underneath, the long way back to innocence, carried this time with an adult's wisdom.
Concept and treatment stage Enter →Why this exists
Create enough clarity for the right person to recognise the opportunity, and enough mystery for them to want to enter the city. The Serendipity Plan
This is an original story world looking for the right creative partners: a literary agent who sees an expandable universe rather than one novel, a publisher who backs narrative games, a producer who understands that the comedy and the philosophy are the same object seen from two sides.
