This month is almost one for the books

November almost over. Another Thanksgiving is one for the books. The turkey and fixings are the story of leftovers, if there were leftovers. NaNoWriMo is almost finished as well. I had all of the intentions of participating this year because I need to finish my novel, Magic’s Memory (tentative title), the sequel to Water’s Memory. You know what they say about the road to hell. Completing NaNoWriMo this year is just one more brick in that road.

I, however, have a backup plan. In the back of my mind, I’m going to try to keep a deadline like I had when I participated in the 100 Day Book Program. Hopefully, I will make this deadline which will be around January or Spring Break, which is in March. I’m almost 10,000 words in, and my goal is around 50,000 or 60,000 words. Sometimes I feel like I have a few too many irons in the fire with classwork and writing looming, but the ideas, especially the novel ideas seem to be steady.

I’d like to begin writing short stories again. Maybe an idea or two will come my way. I have an idea about a siren still marinating in my brain. It has been there for months. The story with this siren happens in the world that is evolving in my two novels. The nexus of the mundane and magical world will be the subject of a future post. TTFN! Happy reading! Happy writing! 😊

A Cool Book

Hey! I finished reading a book Friday. One of my colleagues recently turned me on to audio books. Thanks Marcus! Anyways, since I do lots of commuting, I have ample time to think and listen. I guess you can say that I live in my head most of the day. The radio used to be my standby but, like I said, Marcus turned me on to the app Audible. At first I thought my brain would not adjust to a book being read to me. Boy was I wrong, and I'm glad I was. Marcus turned me on to the author Steven Pressfield's book The War of Art, and it informed me on the problem of resistance, something that everyone grapples with. I know I fought with it when I was trying to write Water's Memory. Well, I enjoyed that book, and I picked another by the same author. After listening to the book, I've started to rethink some of my story and novel plots. It's got me thinking what each piece is really about. After I finished the book, I reworked Chapter One of Water's Memory trying to get to the inciting event.  I'm glad that I listened to the book and found it very useful. When I finish Shawn Coyne's Story Grid, I'll have another tool in my box that will help me better my craft. I encourage you all to pick up Steven Pressfield's book, Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t. And while you're in the bookstore, be it physically or virtually, get The War of Art as well.  Let me know what you thought of the books. Until next time, keep it in the road!

Shfters, Lycans, and Werewolves

            I’ve read many books that have lycans or werewolves and shape shifters. I love the classic Wolfman movie and other werewolf movies. Somehow all of them were based or originated in Europe, and I thought surely there must be werewolves elsewhere as well as shape shifters. I’m a fan of Egyptian mythology, so I started playing around with my own origin story about them. I’m working on a writing project that has lycans and shifters. Here goes. Shifters and lycans are technically the children of the goddess Sekhmet. They share her blood. Because of this, lycans and shifters are practically immortal.

            When Sekhmet was a lioness and Ra’s wrath, she was tricked into drinking beer the color of blood. As she slept from her bender, two priests/magicians, identical twin brothers, took some of Sekhmet’s blood. The brothers were named Nour and Sabra. They used their knowledge of magic and herbs to change Sekhmet’s blood because the blood or gods and goddesses is volatile and deadly to mortal humans. Nour and Sabra tempered the lethal aspects of Sekhmet’s blood and drank it. After consuming the blood, the brothers were able to change into animals like lions, jackals, leopards, hyenas, wolves, etc. Sabra’s favorite animal was the wolf. (It seems that wolves live or lived in a lot of places) The brothers were ready to battle Sekhmet and stop her killing rampage, but she was transformed into the goddess Hathor when she awoke.

            One night, while in his shift as a wolf and running with a pack, Sabra was bitten by a snake, who was actually the god of evil and destruction, Apep, the arch enemy of Ra. Sabra was poisoned by the snake’s bite. He managed to get to his brother, Nour, and collapsed at his door. To save Sabra, Nour invokesd and implored the goddess of healing, Isis. Isis calmed the poison, but it was still active in Sabra’s blood. It created a rage and kept him from shifting into any other animal besides a wolf. Isis, to tame the poison, tied Sabra and Nour to her, for she was the moon goddess. Nour became Sabra’s guardian and if Sabra ever lost control, Isis gave Nour the power to stop his brother. (This is where I’m going to try to incorporate the silver vulnerability) Isis recognized the power that the two brothers had due to their abilities and made them vulnerable to one of the celestial metals, silver. When Sabra was sick and fevered with Apep’s poison, he was restrained using silver. Isis also tied a vulnerability to silver to Nour. So, shifters and lycans can be killed with the metal.

            Only Sabra, who is the lycan, is more tied to the moon and its cycles. Lycans can be born and made (because of Apep’s poison), but shifters can only be born of other shifters. Both beings were born from the blood of Sekhmet. This is my first try at an origin story. What do you think? 

The World of Elements

According to the Greeks and very early physicians, there are four elements: earth, air fire, and water. But I've read in Hinduism and Buddhism there are five elements: earth, fire, air/wind, water, and aether. Water's Memory has four, earth, air, fire, and water. I may introduce the fifth element, but later on. Can we say sequel?  Each one of the elements in Water's Memory have different occupations. I tried to assign them jobs indicative of their qualities. Some of my earth elements run a jewelry store. There is also an earth element that is a physician. The air or wind element works with the earth element, and she may be the love interest of the physician. I enjoyed writing about the fire elements. There are three of them, identical triplets. Last, but not least, is the water element. She's one of my main characters. She also has a few issues, but all main characters have them, right? Now, the only element left is aether. This element won't be featured won't be featured in Water's Memory, but that doesn't mean that he or she won't make a debut until later. I'm working on notes for another project, which could be a sequel to Water's Memory and looking forward to getting started. 

The Story of the Story

"Easy reading is damn hard writing." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

So I joined The Write Practice website and decided to do their 100 Day Book Program. I had this book and its ideas marinating and stewing for years, about three or four to be exact. I really liked the novel idea, but I needed to stop sputtering and spinning my wheels, then I was invited to a webinar hosted by Joe Bunting about book ideas. By the end, I found myself enrolled in the program.

They say (I don’t know who “they” would be) that a bad start leads to a good finish. I hadn’t been placed in a group and things were about to kick off. Thank goodness Ruthanne Reid worked with me. Thanks Ruthanne! The start was October 16, 2017, participants had to finish and upload the book by January 23. I finished January 18. No, I wasn’t overachieving. Snow and ice down in the deep south don’t give you too many things to do or places to go. Since my classes were cancelled, I could stay up late and finish. After resolving the sub-plot, I knew I could make it to the end and I did! I must say that finishing was the highlight of the program. One of the great things about the program was the workshop. It helps to get feedback and encouragement from other writers and read their work as well. Big shouts out to the writers in Group B! You’re marvelous!

Before the program started, I locked myself in by telling everyone, friends, family, and coworkers that I was in the program, and I had an actual deadline, and I didn’t want them wondering what happened. The lows were there. Writing can be rewarding and reflective, but sshe’s a harsh mistress and taskmaster. I’d known that from writing short stories, but this was a whole novel. It was hard to hunker down and work and post one or two chapters each Friday. These ideas for other novels kept swirling in my head, and sometimes I get distracted by them, but I battled the resistance and made it.

I am happy with the novel which is titled Water’s Memory. It is a “southern fried” fantasy in which a young woman, an elemental, struggles to control her powers before they kill her or she is killed by a hunter who helps protect the magical realm from mundane humans. As she trains, she manages to take a young man’s memories who pursues her to retrieve them. I have to whittle down my premise to a sentence, but I have confidence that I can do it.

I won’t mince words when I say this was hard. However, I would not trade this experience for anything. I survived and finished! The 100 Day Book Program is a challenge but worth it!

Novel Progress

     It has been a good minute since I posted anything. I have got to get back into practice. Since my last post, I finally finished my novel. The working title is The Memory of Water. That may have to change it because there are a few books out there with the same name. I am still riding the wave of excitement of actually finally finishing. Honestly, sometimes I didn't think I would finish this soon. It was a project in the making and I would write in sports and pieces and obsess over editing and revising the parts that I'd written. Then I decided to make a commitment to the novel, and here I am.
     The novel is set primarily on the Gulf Coast. I've read many contemporary fantasy novels. I am enjoying Ilona Andrews and Patricia Briggs right now. Yes, I was still reading as I was intensely writing. Anyways, like I said, I've read a few contemporary fantasy novels, and some were set in New Orleans, Savannah, or Atlanta. I hadn't read a fantasy novel set a bit closer to home. I'm from South Alabama, by the way, so I decided to set my novel there and Northwest Florida. There's a bit of Mobile and Pensacola in the book.
     Elementals controlling earth, wind, fire, and water inhabit the world created in this novel. As a matter of fact, a water elemental is one of the novel's main characters. The elelmentals were a hoot to work with. I try to get more into detail in another post.
    I must give credit where it is due. My brother and the show Full Metal Alchemist are partially responsible for this novel's birth. As we watched an episode involving the brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric, he just started firing these "what if" questions at me. For some reason, it made the gears start turning in my head. I had an idea about gemstones that was in notes and then my brother was asking these questions. They have me the jumpstart that I needed. I'd been writing short stories but the plot line I was thinking was too long to be a short story. It was time for a novel. Something else that surprised me was the fact the novel was going to be a fantasy. I had been writing mostly Southern Gothic short stories.  All I can say is Thank you Charles! Also anime is so awesome!
    Because of my brother and the anime, I started to do research into alchemy. From there, it went into the elementals. I found some literature by Paracelsus and some more about the Philospher's stone. There was a wealth of information out there to sort through.
     Besides including elementals, I wanted to include some diversity in the book. I was trying to think of what my main female character would look like, and I thought of Vanity and Apollonia, their younger selves, so my main female character is of interracial heritage. Some of the elementals are Latino and others are African. My characters have a few issues, but what person doesn't? The other main character is a young man, so there may be some romance between them by the time this novel is over.  I like them both for various reasons.
     I have hopes that their story and adventures will travel from my computer and flash drive and be shared with others. Until next time. TTFN!