Sunday, April 29, 2018

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!

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