NaNoPITCHMo 3: THE LIES OF LOCHAN DUVH

Always, no matter what I am working on, there's a perpetual question in the back of my mind: "What will I write next?" I'm usually excited to move on to a new project, but there's always a bit of fear that maybe the next thing won't be as good as something I've written in the past.

I certainly have that fear for my next project. Though I'm in the middle of editing a novel called The Neverwas right now, I've already written a few chapters on something new. And it's a lot different from anything I've ever written before. It's slower and more atmospheric, and the character is someone I identify with more than anyone else I've created. While the plot isn't as twisty and flashy as some of my previous plots, it's deeper and drawn more out of my experience.

Today's pitch is for this book:

Sorsca is a cartographer in a world where maps don’t describe new lands, they create them. With the stroke of her brush she can scoop out a valley or pull a hill up from the mist. She dreams of traveling to the very edges of the world to carve new land out of the Empty like the heroes of her guild. But when she is finally invited to do precisely that, she finds the Empty to be more dangerous than she ever imagined.

Dark things lurk in the mists. One of them has taken a keen interest in Sorsca, haunting her and telling her lies that burrow deep into her psyche. She isn’t good enough, he insists. She’s unwanted. She’s guilty. He makes her draw harsh lines on a map, bleeding ink onto the vellum and pulling more darkness into the land she creates. If Sorsca can’t learn to admit to his influence and accept help, he’ll use her up until she’s little more than a shell fit for his purposes.

THE LIES OF LOCHAN DUVH is a fantasy metaphor for the very real darkness of depression. Having faced that darkness myself and having helped others through their own depression, this is a compelling topic for me. I'm passionate about writing this story.

I hope that one day it can make a difference for someone who needs it.

NaNoPITCHMo 2: MAGIC RED AND WILD

Today's pitch is for a novel I worked on a year or two ago and shelved temporarily after the first draft. I felt that I needed some distance from the narrative in order to come back with fresh eyes at a later time. I also had a new idea that I was desperate to write, and which has since turned into one of my favorite projects ever.

But I still hope to get back to this one at some point. I really enjoyed writing the voice in this story, and it was fun to explore the different magics as well. And I can certainly say I've spent enough time doing other things that the book will feel new again!

Pitch:

Mudge is a red mage living in hiding—with her three adoptive aunts—from the blue mages who want them dead. Every night she watches the stars and dreams of going to Cobalt City to study astronomy at the university—against her aunts’ wishes—even though she’d be killed if anyone caught her doing red magic there. When her Aunt Buld is stolen into the shadow world while helping Mudge create a golem, Mudge is left with no choice—her only chance of getting her aunt back is to go to the city and learn as much as she can about blue magic.

Once in Cobalt she discovers that creating a blue magic spell to save her aunt might be possible. But the only way to do it requires breaking into the most secure building in the city. She enlists the help of a sympathetic blue mage named Joon who has his own reasons for wanting to break in. But when rebel red mages bomb the city, Mudge’s assumptions about who is good and who is bad begin to crumble. Why do the blue mages hate her aunts so much? And why did her aunts never tell her about her blue mage family? As tension between the two sides heats up, Mudge must decide: is she red or is she blue?

NaNoPITCHMo 1: VISIONS OF JEN

Happy NaNoWriMo friends! To those of you diving into your 50k words, good luck! It's an intense experience, and even years after doing my last NaNo, I still get a tingle of excitement every November 1st.

But as usual these days, I'm not at the right place in the writing/editing process to start a new book in November. Instead, this year I'll be doing NaNoPITCHMo--writing one book pitch a day (or maybe bringing back some old ones from previous books on days I can't get to the computer, because sometimes life needs wiggle room, right?) and posting them here.

For today's pitch, since yesterday was Halloween, I went a little creepy. I love the premise of this pitch, but honestly I have no clue what the rest of the book would look like. Maybe one day I'll write it. Until then, I do love the spooky feeling I get thinking about it.

VISIONS OF JEN:

Ellie sees visions of the past when she walks into an empty room. They are silent, like 3D soap operas on mute. The more dramatic memories are brighter, the rest dim or faded to nothing.

When Jen, the most popular girl in Ellie's school, goes missing, Ellie is the only one who knows where to start looking. There's a new memory of Jen in the girls' locker room, and it's the brightest one Ellie has ever seen. Finding Jen becomes an obsession.

The more secrets Ellie uncovers about Jen, the more important the locker room vision becomes. But this memory is different from all the others.

This memory keeps changing.

this is me

Hi and welcome to Pitch Wars folks and anyone else who might be stumbling by. My blogging has been only sporadic the past four years. (You know what's been around four years? My oldest kid. Coincidence? Not a bit.) But I'm glad to have you here.

Some tidbits about me:

-I'm married with two kids, both boys. They're fun kids and get along well, but they've got very different personalities. Give the older one a craft and he'll be happy for hours while the younger one says hi to everyone in the room, finds hidden outlets and colors on the door.

-I love to crochet amigurumi dolls. I've got several original designs I've come up with over the past year. Here are a few:

 



[Clockwise: baby dinosaur, phoenix, mouse, weeping angel, little boy blue.]











-I'm also into chocolate making, and I think in another life I would be a chocolatier. I love making truffles. And of course I love eating them too! But only the dark chocolate.

[Square, heart, star and shell shape chocolates.]

Ok, so what about my writing?

I write fantasy only and always, mostly of the YA variety. Here are a few of my past projects:

The Never Silent: A 17-year-old con artist from 1840s Manhattan impersonates his best friend to board an old sailing ship in order to find his friend’s killer. (YA)

The Curator: Someone from the Museum of Worlds is littering Earth with magical artifacts. But not to worry! The Curator of Earth is on the case. (Lower YA/Upper MG)

And my current book:

The Neverwas: A gladiator discovers rot at the heart of this magical world, where memories are not what they seem. (YA)

With this book I've given myself an added challenge of making all of the characters gender-ambiguous. Why?

Well, to begin with I couldn't decide whether I wanted to write a "girl" book or a "boy" book. And I thought to myself, "Why do I have to do either?" So early on I knew I would be writing a first person story with a protagonist that was never outed as male or female or nonbinary.

But of course, since there is a love interest, once you decide for yourself whether the protagonist is a particular gender, there becomes an assumption about the sexuality of the protagonist based on the love interest's gender.

So I wrote a few scenes between the two, attempting to keep the love interest's gender ambiguous as well. And I found that to my surprise, it wasn't as hard as I expected.

So I decided to go for it with all the characters. It's been an interesting experiment and taught me a lot about my own assumptions when it comes to gender. I hope the reader has the opportunity to think through some of those things too.

Alright, but those of you who've known me a while might be thinking, "But don't you already have an agent?"

I did, yes. We parted a year ago on totally friendly terms. If you have any questions about that, just ask me.

For now I'm excited to be submitting to Pitch Wars. Good luck to everyone involved!

Poetry Month

It's poetry month, and so for our most recent session my local writing group brought in a poet, who gave us some instruction and prompts for writing a Haiku. Though we weren't actually required to come up with one right then, I did have mine come together pretty quickly. It was based on a picture of a dragonfly sparkling in sunlight:


points of light on wings
sliding over thin membrane
dropping into air


And in fact, I was so into the whole poetry mood while I was there that I came up with an entirely different poem as well. I'd had a murky idea for it in the week leading up to the group, and I was happy that talking about poetry spurred me into getting it all down. Here it is:


I have collected light
in jewels on a string
in glints off tall metal towers
and champagne in sparkling glasses

But you have gathered light
in beads of dew on a flower
and in children's laughter
and from the eyes of those you've saved

And while my collection gathers dust
Yours propagates and never rusts



Happy Poetry Month!