DON’T PANIC…Eleven days in and breathe….
Where to begin? A rash decision or exciting challenge, or both? The dying weeks of October saw me contemplating a dip in writing. After viewing the build up to NaNoWriMo on numerous social media outlets I delved deeper and thought why not?
That was the easy bit.
Feeling rather smug about things I decided to resurrect an old idea that paused during the writing of another book called,
The Assent of Rose Marie Gray.
That follows the journey of one of four former friends from school. After a disastrous marriage Rose spiralled into depression and entered places that challenge reality, and what lies deep within the mind of a coma patient; one who doesn’t know she is actually not in the real world. One of my very few beta readers described that one thus.
“Amaze balls! This is no fluff book. It’s dark full of twists and turns. The line between reality and fantasy becomes blurred. The mind itself is tricking the reader making you doubt your own perception of what is real and what is not. A veritable emotional roller coaster.
It explores emotion from love sadness guilt grief to the dark half which resides in us all.”
The NaNo project involves another of those friends, Emma Strickland; the current (working) book blurb, for which, is given below. While Rose was more a psychological thriller, Emma’s journey is a horror story. One that begins with the death of her father.
THE BEQUEST
(Blurb v1.1)
Emma Strickland’s late father was a professor of archaeology and modern day Indiana Jones, specialising in the occult. The family home, MarshBank House, fitted his interests closer than imagined. It collected the past, stored it and waited.
On the death of her mother, Emma inherited everything; unaware that not every bequest is part of the chattels.
Something is reaching out, beguiling Archibald Cleethorpes, a man who once unearthed a mirror in Rome while collecting with the professor.
A mirror with a past.
A mirror that shows death.
More precisely, people that are living, until the watcher, thinking they are witnessing an accident, becomes the assassin.
Emma has the mirror now and Archie, haunted and possessed by a reflection he once saw, will do anything to get it back.
So far things are on track and it is quite possible the 50,000 word in a month target might be reachable. Chapter five is underway, although I strongly suspect the final draft will be longer than this, and nearer 70,000 words. If things go well, then that will be completed (first draft) before Christmas.
Two things here to say;
First, an apology to bloggers and friends that are possibly feeling neglected. Between normal world things and writing there is little down time to catch up.
Second, chattels….beware the chattels!
Comments on the blurb are welcome. I remind you it is a work in progress and may well change as I go deeper into the tale.
One final note, I will be doing this again next year. Anyone out there who wants to buddy up then drop me a line below and I’ll add you to my NaNo buddy list. Support and motivation from peers is an invaluable mechanism for success.