Know the Novel Part 1 2022
Yay! Know the Novel is back!
The talented and amazing Christine Smith is running her annual Know the Novel blog challenge and I’m delighted to use it to share some tidbits of what I’m working on this Fall with you.
I’m also joining up with Christine’s Fall Fiction Writing Frenzy which is running from Oct. 15 - Nov. 15 and allows us to set our own personal goals, which is always lovely.
For more info on Know the Novel and FallFicFrenzy, click the button below:
For FallFicFrenzy, I shall be working on The Prisoner and the Pirate, book 4 of the Turrim Archive. I have been attempting to add approximately 35k-40k words of new subplot to this novel by Nov. 15. As of writing this post, I have already written 14,700 of those words. It’s a fairly simple goal of approximately 800 words every weekday between now and then, so I’m hopeful I’ll be able to finish.
Then I’ll take a break for my birthday and all the Thanksgiving things with my family!
After Thanksgiving, I hope to go through and weave that subplot into the existing story and make my first round of developmental edits before sending the whole thing back to my developmental editor and getting his thoughts on the new construction!
THE QUESTIONS
1. What first sparked the idea for this novel?
Well, it kind of just picks up where book 3 left off. As far as this subplot goes, when I got my first notes back from my developmental editor, he told me that he was not very satisfied with what I had my main characters from the first 3 books doing in book 4, which, admittedly, was not very much. Honestly, I couldn’t disagree. He was spot-on with his assessment.
So I had to come up with something for them to do. The big war has started between the two nations in this story by the end of book 3, and as my main characters are soldiers now, it seemed like a good idea to have them do something militaristic. However, that is definitely not my forte… so my husband recommended I watch Band of Brothers… and you’ll definitely see a bit of influence from that in this book now. (Not the language or the gore, obviously, but definitely some of the training and tactics and themes of brotherhood and courage and honor therein).
Interestingly enough, for last October’s Know the Novel, I was working on drafting Towers of Might and Memory, book 5 in this same series. Thought that was entertaining.
2. Share a blurb (or just an overall summary)!
I’ll share the first little bit of the new subplot. This might end up being the beginning of chapter one, but we’ll see.
It felt like coming home, Grayden thought, as the carriage rumbled through the enormous gates of the Academy and pulled up to the main building. Beren handed the driver a few stin and the two men disembarked. Standing beneath the impressive colonnades in the sweltering heat of mid-summer, Grayden pondered how far he had come since the first time he had stood in this place. He had been so young when he started out from Dalsea, nearly an entire year ago now. The young man he had been back then, so many lunats ago, had been merely a boy, with little understanding of all that he would experience, and none of the losses he would suffer.
Grayden’s fingers rose involuntarily to the insignia pinned to his collar, his thumb brushing strangely over the new double chevron that marked him a first lieutenant. They were his and Beren’s reward for their work in Doran over the summer lunats chasing down and discovering the culprits responsible for the assassination of the Regeont. Beren noticed his slight gesture and gave him a grin.
“Still adjusting?”
“It’s like wearing a coat two sizes too big,” Grayden admitted. “I still don’t feel like I earned it.”
“Our commanding officers disagree,” Beren replied.
3. Where does the story take place? What are some of your favorite aspects of the setting?
This story probably has the broadest scope of all the books so far. The various characters are all over the map. In the parts I’m currently writing, the story is set in a training camp at the base of some mountains kind of nestled into the foothills.
4. Tell us about your protagonist(s).
The subplot mostly focuses on Beren and Grayden - I talked about them a bit last year, so I’m just going to add that here and flesh it out a bit more. Eventually I plan to do a series of posts where I introduce these characters more fully and share some awesome character art I recently commissioned for them!
Grayden - a young man from Dalma whose family farms orchards. In book 1, he leaves home to attend his region’s military academy, and he gets caught up in the war before it even begins. Grayden is a fairly serious young man, but he enjoys joking around and pulling off a good prank. He misses his family, but loves being a part of something bigger than himself, and he loves that he is helping keep them safe by joining the Defenders. Grayden has an adventurous streak and is pretty much always up for anything, no matter how dangerous it might sound (sometimes he’s more interested just because something sounds dangerous).
Beren - from Telsuma, this serious young man meets Wynn and Grayden on the way to the military academy and they all become fast friends. Beren sees the world in stark contrasts of right and wrong, and has a hard time with “gray areas.” He is good-natured and friendly, but gets cranky when pushed to his limits. Slightly more cautious than Grayden, Beren is just as fearless in a fight, where he is confident he will always come out on top due to his strength and size, but in situations that are more cerebral or dependent on the setting, he tends to be a little bit more pragmatic than Grayden, who is more liable to charge in “guns blazing.”
5. Who (or what) is the antagonist?
The Igyeum and their armies are the current antagonists. They have attacked the border and started the war against Telmondir.
The villains have been experimenting with genetic manipulation (on unwilling test subjects) so that gives you a bit of a sneak peek inside their camp.
6. What excites you the most about this novel?
Honestly, this whole new subplot is super exciting. But it’s also top secret. But I will tell you that I’ve been researching base-jumping and the history of skydiving for it, so that’s been a blast. Also military tactics and techniques and training.
7. Is this going to be a series? standalone? something else?
This is book 4 of a 5-book series.
8. Are you plotting? pantsing? plansting?
Definitely plotting. So much plotting has gone into this new third of the story. It’s helpful for keeping me on task and for writing it more quickly.
9. Name a few unique elements in this story.
This entire series is gaslamp fantasy set in a slightly Victorian era with inspiration pulled from a variety of cultures to make each of my countries feel unique and realistic. I’ve pulled inspiration from Viking/Scandinavian, Persian, and Welsh cultures, as well as Italian and nomadic desert cultures in the 1800s. But there’s also magic-based technology (or magi-tech), so while many things have a sort of 1800s vibe, there are also powerful airships that defy physics. Because of that very artificially advanced tech, certain things have had to be invented a lot earlier in this world than in ours. For example: altimeters are a thing, though lightbulbs have not been invented yet. The war is also pushing the world towards a sort of industrial revolution, so more tech is coming… but I can’t talk about most of it because: secrets too secret to tell.
10. Share some fun “extras” of the story (a song or full playlist, some aesthetics, a collage, a Pinterest board, a map you’ve made, a special theme you’re going to incorporate, ANYTHING you want to share!).
This has been kept “private” for several years, now, because I’ve been holding a lot close to my vest on this series. But today you get to see my “Turrim Archive General Vibes and Inspiration” Pinterest Board!
Just a snippet of my “mood board” click the image or the link above to peruse the whole board!
And that’s what I’ve got for now! Time to get back to writing!
Happy October, Fearless Adventurers!