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11,369 / 90,000
(12.6%) |
Doesn’t that make me look like the wonder writer? To come clean, I started this story some time back, and what I’ve just done is written a new 1000 words, and then gone back to salvage what scenes I wanted to use. I thought originally about progressing through this book linearly, but I’ve come up with what I think is an interesting organizing scheme for it.
In case you’re interested, this series of books is called Gossamer and Veridian, and details the soap opera lives of three distinctive groups of magical beings in Iowa. Officially, that makes this rural fantasy, and at least in the modern setting corn punk. 🙂
My thinking about writing a faerie story is that lots of people use classical European faeries, and I want to use them too, but I want to use them in juxtaposition to other groups of faeries, to sort of make a larger commentary on how societies blend and work together. In the story will be four distinct threads:
Desert Tales: This is the Arabian nights part of my story. Iowa has many groups of immigrants, and in our area, we have a great many Sudanese immigrants. The Sudanese immigrants bring their own legends and stories with them, and the ones from Khartoum and Obderman have an interesting blend of Arabic and African culture. The stories here will take place in both their magical land and Iowa.
Carved in Stone: Iowa is well known for its German population, but it also has a Scandinavian heritage. This plot is about the trolls who guard the gates between Gossamer (the realms of imagination) and Veridian (our realm). With references to the customs and traditions of Scandinavia, this will be the most rural and Iowan part of my story.
Gossamer: Traditional European faeries doing their magical thing. Lots of soap opera here, as this plot involves affairs, usurpation, rescue, all sorts of stuff.
Veridian: Where the three groups encounter each other, current, modern day. Not only will the faeries be influenced by their cultures, but they will also be shaped by current ideas about faeries, so some of them will by necessity be shaped into the faeries of UF and YA novels, as well as maintaining themselves in more traditional ways.
As I jot down the next notes, I will talk about the center of the story, The Solitary King, and how he is the hub, as well, as time threads.
We’ll see what happens tomorrow. There’s this Christmas party at my house…
Oh! And my first advance ever is coming in the mail. That’s very surreal to me, but very cool.
Stay safe in the weather out there!
Catherine
