An Introduction to my Novel

Happy Hump Day everyone!

The middle of the week is always a time for partying and celebration… Okay, that’s not true. But it does mean you can all get a little bit excited because it’s that much closer to the weekend (and sleep-ins! Also maybe waffles – James?). Before we get to the promised post though, I wanted to remind you about the Flooded Anthology! The Kickstarter went live yesterday and we’re trying to drum up support for this project: please, spare a few minutes and go over to have a look at this. Perhaps you know someone with a brain injury, perhaps you have suffered one; maybe you’d like to know more to allow you to better support people who have had their world turned upside down, or perhaps you know someone who could benefit from reading an anthology that could help them better make sense of the impacts of TBI. Regardless, please head on over here and check it out! I’d love to hear your thoughts and any questions you might have… Especially since I’ll be hosting Tori Griffin on the 25th of October as she tours different blogs, promoting Flooded!

Now, recently I realised that I’ve spent a lot of time telling everyone that I’m writing a novel, keeping you updated with word counts and such… But I’ve never actually told anyone what my novel is about. It seems weird to say that, because it is something that I’ve spent hours writing (I won’t say ‘slaving over’ because a. It’s not a hot stove and b. I haven’t reached the editing stage yet, so I can’t help but sadly conclude I’ve had it easy thus far) and I am intimately acquainted with, but no one else seems to know about. Except James, I guess: and what he gets is so piecemeal and random that I’m sure he’s a lot more confused than he looks.

Anyway, what I mean is that, during the week, I get up in the dark for a 6-a-freakin’-m writing sessions. I hope that gives you a good indication of how I feel about this thing [Disclaimer: if you still have no idea how I actually feel about my novel, you’re not alone: I tend to vacillate wildly between ‘hey, this is awesome and original, I’m probably brilliant’ and ‘oh this is utter crap and I’m 99% sure I’m a complete moron’].

So I thought I might mix it up a little and give you all some idea what my story is about… While at the same time not giving too much away, because then what would be the point of reading it, right? But where to start, where to start… As a bit of a quick back story, I started writing my novel late last year (I think: it might have been earlier this year, but James is at a work thingie right now and he’s probably the only one who would actually know) because I was spitballing to James about a new idea for a short story and said, “what about a girl who finds a card in the library, and it takes her somewhere else?”

And thus the beginnings of my novel were born. In short, my novel follows the adventure of a teenage girl called Charlie. She’s a bit of a loner: her wild imagination made her a good target for bullying as a young child and as a result, she’s wary of opening up to other people (sheesh, this sounds cliched already, but bear with me guys: there’s some kind of cool stuff in here, I promise.. I think). Banished to the library while her parents work, she stumbles upon a book that clearly doesn’t belong and decides to steal it. It weaves a tapestry of the story of Argravia, a world characterised by strict hierarchical class divisions, and a convoluted history of segregation and attempts to reach social unity. Charlie is gradually but undeniably altered as she reads the book (I’ll avoid some spoilers here and leave you with bated breath… Right?).

After returning to the library, she discovers a strange card hidden in the back of the book with a name inscribed upon it in black ink. It’s only later, when she tries to leave and finds herself confronted by the librarian, that she realises what she’s carrying is more important than she could ever have imagined. As she flees through the library to avoid the amazonian woman behind the front counter, the book transports her from the ancient and dusty upper floors to the filthy slums of Zeta—the lowest of the six Argravian classes.

From there, Charlie embarks on a bit of an adventure (and hoooooly jeewillikers people, it is HARD to summarise this business), both to discover the truth of her birth and fight for Argravia’s freedom from the beautiful, powerful and ruthless twin sisters, Alsari and Alariax. Along the way, she discovers her own fledgling magic, befriends and travels with an escaped Zetan teenager called Zoric and is constantly annoyed with the wilful and haughty magical origami cat that deigns to guide her on her journey.

I think that about sums it up… Kind of. Not really. A lot of stuff happens that’s kind of cool, totally bizarre and really exciting all at the same time [Disclaimer: at times it’s also kind of lame, totally bland and really cliche… I promise to try and work those kinks out]: not surprisingly, I love, most of the time. I think it’s a bit Narnia/Alice in Wonderland-esque, which is a bit different from the barrage of dystopian fiction that seems to be flooding the market at the moment. And I like that because it really gives me almost free rein to do whatever crazy stuff I can come up with: I guess I’m hoping to write a book that I would like to read!

I’ll let you know how that goes… Still on track for finishing the first draft by the end of the year, so hopefully I’ll actually figure the plot out at some point.

— Ana

*Thanks to Google for the meme: seriously Google, you’re the best 😀