Know the Novel (Part 1!)
Hey, everybody! It's the time of year again when some people start writing books. Not me. I don't have time because of College. But I do want to share my current WIP--the one I've been working on for the past few months--because Christine finally released her Know the Novel tag for this year! And I figure that's a perfect time to introduce the new book :)
You can find out more about Know the Novel here. For now, I'm so so excited to introduce my WIP!
1. What first sparked the idea for this novel?
At risk of spoilers...the story I'm about to share with you is a light prequel to the Pentegreens series. It comes from a long, long process of trying to humanize the relationship between two characters, a relationship that has done nothing but give me grief. I wanted it to mean something, and to take something from my own soul, something important. It turned into a story of redemption, of dark deeds and impossible saves, of assassins and new hope. It also was lightly or maybe heavily inspired by a Havok flash fiction I wrote (but I won't tell you which one yet...)
2. Share a blurb (or just an overall summary)!
The kingdom of Brodie is divided—one king rules the heart of the capital, but the rest of the city is divided between four assassin lords. Or it should be. No one has heard of Lord Nightmare for a generation. The imbalance has created a perfect opportunity for the other lords to take all of the power…if they have the courage to defy a king.
Estelle owes her life to Lord Darkfire, and works for him happily, slaying all his enemies. But when his quest for power causes her to break the one moral rule she had left, she flees into the streets, searching for some form of new life. But war has painted a target on her back, and Darkfire is not the only lord searching for her.
Dancing in a circus by day and seeking the blood of her enemies by night, Annie is ready to return the Nightmare clan to its place of power. Doing that may be harder than she expects, though—Lord Darkfire will not back down. Good thing Annie’s never retreated from a fight.
Zayn is the king’s personal bodyguard—and a Hunter. His own personal vendetta against the assassin lords drives him to search for their identities before they can take away anything else he holds dear. But this search may claim more of his soul than he ever expected to lose.
When worlds collide, war will break out. But the balance has been broken, and now only one lord can be victorious…
3. Where does the story take place? What are some of your favorite aspects of the setting?
This novel takes place largely in the city of Brodie. Brodie is a large city built into the banks of a river, and it's in the North, so it's cold and cloudy all the time. A cold wind from the coast is constantly blasting the inhabitants. The city itself is divided in five districts--the center of the city belongs to the king, and each of the other four districts is the domain of one of the assassin lords.
This is a story I'm trying to weave a lot of history into, and I'm really enjoying that aspect. It's also set in the world of Pentegreens, so each of the characters has their own distinct magical abilities in varying degrees of strength and effectiveness, which is lots of fun to play with. I'm also tightening the rules of the magic system--the assassins wield their powers in very different ways from the cast of Pentegreens.
Finally, I decided to bite the bullet and infuse this story with steampunk elements. Because there's nothing better than steampunk, fantasy university, and that sort of thing.
4. Tell us about your protagonist(s).
5. Who (or what) is the antagonist?
Annie: hard though I've tried, I cannot picture Annie as anybody but Marilyn. Haha. She's a little bit crazy, but her biggest goal is to conquer, to come out on top, and to finally fill the void in her chest with either love or power. Either way will do.
