Novel Idea #1

It's been too long, but rather than apologize, for the next 30 days--the ENTIRE MONTH of April--I'm offering a gift: 

Each day I will post ONE idea for a story, novel, children's book, screenplay, or whatever. And the idea is for ANYBODY to use. Feel free to write a story of your own from the idea, or use it as inspiration for whatever you would like to work on... or just use it to help you kickstart your own writing. 

Novel Idea #1:

Multigenerational family has a genetic mutation--they are born capable of transforming into merpeople when young. If they do so before they hit puberty they develop the ability to change any time they get into water, but if they wait until adulthood, the transformation becomes blocked. 

After centuries of being snared as selkies or burned as witches, they decide normal is better, so for more than a century they have forbidden any swimming or water exposure for all of the children until they turn 15. Everyone has been normal for several generations now, but parents are taught of the curse so that they can keep the normal cycles going. 

Until one member, secretly angry with the world, invites all the cousins to his lake house for a week. And takes them out on a boat and tosses them into the water. 

There you go... if you aren't into mermaids or fantasy, that's cool. Just check back here tomorrow for more. And let me know if you come up with a writing from this. I'd love to read it!

Publication... at Last!

My book is coming out! My book is coming out!

Thanks to Black Rose Publishing, my first fantasy novel in a series is coming out August 9, and I am prepping to begin a book tour throughout the coming academic year (and beyond).

Given how many years I've been working on this series, I'm as surprised as anyone to finally have the book come out in final form. It turns out, too, that getting one's book published is both daunting and exciting, but I'll explain all that in a future post. (Hint: It mostly involves the meaning of the series, and how much I want the books to change our thinking, especially here in the United States.)

Here's the cover:

Cover art courtesy of Black Rose Publishing

The book comes out August 9, but it's already available for pre-order (10% off) through the publisher at their website:

ORDER THE GHOST PORTAL

If you'd like a signed copy, you can pre-order those, too. Just post me your e-mail, write me at shakespeare824 at hotmail.com, or find me on Facebook (Cheryl Carvajal), and we'll make that happen. If you want more details, you can read about it on the publisher's website, but you can also email me directly, and I'll share some details with you that way.

More information about the book to come... including a few excerpts... to stay tuned.

New YA Novel--Awakenings

Here's a special treat, an interview with fellow author and newly published Mabel Cowie. Her first book in a new series, Awakenings, is available through Amazon. It takes place in her native Scotland, where she grew up wandering among the hills. She even spent time where some of the Harry Potter series was filmed--you know that hill down to Hagrid's hut? She's been there. So cool. To get her book, click on the cover page of it, below.

Your novel Awakenings, the first in a series, is set in Scotland, where you grew up. What is it about this setting that you most wished to convey to readers? 

Scotland is a captivatingly beautiful place, with inspiration around every corner.  It would be difficult as a writer or artist not to have your creativity piqued.Hidden around every nook, cranny and bend there is some ancient ruin or old castle just waiting to be explored. It’s also a country steeped in folklore, mystery and the supernatural, all of which I could use to draw readers in.

The setting for Awakenings is a small rural glen on the west coast of Scotland. I tried to create an idyllic village nestled in the glen, almost hidden from the world. A great many small Scottish villages are still like this, where everyone knows each other by their first name and lives a quiet, ‘tomorrow will do’ lifestyle. Growing up in Scotland, that part of my culture was one of the things I cherished the most. I wanted to get across the appeal of a laid back attitude combined with the unspoiled and timeless countryside. These things seem to be slowly fading from my country.

My dad was an amateur historian and would take us off on adventures all the time, searching the ruins of places like Skara Brae. He once took us to Dunvegan castle on the island of Skye, where we spent hours (and I first saw the Fairy Flag of the McLeods, which is in the book). There was a portrait on the wall from the 16^th century and it really resembled me; it alarmed me a bit, to be honest. Dad took this opportunity to start his own story about the picture, adding a few hauntings here and there. I tried to contain my anxiety but was glad when we got out of the castle. Of course, he had bought a book from the castle with that portrait in it and started reading it at night in the caravan. I didn’t sleep for three nights. My childhood was great.

The loss of history is certainly one element I can see working in your novel, and your father's storytelling is another. What do you hope to do to readers with your own storytelling? Who do you envision your readers to be, and what do you hope they come away with when the book (series) is finished?

Of course, I want to provide an escape from our own reality, which we all need at times.  I’ve also developed a diversity of characters that I hope the readers can identify with. For example, Isla is a young ward in the laird’s care. I thought her bubbly personality would appeal to the tween girls that I originally wrote the books for, but I’m finding that a great deal of adult women are also enjoying Isla, and the entire story.

Developing the characters over the course of the trilogy is something that I really enjoy, and I love the progressive discovery for both myself and the character. I would hope that the reader becomes attached to these characters and cares about what happens to them. For Arran in particular, the process of finding out who she is and becoming all she was created for is a journey filled with adventure and risk, love and friendship.

One of the things that’s disappointed me in recent novels written for young teenagers is that they seem to have a great deal of sexual content.  I wanted to write something that was both clean and fun, that they can identify with and enjoy, without being bombarded with what our current society sees as acceptable.  I want them to look inside themselves and find the strengths and qualities that they have to offer the world.

Y

The novel is a story all in itself, of course, but many of its mysteries remain unanswered in the first installment (as they should be to keep the drama going). Since this is the first book in a series, how many books to you intend for the entire series? Can you give us some hints as to how each book will build upon the last (without spoiling anything)?

There will definitely be three books, possibly four, depending on how much my wonderful editor excises from the third book J  The mystery certainly deepens; it isn’t as simple as it appears in Book One. There are new creatures introduced, including the comical wood nebs and the more threatening ater, who are mentioned at the very end of Book One and become a real menace to the lives of those in Ormiscaig.

I personally enjoy reading books where the main character doesn’t seem wimpy, vulnerable, or frankly pathetic. So, I intentionally created a strong heroine in Arran, who gains a greater depth of understanding regarding who she is and of her role in both worlds. Arran has a clear sense of self, and never loses sight of her background, which also keeps her both teachable and grounded. I’ve always felt in writing this story that young readers need a heroine they can identify with, that also has traits that their parents wouldn’t mind them trying to emulate.

I’ve also tried to take the reader to different parts of Scotland, as well as integrate more folklore and history. We get to see these scenes largely through the kings, some of whom have the ability to move through time. Finally, readers of Book One were introduced to a potential villain. For those of you who crave a good, complex villain, you will not be disappointed with the next two parts.

Living in La-La Land

I was sharing my cat story this morning, only to find out from a veterinarian's assistant that my cat cannot possibly catch anything from me--that my blog story telling you about my cat catching the flu was absolutely false, that I was "living in La-La Land," as she put it. 

And that made me wonder: Was I truly living in La-La Land? Was my whole world a fantasy, where everyone wears period clothing, magic is totally real if only one believes deeply enough, spirits and angels exist, and I really am destined for amazing things?

You see, I think that's the whole problem. The world I've been living in for some months now isn't fantasy at all. It's a world where kids say nasty things to each other when they think I'm not listening, where everyone fights over everything, where a flu bug keeps me from being normally active, where clothing doesn't quite fit, where dishes keep piling up and trash starts to stink, even where the outside temperatures reach 90 and I don't have any air conditioning. It's a place where everyone eats too much, including my 8-year-old daughter, where I mostly feel bored, where I have a huge cable package and nothing good to watch, where life is mostly lame and uneventful, or if something does happen it's something that I don't want to happen.

THAT, my friends, is not La-La Land. It's Craptacularville, and I detest it, but for the most part it's the world I live in. And that's why I've been cranky for so long. That's why I haven't been writing, why I haven't bothered to send books off to publishers, why I haven't done all sorts of things I wish I'd done. 

But today, and forever, I'm choosing fantasy. Screw the world where kids are mean and only think poop jokes are funny. Screw the world where food doesn't taste that good (unless it's a thickly layered carrot cake) and where the most fun I get in a day is doing dishes. I'm going back to magic world--to my favorite La-La Land--and I'm going to spread magic around, do the things I most love, tickle my kids into a better frame of mind, play in magic sprinkler outside to cool down, and have an absolute blast. 

Screw reality. I've got some fantasy to live out... and so do you. 

I'll share my stories with you, if you'll share yours...

Lost in Austen--Living the Fantasy

If you are any kind of Jane Austen fan (and I know some of you are), you must check out the new PBS series Lost in Austen. It takes a woman from the modern world and, through a door linking her modern apartment to a door in the servants' quarters of the Bennett household (from Pride and Prejudice), this woman, Amanda Price, and Elizabeth Bennett switch places. 

Now, if you are an Austen fan, the series will be delightful all on its own, but even if you aren't a fan (and I'm sure some of you aren't), the show sparked an idea for me that I have been mulling over ever since. Is there a place, in a novel or a film, where you've longed to be? For many women, Austen's world was this kind of utopia, and part of the appeal of the series is that the woman thrown suddenly into the world immediately begins to discover the not-so-nice aspects of living during this time.

How would you fair in your ideal world? Let me take one of ideal worlds: the hidden, magic world of Harry Potter. How would I get along in that world? Honestly, though I'd like to think I'd catch on to all of the stuff and be a brilliant Hogwarts student (like Hermione Granger), I'm afraid I'll more than likely resemble Loony Lovegood, or worse, turn out to be a squib like Filch (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you have to read the books!)... 

Or I could be one of those people killed by Voldemort. Or beaten up by Dudley. 

I guess my point is that all of this is fantasy. While the idea of being in one of these worlds sounds great, the reality wouldn't probably be so fabulous. Then again, even this show is fantasy, for it doesn't reveal some of the more sordid differences between Austen's world and ours. I wouldn't last a month there, for within that time I'd be looking for a certain women's product, and when I couldn't find it... well, I don't think I could handle that. 

I don't think I'd deal with the whole chamber pot thing well, either. What about you? What fantasy have you been holding onto? Time to 'fess up!