Blog Tour: Meet My Main Character

Welcome! I know, it has been quite a long time since I posted on this blog. You have my deepest apologies. Perhaps hearing a bit about one of the bright souls running around in one of my stories will appease you.

I was tagged for this tour by the lovely Faith Blum. She is the author of A Mighty Fortress, which is the first book in the brilliant Hymns of the West series.

On to the questions!

1) What is the name of your character? Is she fictional or a historical person?

One of the main characters of the story is Skye Calderano. (She shares the title of 'main character' with Anden Ramoor, whom you will hear a little more about in the later questions.) She is fictional, not historical; she couldn't be anyway, as she lives in the future!

2) When and where is the story set?

The story is set sometime in the future; probably around the year 3217. It is set on several different planets at various times in the book, but mostly on one planet. I call it Adsila for now, but that name might change. The city of Qytet is where all of the characters, main and supporting, band together.

3) What should we know about her?

Skye is a 16-year-old orphan who is struggling to find her way in life. As a child, she was full of spirit and always curious - always wanting to learn, learn, learn. When her mother died, she became quieter and less excited about things. After her father was gone, she stopped entirely. The flame is still there, but subdued by grief and confusion. Her father, Lenard, and his best friend - Anden Ramoor, so close to Lenard that he was appointed Skye's uncle by her parents - were the co-owners of the starship Pariah; until the ship vanished, and her father was allegedly killed (neither she nor Anden saw him die, but Anden saw him mortally wounded, with injuries hardly anyone could survive - as a result, they [and I, myself] assume he is dead).

She was sent to an orphanage, despite her father having always wanted Anden to be her legal guardian if anything happened to him. Skye is allowed occasional letters from Anden. One day, she senses that he is up to something big - so she runs away from her current foster home and goes to find him.

4) What is the main conflict? What messes up her life?

The conflict starts when she runs away from her foster home to go to where Anden lives and find out what he's up to. When she does, he explains that he has arranged a search for the Pariah: he wants to find the ship, and - hopefully - the man (or alien) who stole it. Skye insists on coming along, some of her old fire coming back. As for what messed up her life - that was the theft of the Pariah, and the death of her father. That was when her entire life got turned upside down.

5) What is the personal goal of the character?

Skye has several goals - she wants to find the Pariah. Her childhood was filled with dreams of someday being the captain, or at least her father's second-in-command. She knows she can no longer fulfill that dream, but it is one reason she so desperately wants to find the ship. She also wants to find out what truly happened to her father - how he died, and why.

She also wants to get permission to have someone she knows and loves as her legal guardian. Not necessarily Anden, but someone she actually knows (family friends, or other relatives), rather than jumping from foster home to foster home.

6) Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?

The working title is Tomorrow's Bones. However, it is just that - a working title. I have been considering changing it. As for  reading more of it, you can find unedited snippets here and here. You can also look at quotes and character/story inspiration in these two image boards: Tomorrow's Bones {Storyboard} and The Pariah.

7) When can we expect the book to be published?

I'm honestly not sure. I hope to have it published by Summer of 2015. I don't know if I will or not, but I'm certainly going to try.

The next thing I'm supposed to do for this tour is tag 4-5 authors. I managed to get 6!

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Ophelia - Marie Flowers is a  Christian, writer, singer, and Nurse aid. She enjoys using her talents to remind others that there is hope, and that we never truly walk alone in this life. She is the author of two poetry books - Sixteen, So In Love With You and her most recent, Zeal Aspiring. 

Find her books here:

Sixteen, So In Love With You || Zeal Aspiring

Follow Miss Flowers online:

ZA's Writings || Opinions, Thoughts, and General Rambling 

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As a dreamer, tea-drinker and star-chaser, Elizabeth Kirkwood has a dual obsession with writing and talking about brilliant writing.  When not dredging her fingers in authorly ink, you will find her playing guitar, doodling on her friends' Latin notes, or talking about scientific poetry.  Her first novella, Bridled, is to be published in 2014.

Follow Miss Kirkwood online:

Chasing Woven Glass Through The Storm

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Cathy Baker is a person of many facets. She is an eighteen-year-old college student who loves writing and reading fantasy, and pondering those strange and profound mysteries of life. She has been writing since she was eight, and finished her first novel when she was twelve (not published - she set it aside for some years and is now in the process of revising it). She has been developing other stories ever since. She tends to write in spurts; as with the rest of her hobbies, she often goes for days or weeks without indulging, only to suddenly receive a powerful burst of inspiration at the most inconvenient moment, causing her to drop everything and write. Her alter ego is a winged, six-foot-tall squirrel warrior from a far-off land.

Follow Miss Baker online:

The Journal of a Wanderer on Life's Path

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In the land of reality lives a homeschool graduate named Jessica Verve. She owns four editions of Black Beauty and a vintage dictionary that would put many dumbbells to shame. Hermited away beneath her bed lives a fuzzy red dog who loves to verbally express his emotions while she is in the middle of writing a very important scene in one of her WIPs. Most people think she spends her days spinning tales in one of her favorite genres (Mystery, SciFi, and Character Study) but in reality she is plotting to rule the world [of insects] with an immobile army of carnivorous Venus Fly Traps within the next thirty years. Okay, maybe not…

Follow Miss Verve online:

Jessica Verve

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 Jeremiah Stiles is a werewolf living in the cold, dark, regions of Washington state. He writes science fiction and fantasy when he isn't working secretly in a warehouse or eating things that threaten those whom he loves.

Follow Mr. Stiles online:

Another OtherWorld

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A servant of the Author, and a servant to all who serve him:
Patrick Lauser was born and raised in the tops of the trees in Washington state, and is currently in the tops of the mountains in Ireland (which are about as high as the trees were in Washington).
A reader, starting from the Word of God, and sifting through the world of Ideas (a word he involuntarily tends to capitalize).
A writer of the unheard of, and a thinker of the unthought of.

His hobbies include, but are not limited to: photography, throat singing, wearing camouflage and black, and eating hot-sauce on cake.

Follow Mr. Lauser online:

A Servant of the Author || Pinterest || Google Plus

A Call For Beta-Readers

I'm actually rather nervous about this, because I've never had a beta-reader before. *smiles a bit*

My latest project - Tomorrow's Bones - has, in a way, seized hold of me and now has me trapped. In other words, I haven't felt this worked up over a story in quite a while. Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm still very excited about the prospect of finally getting to work on my fantasy trilogy.

However, that is going to be a large undertaking, and something I have high hopes for; I want to take my time with working on it.

Tomorrow's Bones, on the other hand, is, in all likelihood, a standalone. Not only that, but it's going to be fairly less complex than the Songs of Old trilogy.

So, being this excited about it, I want to start writing it as soon as I have the plot at least mostly figured out. Except I have the tendency to either lose steam very quickly, or procrastinate horribly. As many of you probably know.

So, I was thinking perhaps beta-readers might help me get on track. :)

I've not written a logline yet, unfortunately, but I'm working on it. For now, here's a bit of a statement on what the story (or what I have of it planned out) is about.

Two years after someone killed Lenard Calderano and stole his starship, a ragtag group of people - the starship's navigator, his fiery young friend, an adventurous security guard, two ex-soldiers, and Calderano's own daughter - embark on a journey to find out who killed Calerano, and why.

I just realized that sounds pretty typical for sci-fi and/or mystery. Well, one thing that might play a part of the novel that could pique ya'll's interest - there are two rooms, the Future Room and the Past Room. Together, they're called the Time Rooms. And something went wrong while they were being invented that makes them quite dangerous...

Nope, I'm not telling you what that is, because I have to keep some mystery about it. *grins mischievously*

It is also told from two viewpoints, I probably should mention that. :)  I hope to keep it from being too confusing though.

That's about all I have to say on it at the minute; here's the Pinterest board for the novel if anyone's interested:

http://www.pinterest.com/homesickdreamer/tomorrows-bones/

And here are links to excerpts I wrote with some of the characters, if you want to see a bit of that:

http://whispersofwindandsong.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-random-scene.html
http://whispersofwindandsong.blogspot.com/2013/08/another-excerpt-from-tomorrows-bones.html

So yeah, if anyone is interested in beta-reading after that really boring summary, let me know. Then I can actually link you to the Google Docs where I do planning and character profiles, and you can see those to get more information before making a decision on if you want to beta-read or not. :)

God bless.

Theodora Ashcraft

"Tomorrow's Bones"

Here we are, four days into July and Camp NaNoWriMo... and I haven't written a single word towards my word count goal.

That is because I originally planned on writing Ireland: The Banshee's Cry, which some of you may have heard of. However, I changed my mind. Why? I'm not sure. I think I decided I would much rather write something else. I still want to write Banshee's Cry, don't get me wrong, but I have other story ideas too, and I guess I just decided I wanted to write one of them instead.

In the end, though, I ended up deciding to write something that wasn't even a plot. It was a mash-up of various genres and characters that I came up with a long time ago. Let me explain.

Once upon a time, when I was about twelve, I watched Sherlock Holmes. You know, the movie with Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. in it. I've always been a mystery fan - I read Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown, and various other books as a kid. As a young child, I read Nate The Great, if any of you remember those books. Heh, when I was about nine, my mom bought me a detective kit for my birthday. I donned her trench coat, a hat, and the special plastic sunglasses that allowed you to see who was behind you, and went out into my yard to solve nonexistent mysteries with my brother.

(And my mom was none too happy when she realized I was getting my fingerprinting powder and such all over the patio table...)

Anyway, a few days after watching Sherlock Holmes, I was outside thinking about three things - the movie, my writing, and the really odd-looking and (or so I thought) mysterious stain on the pavement.

Somehow, I decided that the stain was poison and someone had been murdered. I also decided this would make an awesome story. Another thing I decided was that, even though I knew a lot (perhaps too much) about various poisons and toxins for my age (writers know these things), I would much rather not do the research.

As a remedy, I decided the story would be sci-fi, so I could just make the poison up. I also decided that it would be a Sherlock Holmes-meets-Star Wars type of thing.

That was all I decided, and I never wrote a single word of the story.

Anyway, literally just two days ago, I decided to return to it. I added a twist on the mash-up of genres. Now, if I can manage to integrate them without making a proper fool of myself, the genres will include steampunk, space opera, mystery, and a dash of fantasy.

It took me a while to come up with a title I actually liked. I came up with several, and then asked others for their opinions. My good friend Lizzy was the one who helped me make my final decision. Her vote was for Tomorrow's Bones, because 'it has good essence and is attention-grabbing'. And so my sci-fi novel that still had no plot now had a title.

I have the two main characters planned out, except for one minor detail - one of them only has a last name, and the other only has a first name. So I'm trying to smooth those problems out as soon as possible so I can start writing.

I do have a vague synopsis though. It is by no means complete, or very good, and who knows whether the plot will change later on. But for now, here you go:

A motley group of men and women embark on a journey to find answers to their questions. Who killed the pilot of the starship, "Rush's Fate"? More importantly, why did they kill him? 

In order to discover this, this group of brave souls have to break into a high-security museum in order to commandeer the time machine that once belonged to the Fuhrer, hundreds upon hundreds of years ago on a distant planet called Earth.

Will they find the answers to the questions they seek? Will they survive the past, in order to discover the secrets surrounding tomorrow's bones?

So there you have it. I will hopefully keep plugging away at this for the next few months (since I have a feeling I'll never finish a novel in one month ever again, at least until I get out of college), and have it finished by the end of the year.

NaNoWriMo 2012

I've been working on coming up with an idea for my NaNoWriMo novel. I knew I wanted to do something about the British SAS. Unfortunately, historical research is a problem for me, since I have a ton of school I need to focus on (I'm in major danger of flunking high school at the moment) and don't have time.
So, my little historical novel has transformed into a science fiction novel, which I believe will be easier for me.

I started out with two vague ideas--World War II and time travel--that I would have liked to work with. Using the 'What-If' process that my good friend Varon showed me, I created a list of questions for myself to answer. Here are those, along with the answers I came up with:

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What if a specific, major event in our history had gone differently?: Let's say Hitler had won the World War. There would be very little Jews left, and very little men willing to oppose him. Hitler would probably have soldiers posted in most of the major cities (the ones that hadn't been destroyed during the war), making sure everybody stays in line--and consequently terrifying everyone into submission. Obviously, Hitler would be dead by now, from old age (unless Indiana Jones failed and Hitler came in control of the Holy Grail [or perhaps the Fountain of Youth]). New leaders at least as cruel as Hitler would have been appointed through the years.

How would that have changed the world in the future?: In my mind, pollution and general negligence of protecting the environment would make it a very cold, very dull, and very disease-ridden place. Also, most of the cities of the world would have been destroyed, taken over, or turned into factories or concentration camps, more than likely. Germany would be the most busy place; where the largest amount of people are safe, healthy, and alive--not in danger, sickly, and dead.

What if the end of the world was brought on by that event, and the mission was a last desperate attempt--similar to a 'we're all going to die anyway, so if we die on this mission it's just happening sooner' affect?: Well, I can understand how that might happen--in the end, all of humanity might die out, except for the people in Germany and safe strongholds/underground hiding places. Also, the climate or air in general could be majorly compromised, thus making the world a diseased place, plagued and uninhabitable. The world wouldn't be destroyed, per se; there would simply be no chance of people living there. If the SAS mission was for them to assassinate the new leader of Germany, it would be a last chance effort: win, or lose.

What would the world be like in the future?: Very desolate, gray, and dangerous. Threats from soldiers and feral animals that have no food. Mutated animals who have had to evolve into hideous creatures in order to survive. Sunlight almost always blocked by clouds of smog and smoke. Lots of concrete near the places where people live and had lived before; mostly brown grassland where no one lives, since the grass isn't getting enough sunlight and most of the forests and jungles have been cut down.

Would any of the militia have newer, more advanced weaponry?: Well, most likely Germany would. But the other militias of the world have either been wiped out or have surrendered. Even though they had surrendered, they would not be supplied weaponry.

What about newer, more advanced technology in general?: Most likely not. Except for Germany of course.

What sorts of new inventions could there be?: Probably nothing past what we have now, and certainly most advanced in Germany. Germans (the only ones allowed to invent things, besides very well-contained prisoners) would only be able to go so far with inventing stuff.

Is time-travel possible, or could it become possible (maybe that's the reason for all the fighting)?: Hmm... maybe time travel is something Germany's new leader is on the verge of discovering (if this is the case, I might have to invent some more new technology instead of just modern stuff). Perhaps my team of SAS soldiers would be trying to stop him, because if he did, he would go back in time, mess everything up, and possible capture innocent people to use as his slaves.

Would it be too much to bring aliens into the mix?: Probably, yes. Honestly, I would really want to deal with aliens anyway. Mutated animals and maybe people, yes. Aliens, no. I'd have my hands full trying to figure out what to do with time travel and the historical differences.

Or to have humans that have evolved to receive some odd attribute, like breathing underwater?: Definitely too much. That makes it more into a fantasy story (which, I admit, I would love; other people might not). Time travel is even stretching it.

What climate/geography changes could have occurred to bring this on?: None, since I don't believe any of my humans will evolve and receive some weird ability.

~*~

Okay, I have no idea where or why I came up with the underwater-breathing human question. Just my mind rambling.

But those questions gave me a vague idea of a plot. Vague, mind you; no need to poke fun or criticize the questions, since it was simply a brainstorming exercise. Though I think I could fit the time travel in without making it too much.

Ideas? Suggestions? Advice? Please leave a comment!