The scoop

First of all let me clarify...a robot would totally win in a fight between a robot and a werewolf. They have lasers and rockets and stuff. I don't even think that the claws of a werewolf would penetrate the titanium shell of a robot. Also Mr. Fantastic would totally win in a stretchy contest. But I digress...

So I've been writing on and off since I was 12. I'm sure my mother and probably my cousin Nikki (as she was my co-author) remember my glorious first work of fiction. It was 13 page hand written and wonderfully crafted masterpiece...about a ghost murderer in the computer lab of an elementary school. I know. How can it get any better than that? Well my friends it can't. But we all must strive to better ourselves.

I started writing a bit more seriously in college when I took several creative writing courses and began my first (unfinished) novel. But it wasn't until this past November with http://nanowrimo.org/. I'd been playing around with the idea of different religions and ensuing misunderstandings for awhile. I feel like I've been deeply affected by the current war but more so how Muslims are sometimes treated in this country. So that became the springboard for my current novel.

Of course my novel is completely fictional, it's set in a fantasy world (sans elves and dwarfs etc...) that I completely made up. While I have drawn parallels to the situations and conflicts going on in our world that is all it is, a parallel.

So some basic info. The title of my book is The Blood of Renatus which has a duel meaning. It Renatus is the surname of two of my main characters (a brother and a sister) who both think the other sibling died many years in the past. Renatus also means "Rebirth" in Latin and you can draw your own conclusions about what that exactly means (pssst read the book!) It's currently about 61,500 words which equals about 120 pages in non-manuscript format. In manuscript format It'd be about double the page length I think. The word count is about half of what it will end up being although where I'm going to end the book is still a mystery to me. It will be a series although a short one, I don't really like the series that go on forever and ever without end.

So the plot...it's pretty complicated as are most epic fantasies but if you strip away all of the character development then it's about an evil bad guy who surreptitiously takes over what has always been a war faring religion/country without their knowledge. He uses their army and tries to take over the world al la Pinky and the Brain style. Good guys who are prejudiced against that religion must team up with them and overcome their differences to defeat the evil bad guy. There so that's the very very basic plot.

But that not even really a drop in the bucket. We have presumed dead princesses who've gone crazy, bands of thieves, resistance to the empire, stoic good guys, cheerfully ship captains, spies and battles on one hand and then on the flip side we have a brother and sister team who are super awesome but running away from people who want to kill them including their other, older brother who's pretty mean. It's a good time...well not really nobody wants to be sacrificed to a false god. Oh yeah plus there's an interesting magic system that feels a little bit like Magneto's powers only isn't reliant on metals. Anyway it's complex, the whole thing is complex but super awesome all the same.

So my goal is to be finished with the first draft sometime this summer. Which means stepping up my writing game. We'll see what happens. Someday though this baby is definitely going to be sent off to various literary agents and publishing houses. But probably not this year.