NaNoWriMo 2022: Announcing This Year's Novel!

Whew!! How is it almost November already?

This year has been... not quite like I thought it would be. Starting with battling Covid in January that set me back several months as my physical health recovered quite quickly, but my mental health (namely the psychological wherewithal to write) took a nosedive for several months... and then, just when I was getting to the end of a very stressful school year and looking forward to a summer of really hitting the second draft of Fugitive of Crossway very hard, my brother's health took a turn for the worse, and he passed away near the end of summer.

I've stopped a bunch of projects since then, but The Undersea Saga is here to stay, and here's why: I now see it as a small way to honor my brother's memory. It's on account of him that the piddly little stand-alone novella became a full-fledged series, anyway, and I'd hoped to be able to involve him in the development of Fugitive of Crossway as it unfolded... but although that's not going to happen, I'm still going to finish the thing, for sure!

At this point, honestly, I'm nowhere near where I planned on being at the end of last year. If everything had gone the way I'd hoped, I'd be making my final tweaks on Fugitive of Crossway, already sent it off for professional editing, and into the formatting/ design stage.

In reality... I've got three chapters actually "done", I'm headed into the really tricky part of the story that had the most changes and is definitely the middle part of the book that I'm the most iffy about... but where does that leave me for NaNo?

Why not go ahead and give myself a running start on Book 3?

That's right, folks, this November, I'm taking my first crack at Fury of Outwest, the third book in the Undersea Saga, and I'll admit, I'm excited to be able to return to actually pulling off a retelling, rather than "inspired by", as Fugitive of Crossway is!

So what story am I retelling for this third book?

Well, back when I was devising the series as longer than like two or three books, I knew that I wanted to use the four different "kingdoms" as the settings for the various books, and as such, this one would be Outwest.

This would be the most different of the four kingdoms, as it wouldn't exactly be a kingdom, per se... no kings or castles here! I envisioned Outwest as a combination of the American Wild West and the Australian Outback--just hot, desert-y landscape with scattered towns, villages, and ranches throughout, but mostly empty, barren desert.

And what sort of fairy tales take place in the desert? Why, Aladdin, of course!

This one was a bit tricky, as I'd already decided I wanted to write a "steampunk Aladdin", and I'd been jotting down plot ideas for that... but when it came to creating an "Undersea Saga" version of it, I came to the realization that there needed to be a lot more to the story than the "traditional" sense--a street rat comes across a magical item that gives him access to riches beyond reason... but then what?

In particular, I decided to gender-swap the main character. "Aladdin" became "Delaina", an outlaw who survived by raiding stagecoaches that dared cross the desert wasteland. Instead of a lamp with a genie inside... there's going to be a special "magical" device found by our intrepid protagonist, one that provides her with access to riches beyond belief. (I'm not going to go into any detail about the device, because spoilers!) I had already decided on an object back when this was "Steampunk Aladdin", but everything I'd thought of was only confirmed when I saw this premade and knew I had to have it!

I love the look of the device in her hand! I am still deciding whether to give her a prosthetic limb, so that may change by the time the cover design comes around, but there you have it!

Instead of the street rat going through all this charade to win the eye and heart of the princess of the realm... Well, that part I'm going to keep to myself for now, but here's hoping that readers will find my alternative worthwhile still! Suffice to say, I don't think this one will have much romance in it--at least, not where it is just now. I don't know, a character could crop up and catch Delaina's eye as I'm writing the thing. I only have the bare-bones notes at this point. After posting this announcement, that is next on the "writing docket", fleshing out chapter-by-chapter the notes I have. If I see fit to include a romantic subplot, I just might, but for now, it seems that Princess of Undersea is the only book with romance in it, in the series.

Wouldn't that be fitting, though? Making Ylaine and Nathan my only romantic couple in the series? I don't know. I'm still thinking on that one.

Meanwhile, there will be gunfights, subterfuge, and all manner of fun things--including, by way of connection to the rest of the series, an appearance by none other than "Calamity Jacqui" from Fugitive of Crossway. Due to the events of that book, she's no longer a performing carnie... but her role in Fury of Outwest is more that of a bounty hunter. She's been dispatched to track down and "retrieve" the thing that Delaina has... but can the outlaw last long enough to find out the truth?

Hang on to your bowler hats, everyone... this is going to be a wild ride!