Friday, January 4, 2008

Hiatus from Penthos

I'm sort of enamored of an idea for a YA novel that has seemingly sprung to life, splitting open my skull like the gods from the titans and demanding its place. It's a re-imagining of an old story involving a troubled boy named Jak, a trip to a fabled world, a mess of giants, and maybe a harp that sings...maybe.

Really I was reading some fairy tale books for my nephew and I re-read Jack the Beanstalk and I had this fantastic idea to update it. I tossed it around for a couple of days and then last night as I languished on my couch with a stuffy nose general malaise, Jak came to life as a feisty red-haired devil, who along with his friend Colby J. and his sister Sam, end up in a real land of giants....and stuff happens. I know the stuff that happens, but giving it away at this point would be foolish. I don't think anyone reads this but if they do, well it would just be wrong. So I expect to write and finish this in fairly short order, but things rarely every go as planned. I'm borrowing heavily from Old Norse cosmology for inspiration and as a way to ground the story in reality, since reality is where it begins.

Of course that means that book 2 in my Penthos cycle will wait, which isn't a terrible thing since I never planned for a sequel and still am not sure it deserves one. Either way, now that I have to firm up the geography and such I'm wondering if there's enough to support Danny's grand adventure. I'm going to let the ideas I have gestate while I work on Jak and see where things are when I've finished with him.

In the editing world of things, I gave my book to my mom and brother and am going to give copies to my Aunt (who's a teacher) and my cousins (both who read the genre I wrote for) and give me some input. I've picked my first publishing house to send to and all they really require is the first 10 pages. I'm not 100% certain the first ten pages represent the book as a whole since it starts in Rift Valley Oklahoma before moving into my magic land of Penthos, but I do think they grab the reader and hold on pretty well. Either way, I'm going to polish the first chapter (again) this weekend, hopefully get some input soon, and send out those first ten pages by the end of January. After that I play the waiting game. I'll keep posting.

Word of the day: Sneckdrawn

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