I decided to write my first novel in December of 2008. After listening to Twilight on a trip back to Chicago, I thought it was high time I made my literary mark on the world. THB, I wasn’t as taken with Ms. Meyer’s books like the either my wife’s or daughter’s friends were. However, I was intrigued with the idea of taking a single idea, fleshing it out and getting it published. So, I needed that idea and it came to me while sitting at church.
You see, I have this friend (we’ll call him James) who works for the department of forestry in Virginia. James’ job is multi-faceting and involves everything from planting seedlings (“The green side goes up!”) to repairing fences. So, one day James said that Monday he will host a Chinese Delegation. I had no idea what this meant other than the idea of James entertaining a delegation from China made me howl.
So, I sat down and wrote the first chapter for a book that would be called “James Maupley and the Chinese Delegation.” That particular project lasted all of 4 days. I had an interesting idea of James finding a bomb in the forests of West Virginia but that was about it. Although this book idea didn’t stick, certain aspects of it did and the first line of the novel that would become The Solstice Treaty tumbled out of my head.
“Mark Steele shielded his eyes as the people of West Virginia died.”
Obviously there was a detonation in WV. But how did it happen? And if it did happen, was there something that this Mark Steele guy could have done to stop it? And how do I combine this with my other interests like accessible fantasy (You know, fantasy with character names you can actually pronounce!), European folklore (these stories are really great) and WWII.
Some part of my brain told me that if I REALLY wanted to be published, I should write something about vampires or some teen LIT thing. I actually considered it but ultimately I decided to write stuff I knew about and I would want to read. I mean, isn’t that what they say? Write what you know not what is popular?
So that’s what I did. My next post will talk about the process of writing and after that my ridiculous assumptions about getting published :)
