First off, Tina Anderson has finally had some communication from Kellie, so I’m officially lifting my request that people not buy Thaw. I haven’t got my second quarter royalties yet, but I think I will, and you know, even if I don’t, I want the book to be read. So buy away!
You know, it’s one of those author nightmares – you have this fabulous idea for a book, you plan and plot and eventually sit down to write, only to realize that someone else has, completely independently, written your book. I was reading Lauren Groff’s debut novel, The Monsters of Templeton, last week. It’s about a young woman who returns home to her quirky small town and finds herself delving into her family’s past, trying to solve a mystery. At one point, I closed the book, thinking it sounded so familiar, and then I realized that in many ways, it was Spirals, my first novel.
Okay, it’s not, really. There are significant differences. Monsters has a lake monster instead of ghosts, fewer lesbians and more middle aged guys. It’s also way better written, because Spirals was my nanowrimo, prove-to-myself-I-can-write-a-novel novel, but the similarities were enough to make me take notice. There’s even one part where the main character discovers a significant clue in an old statuette, which is almost exactly what happens in my book. Groff makes use of the writings of James Fenimore Cooper. I used Stephen Crane. Weird.
I did about a thousand words of a mystery short story yesterday, working title (which will undoubtedly change) of “Acre, 1148″. Our local SCA group newsletter’s editor asked for contributions, including creative writing, and I thought I’d try to work up a 1k or so flash fiction historical mystery, but as I started researching, I realized 1k words wouldn’t be enough to do justice to my concept, so it’s probably going to end up being in the 4-5k range, too long for the newsletter. I’d hoped to finish it today, but I’ve been fighting the sinus headache from hell.
I think it’s going to be a good story – it uses characters I’ve already developed and like, and the research spiraled the initial concept into a complex plot of murder and political intrigue in the 2nd Crusade. Every bit of additional research I did added a new layer. It’s so fabulous when that happens, and rare. Too often my research contradicts some idea I’ve had and forces me to backtrack and revise.
