Tuesday 16 November 2010

The Curse of the NaNo Plot Bunnies...

Now there's a title for a new book...well, maybe when I finally get around to finishing this one, I shall write it. (Not to mention the small matter of all my other unfinished ficlets whose characters abuse me constantly for forgetting about them. I must finish 'Children of the Revolution' before the next millenia, otherwise they may kill me...not to mention the two and a bit fantasy novels I found half-started in a notebook the other day, all of which need doing because, dammit, they're good. Ish.)

But I digress. And procrastinate, something I've been doing rather well at throughout the *checks NaNo discombobulator* 16 days of NaNoWriMo. As you may have guessed, it's going swimmingly. Not. The two stories I was originally going to write both fell by the wayside, so now I'm only writing one and it wasn't one I'd planned on doing in the first place. Don't you love it when a plan comes together like that? [/sarcasm] However, I am rather in love with my new story. It's a steampunk-esque Jack the Ripper-based novel, with a fiesty heroine, a supernatural twist and guest appearences by a (very) thinly-disguised Doctor Watson from the Sherlock Holmes stories; a fan fiction-based Bill Sikes from Oliver Twist, complete with dog; long dead poets and, er, the Elephant Man. Please don't ask me how poor Joseph Merrick came to be part of this whole shebang because it wasn't planned, but lo and behold there he is. God bless him. And the steampunk thing is just me being a tad obsessed with the whole genre. Cos I like to make things difficult for myself.

A brief synopsis:

London, 1888. Death stalks the East End district of Whitechapel, striking fear into the hearts of all citizens of the fair capital. At the bidding of her mysterious mentor Charlotte Gunner-Hawkyns, the headstrong only daughter of a widowed wealthy lawyer, investigates the murders using 'steampunk' technology and the help of her sailor lover and a streetwise but loyally affectionate urchin, all the while thwarting her aunt’s suggestion of marriage to a Viscount and the stifling social whirl that this would entail. She knows Queen Victoria, has an inventor on speed-dial, and is mentored by a mysterious yet ancient old man who knows a thing or two about the darker side of life. Can Charlotte identify the Ripper and stop him from killing again? Will her aunt’s scheme to marry her off be thwarted? Who exactly IS her mysterious teacher? All this and more will be revealed…

Well, it will be revealed if I ever get off my bum and write. Right! Enough procrastination - I've characters to torment. 22,723 words and counting...erk!!

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