Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Fireflies, S'mores and Rope Swings oh my!

So we are 3 weeks out from the start of the first Camp NaNoWriMo session! I am a tad excited if you can't tell! I never went to camp as a kid because I grew up in Germany and surprisingly they don't do the camp thing during the summer. We traveled and went to amusement parks over the summer. Which was fun but I would have loved to have gone to a creative arts or science camp during the summer. Something about being in a nerdary with other geeks just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside

This year the sessions are in April and July. There was a furious debate about the feasibility of having the camp sessions during April and July.

I personally love the new months. Last year it was June and August. For most kids they are still in school in June and during August families are trying to cram in their vacations before they have to rush back for school to start back. I think april works well for everyone all around, and it gives an opportunity for the Script Frenzy people to have something official to do since OLL canceled Script Frenzy.

I was sad to see it go, but I just never participated because scripts just aren't my thing.

There have been some upgrades to the Camp NaNo site and I have to say I love them. First and foremost you have the ability to set your own goal. Which I think will really work for the people that want to participate but know going in that they are going to be too busy for 50,000 words. It allows them to get that accomplishment in the midst of  the chaos of real life. It also helps those overachievers who know they can blaze through 50,000 easy. Last November my NaNo novel went better than I could have ever imagined. I crossed the 50k mark on Nov. 16. Once that happened the energy just drained out of me. I was able to limp along and win with 62,313 but I felt like I cheated myself in the end. So I'm happy that I can set my own goal because it will keep me pushing and I might just be able to finish an entire novel during the camp. Which has me as giddy as if I had eaten an entire box of red velvet cupcakes.

The next upgrade I think that I am going to like is the expanded option package for the cabin selection. Now we have the ability to set the cabin activity level. Last June I lucked out and got most of the people I requested in my cabin and we worked great together. We created a facebook group simply because we weren't that active in our cabins and in the August session only two of us were active. I like a lot of activity and talking. Especially when I'm stuck and I need help on something. I like having someone as a sounding board or just someone to shoot the breeze with when I need to decompress for a bit.

So I am looking forward to using the site once camp starts.

I was teetering back and forth between two different plots. One was a steampunk, fairy tale inspired throwback noir book. I had all the research done and I thought that was what I was going to do, but then my Castle inspired book kept calling my name. When the sight went live everything just clicked for me and I decided to go with my Castle muse.

Title: Inventing the Grimm

Genre: fantasy

Protagonist: August Grimm. She is a twenty something NY best selling author. She is funny and sarcastic. A real child at heart. Though she doesn't believe in the fairy tales she is writing about. They are just stories to her. She is still in the honeymoon phase of her stardom. Not really believing that its all true, but loving the fact that people love her books.

Other Characters: Ezra is going to be another voice of the book. She is the Fablehaven police chief. Or I may just make her an inspector and make someone else the chief. Not sure if that will change just now or never. Balthazar, the Big Bad Wolf is going to be the love interest in the novel. Not sure if I want it to be a Bridget Jones love interest sort of thing because I am so bad at writing romance or if I'm just going to wing it. There is going to a steady cast of re-imagined fairy tale characters so this is going to be a fun ride for me. :)

Antagonists: The Queen of Hearts and the Sheriff of Nottingham. both of them I am thinking of them as Bonnie and Clyde. They thrive of the psychotic vibe from the other, but the Queen is going to be in charge and the Sheriff is just her knife man. the Queen is going to be a disgraced and penniless monarch living on the outskirts of the city. Sort of like the crazy cat lady with a murderous streak.

Plot: August Grimm is living the high life. She is a celebrated best selling author of the popular Apple White series. A fairy tale detective series based on Snow White. Does August think fairy tales are real? Of course not. Unfortunately for her in Fablehaven fairy tales are real and someone is killing its citizens. Just like in her books. And if these murders are going to get solved Fablehaven is going to need her help...if she can get passed the flying monkeys.

Setting: The initial setting is going to be Neptune, NC, but the majority of the story is going to take place in Fablehaven. The fairy tale capital city. There are going to be some border countries like Oz and the land of the Trolls, but I haven't come up with the name just yet.

Point of View: Third person limited for August and sometimes Ezra and other characters as need be

Story Notes: I am planning on this being a novel series and I've got 4 books plotted out already and I am thinking its going to be seven books so I have to take in account how the books are going to bed from the very beginning. So I can drop little hints and tidbits along the way throughout the books. I want each book to be a stand alone book but I want a natural progression from one to the other. If that makes any sense.

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