Monday, August 1, 2011

Help! I need your opinion! Part 2

OK, so a while back I had a poll asking if people would read a novel written in serial form on my blog. The results were inconclusive but encouraging. Out of the 6 votes, there were 4 "Maybe, depends", 1 "Yes, an adult one", and 1 "Yes, a YA one." So, in the hopes of a more final vote, I am going to give brief descriptions of the stories I am considering writing, and you can vote for which one sounds best or if you think they all look terrible.

1. Blackbird (Working Title)
Genre: Fantasy / Romance
There had always been persecution of the mageborn in the past, so it wasn't much of a surprise when the king declared all who bore cat's eyes to be traitors to the crown. They were rounded up and executed without mercy, but one man rose up and rebelled. Known only as the Crow, he is determined to overthrow the monarchy.

Ravenna is a village girl, content with her life. Until her cousin dies trying to smuggle mageborn children to safety and Ravenna takes her place. Three years later, she finds herself fighting side by side with the most infamous outlaw in the kingdom.

This story contains romance, swordplay, some adult content (but not much), and has been thought out mostly from beginning to end but not written down. Probably suitable for ages 16 and up.

2. Nelle
Genre: YA Fantasy / Romance / Re-telling
This is the story of Lady Ragnelle, called Nelle at her own insistence. Nelle is a stunningly beautiful young enchantress, trained by the lady of the Lake herself. Nelle comes from a noble, wealthy family and is her father's sole heir. As such, a great many knight and lords come seeking her hand in marriage. However, Nelle is having none of it. She is determined to marry for love. To further this purpose, she uses her magic to disguise herself as a hideous hag and is so ugly that it frightens most of her suitors away. One, though, is very persistent.

Nelle investigates this most stubborn of swains and overhears a conversation between him and his sister, plotting how best to seduce her and steal her father's lands. In outrage, she turns the man into a toad only to discover that his sister is an enchantress as well and be cursed in turn. Forced into hag form, Nelle will die in a year and a day if a man does not come to marry her despite her ugliness.

This is a re-telling of Sir Gawain and The Loathly Lady, one of my favorite Arthurian legends. It is part of a planned series and mostly thought out but not written down. Suitable for ages 13 and up, probably.

3. Untitled YA Fantasy / Contemporary
This one is in vague idea form at the moment, a few scenes and conversations scattered through my mind that will end up being a boy who meets a mysterious girl who may not be entirely human.

This idea came from my annoyance at all of the YA contemporary fantasy series where a girl going to high school meets a darkly handsome boy who behaves strangely and turns out to be angelic/immortal/fey/vampiric/demonic/ancient. Not that I dislike these books, indeed I love Hush, Hush, Fallen, Shiver, The Iron King and many books that use that theme, it just annoys me that it is always the boy who is the mysterious one.

Because I have only recently started thinking about this idea, it might take me longer to write it.

As you can see, I have not actually written down any of these stories. Most of the purpose behind this project is to make myself record my ideas and actually complete them as well as to receive writing advice and input on my style, vocabulary, grammar, dialogue, characters, etc.

Please, please, please vote in the poll on the upper right sidebar and feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts on my stories and this project. Thank you!

                       Lieder Madchen

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