Name's Amanda, I'm a college student, part-time librarian, and fledgling novelist. The title (cause I finally have one) of my modern-day fantasy novel is Chaos Unbound. I'm writing it, most importantly, for me, to show myself that I can indeed write a novel. It actually started out as a drabble...just bits and pieces of things, and then one day I sat down and saw that I had a...gasp!...novel forming. It went from there, to become this fully-fledged world...I'm sure most, if not all, of you know what's that's like. I'd say I'm doing all right so far...190 pages, 17 chapters, typed, and counting.... :-)
I wanted to encompass elements that I love about modern fantasy novels, like Jim's and Kim Harrison's, but I also had something I really, really wanted to focus on...a team. With the story being first person, obviously one member sticks out from the rest, but I wanted the reader to feel as if they'd been thrown in with these four people, and they were seeing it from Lauren's (my narrator) point of view. Maybe this is pretentious, but I wanted to throw the reader into the situations and have them, perhaps, feel as Lauren feels...like they don't have all the pieces sometimes, but they will eventually.
It's my first attempt at a longer first-person narrated story, and I must admit, after writing in third-person for so long, I'm really enjoying doing it from one perspective. Lauren's an interesting gal, and her relationships with her team members are very different, given that some of the members haven't been a part of her life as long as...well, Morgan has. And no, that's not a reference at all to Jim's Morgan...I started writing this novel before I read any of Jim's books, so it's just one of those funny coincidences. ;-)
I don't know about the rest of you, but I enjoy a story with a puzzle to it...I know when I read Storm Front I had a great time trying to piece out Harry's puzzle right along with him. So I tried to encompass that kind of element into my novel. We'll see what happens...if I think that, eventually, I've edited it to a point where I'll send it into a few publishers, great...if I get rejected (which will happen, I know), no big deal. My life's pursuit isn't staked into this novel. I wrote it for me, like I said earlier...I've got a few friends that want to read it when I'm through, and that's all fine and good. I will be writing at least one more book, if not three or four to go along with Chaos Unbound, but I plan those to be later...far later in the future, unless by some ungodly chance my novel gets picked up by a publisher. That's a different matter. :-) Good luck to you all...happy writing!
