So… I’ve finally finished my rewrite!!! YES!!!
And here is my final one-paragraph pitch…
Set in eighteenth-century Scotland, A WHISPER OF DEATH is a YA historical paranormal romance in which a young vampire whisperer joins forces with her childhood sweetheart turned vampire to defeat a clan of Celtic vampires, aka baobhan sith, bent on wiping out her kind. Trouble is, the baobhan sith leading the genocide is masquerading as someone she loves.
Now, I’m plotting my next masterpiece 😀
I had planned to jump straight to my YA Portal Fantasy. The first draft is already written, and the first four chapters are completely done. But my Ivy League college thriller is badgering me, running around in my head like a hyperactive child and tugging on my mind’s proverbial sleeve, and I’m feeling particularly inspired. So, onto my Ivy League college thriller manuscript I go.
I already have three characters in my head. There’s the main character, of course, who, at this moment, I think of as Annika, but this could change. In fact, it might need to. I just realised this morning I tend to choose names for my main characters that sound like mine (eg. Boudica, Danica, Annika).
Then, there’s Veronica and Marcus.
In my mind, Veronica resembles Kristine Frøseth and Marcus, Ben Schnetzer (both of whom happened to star in The Harry Quebert Affair, which is a great series btw). When I think of Annika, I think of a cool classic, Hitchcock-style blonde, like Sarah Gadon.
The story will be set at an Ivy League college (inspired by UQ), against a backdrop of sandstone buildings and vibrant purple Jacaranda trees. It will be a thriller along the lines of The Talented Mr Ripley meets The Secret History, only with Law students (as they say, write what you know). There’ll be blackmail and intrigue and… murder.
I can’t wait to get started writing!
For now though, I’m researching how to write thrillers, watching movies and reading novels, all so I can organise the scenes in my head into a suitable order. This, I think, is the hardest part. Do I put the murder halfway? Or should it be the climax of the book? And pacing!!! I have to make sure I get that right.
Worse still, it looks like this story might need to be split into two books, which means I probably have another ten years to go before I finish this project ☹ Why, oh why, can’t I just write a simple story? For some reason, I always have to get complicated with twists and turns and layers.
But, if I can pull off what I want to pull off it will be a killer novel… fingers crossed!
Yanicke Forfang 