Friday 20 June 2014

My Novel Written on a Bus: "Let Sleeping Gods Lie"

Around the turn of the millennium, I worked for a Dotcom. Oh, those heady days! Dotcom bubble, you burst too soon.

I had a fifty-minute commute to work every day.  So I took a laptop with me and wrote a novel.  Took me longer than I wanted, but I got it done.  No carsickness either.

The Goddess Lilami loves her valley and her people. When a priest from a rival god invades the sanctity of her valley, she calls upon her young priest Eahn to drive him away--but only in a way Lilami approves. (The ways of the gods are baffling.)

But the rival priest refuses to go.  He gathers a few converts to the mysterious Urunathe with vast promises of wealth and prosperity.

Lilami knows such promises will never last. But how can Eahn convince her people that Lilami's way is the only way for true happiness?

I based my worldbuilding on various South American cultures.  I love that this novel is entirely populated by People of Colour.  Not a single blond hair or blue eye in the house.

About the time I wrote this, I had been a member of the Online Writing Workshop for a while.  I'd learned so much! I can't recommend this workshop enough (or any of her contemporaries, such as Critters.org).  Critique of others' work taught me more about the Craft than any book I'd read.

It was about this time that my mastery of the Craft took a turn for the better. For the first time in... well, ever, I wrote a novel I honestly believe is publishable. Maybe I was maturing as a writer.

Just needs another editing pass or two.

________________________
Her Grace is pleased with this novel. She will do another draft soon.

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