The Next Big Thing Blog Hop, or Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About My WIP

Welcome to the NEXT BIG THING Blog Hop.

I’m answering 10 questions about my current WIP, and tagging a few other authors to answer the questions as well. (Don’t worry, I’ve asked them!)

A big thanks to M.A. Chiappetta for inviting me to participate in this event. You can learn more about her at The Chipper Muse.

Here is my Next Big Thing!

1: What is the working title of your book?
The Sorcerer’s Blade.

2: Where did the idea come from for the book?
So…anybody here ever play Final Fantasy Tactics? PlayStation game from, like, 1998, which to this day is one of my favorite video games? Yes? No? Okay.

Seriously this game was so great.

The game begins with your character at a church, where he’s responsible for escorting the princess to safety. There’s an attack, and you have to go out and fight. While you’re fighting, somebody else sneaks into the church and kidnaps the princess.

I really, really liked the way the game started, and I got to wondering, “What if the kidnapper hadn’t really been a bad guy? What if he was trying to protect her from someone?”

And thus, the inciting incident for The Sorcerer’s Blade was born.

…dammit, now I want to play the game again.

3: What genre is your book?
YA fantasy.

4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie?
Kiral, the princess and the main character, is petite, with curly red-gold hair and green eyes. This picture from Coolvibe is probably the closest I’ve come to finding someone who looks like her:

Pandora’s Box by Marta Dahlig, via coolvibe.com

However, I think Gregg Sulkin, with longer hair, could possibly be Ari, my main male character, though he’s a bit on the short side. (Seriously, though, finding a guy who’s the right age? Yeesh.)

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
16-year-old Kiral’s goal: Find and destroy a magical artifact first, or watch her father use it to take over the world.

6: Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?
It’s currently with my lovely CPs, awaiting feedback.

7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
About three months. I finished the first draft in January 2007.

8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I’d say the Song of the Lionness quartet by Tamora Pierce or perhaps Graceling by Kristin Cashore.

9: Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I originally wrote this as a short story for a creative writing class (which, after 14 years, I finally typed up so the only copy WASN’T the handwritten-in-pencil version I’ve been lugging in a binder for the better part of two decades). When I signed up for NaNoWriMo in 2006, I had less than 48 hours to pick a story to write. So my thought process went: “I need a story. Wait, I’ve always wanted to turn that short story into a novel. That’s what I’ll do!”

In the grander scheme of things, my some of my favorite books from middle and high school were Tamora Pierce’s Tortall series (Serieses? Serii? There’s like 5 of them now) and the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede, and I’ve always wanted to write engaging, fun fantasy stories with kickass characters like those.

10: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Well, here’s my current query letter:

Princess Kiral has been kidnapped.

Unfortunately, it was by the wrong person.

Now two of the people Kiral trusted most are dead, leaving her life in the hands of Ari, a young man she barely knows.

Formerly a knight-in-training, Ari has one goal: keep the princess safe. Unfortunately, between the knights scouring the city for the missing princess and the bounty on his head, that’s becoming increasingly difficult. Still, Ari could manage it…if Kiral didn’t accidentally set things on fire every time she got angry.

Kiral and Ari have one hope—to find out who ordered Kiral’s abduction and why, so they can strike back. However, they’re not going to like the answer, because the real mastermind is far closer—and far more dangerous—than they could ever guess.

Also, there’s a midnight escape from the castle, secret meetings, secret rooms, a river monster, two vicious demons, a sly witch, and (naturally) a little bit of a romance.

And now, for the author I’m tagging for next week:

Valerie Lawson

And one of my fellow “doing it this week” Blog Hop writers:

Eris O’Reilly

Love it? Hate it? Want to share anything about your own WIP? Feel free to comment below! 🙂

Final Fantasy Tactics image from Wikipedia