A Change In Plans

By Michael Seese

For the past few weeks, I'd been kicking around an idea for my first post of 2013. I have planned to announce new personal initiative for the new year. If you're outside of the author community, you might not have heard of NaNoWriMo. Actually, even of you're in the author community, you might not have heard of it.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. As the name would suggest, it's an open challenge to write a 50,000-word novel in one month, specifically, November. The idea is not to make it perfect; it's to get it done.

If you do the math -- 50,000 divided by 30 days hath November -- that comes out to 1,666 words per day, each day. Given the constraints of my life -- you know, the job thing and the family thing -- I really don't think I can manage that. But over two months...

So I planned to launch my own NaNoWri2Mo, if you will.

I'd been kicking around an idea for a YA fantasy novel called Dragons & Dungeons. It's about four high school senior girls -- self-described geeks -- who get sucked into a medieval Celtic world while playing the aforementioned (noun-swapped) game. Here is the opening:

(Bear in mind, there will be Dungeons & Dragons-esque dialogue interspersed. But, 1. I haven't researched any yet, and 2. The moves they make will tie into what happens in the medieval Celtic world.)


    “Ladies, as another Friday night dawns to Saturday, another meeting of the She-man Boys Hater Club comes to order.”
    "For the record, I don't hate boys."
    "And shouldn't it be 'She-girl?' Can we be She-men?"
    "It's a joke. A play on words."
    "Whatever. I still don't hate boys."
    "Neither do I. But it sounds better than the 'Losers Who Can't Get A Date Club,' doesn't it?"
    “I’ll be so glad we're out of high school.”
    “Yeah, college is going to be different.”
    “You think? Roll.”
    “Oh yeah.”
    “How so?”
    The bell of the clock of the Federated Church tolled, the first of 12 peals to follow.”
    “Well, first of all, the boys will be men. No more stupid pranks. No more name calling. No more Callie the Collie.”
    “Or Mason Jars.”
    “Mason Jars?”
    “Well, they’re not exactly jugs,” she said, holding her chest.
    “Oh, you two have so much room to complain. Louise! Do you have any idea what it’s like to carry a name like ‘Louise’ around?”
    “At least you have a girl’s name. ‘Edwina?’ What kind of name is that?”
    “Yeah, you’re right. It is pretty onerous. But ‘Eddy,’ sounds really cool. It fits you,” said Mason.
    "And besides,” said Lou, “you're a babe. You’ve got that blonde hair, and that funky short cut."
    “And I’d kill for those lips.”
    "Can I help it if my Mom’s a beautician, and likes to practice? Though I have to admit I enjoy looking like this, rather than a 'Plain Jane' and never..." She let her voice tail off, rather than continuing to insult her best friends. "Sorry guys, I—"
    "It's OK, Eddy,” said Callie. “Lou’s right. You are a babe."
    "Yeah. Hanging with you is good for our image," added Mason.
    “And there is no place I’d rather be on a Friday night, than with the four of you.”
    “Bull sh— I mean, liar,” said Callie.
    “College will be great.”
    “It will. But wouldn’t it be awesome if we could live this life. Just for one day?” ...



I say I was going to do that. But something else has come up which may require my attention...

To be continued. (Ooh! A cliffhanger! Just like the original Batman TV show.)