Announcing My July 2021 Project: The Mystery of the Body Thief

 

A while ago I mentioned that I finished writing the first draft of this novel. This July, I am focusing on editing it and working on the second draft, along with some world-building along the way. 

For this project I started writing the first draft in 2018 and finished it in 2020.  I made a lot of posts about this novel in the past, so if you want to check them out, here you can, or if you can to look at posts about the series as a whole here you can. 

Synopsis-

Genre: Fantasy | Murder Mystery 

Horatio wakes up from being in a coma, but he doesn't remember anything that happened before he fell into unconsciousness. All that he remembers is a name, "Annabelle!" 

Also... Detective Inspector Time finds himself having to solve a case without Lady Annabelle.
Murders have been happening throughout many different kingdoms, and no one knows who exactly is behind it all. 

Characters- 

Here are the characters. Please note, many things have changed. Phillip, the dwarf guard character  from the first draft moved to later book, given that the time-line changed a lot. (The dwarf and elf war happens much later). Also since Phillip is not coming in until later, I replaced him for now with a character named Angela. I had created her character for All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again, but that setting and story changed, too. Angela didn't fit the story anymore, so I moved her to The Mystery of the Body Thief instead. 

There are other characters who appear later in the story, but I won't be including them in this post. In this post, I am including the characters who have the largest impact on the plot: 

                                                         Horatio 

A servant who works in the castle, who lost his memory. He has a connection to Annabelle, but what the connection is, he doesn't know, but he longs to find out. 

                                                     Ophelia 

She is one of  Horatio's few friends and one of the healers at the castle. She works with the Earth and Air Gods and learns her magic from them. She is a very sweet (but quiet) person. 

                                                    Lady Annabelle 

Lady Annabelle is a princess, who is in a coma, who fell unconscious at the same time as Horatio. Before she was in a coma, she worked as a detective and sometimes would work with D.I. Time and Marigold. 

                                                Detective Inspector Time 

An old friend of Annabelle's, he is a detective actively working on the case of the murdered royals. 

                                                    Marigold Time 

Marigold is also working on the case of the murders of royalty, and is the adoptive daughter of D.I. Time. She also works as a detective in the police department. 

                                                           Vonivera 

Lady Annabelle's lady in waiting, she is a friend to Horatio and a frenemy of "Angie." Unlike the other ladies in the castle, Vonivera is a fairy and she finds it odd to be amongst elves and humans. 

                                                          Angela "Angie" 

    Another one of Lady Annabelle's ladies in waiting, Angela is "a close friend" of Vonivera's (or at least that is what she tells people).

Soundtrack- 

I compiled a playlist of music that I listen to while writing this story. I decided to make a different playlist for the second draft, because it is neat to look back and listen to music that I listened to when writing the first draft of this novel. 

                              My Goal- 

Since I'm on the second draft, my goal is going to be edit/rewrite at least 12,000 words. I made my goal smaller because, editing is really hard and I don't want to make myself stressed with a large goal. There are also a lot of things that have changed in the plot-line, so getting those changes into the story, along with the world-building is very important in this second draft. While it may not be perfect, I have the third draft to fix those flaws. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are you participating in Camp NaNoWriMo this July? If so what are you writing? 

-Quinley 

Announcing My April 2021 Project: Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass.

Hello Adventurers, 

 For this Camp NaNoWriMo I am going to be writing my novel, Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass. And this is my goal for it: 

At the moment I only know one narrator's telling of the story (that being Matilda), but in the future I know I will know more about Felix's. As for what I am going to do in July, I have plans to do my other project: The Mystery of the Body Thief, and work mostly on editing it and writing the second draft. 

As for my inspiration for  Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass, it came from a very detailed nightmare I had about wax dolls, which I decided would be a perfect starting point for a novel. And from there I just built on from it...

                                           Synopsis 

Genre: Gothic Horror | Historical Fiction Series: it's a stand alone. 

Maltida Moore was found dead at the castle, her brother, Felix, is missing. No trace of him was found except an eyeless wax doll made in his likeness.  What happened at the castle is unknown, but it is as if something evil is lurking within it...something evil is causing these terrible events to happen. 

                                   The Narrators 

There is a third narrator, but they only narrate a small portion of the story. And instead of including all the characters (some of which may or may not even exist), I thought I'd show who is going to be telling the story to you, and who may not always be reliable in their telling of their story to you: 

Matilda Moore 

Matilda, is a rather quiet person. She tends to sit and read books, and does not enjoy social situations all that much. She would much prefer reading books, than talking to other ladies of high class. 

                                                       Felix Moore 

Felix is a very social person, and thrives in social interactions. He also dreams (silently) of being a romantic hero, and also has a hobby he spends some of his time doing: hunting. 

                      The Soundtrack 

You can also listen to it here 

Here are some songs that I will listen to when I am writing, and I have listened to them lot when I have been plotting the story. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What is your favorite Gothic Horror or ghost story? What are you writing for April's Camp NaNoWriMo? 

-Quinley 

Wattys and Camp NaNoWrimo July 2018 project: The Mystery of The Body Thief (+ 100th post!)

Hi everyone, last April I made a post about this project so I thought that I should make another post about it considering I am still writing it and I entered it into a writing contest called the Wattys. (Also, this is my 100th post.)

Anyway, here is the post:


Synopsis- 

Ever since Horatio woke up from being in a coma, things around the castle have been going from normal to strange. 

He is also trying to solve a murder that now is beginning to seem more complex than he thought. 

Characters-
Since I made a whole list of the characters before in my last post about this project, I am only going to do some of the main characters and not the minor ones.
                                                                  Horatio 

A servant who works in the castle, who lost his memory.


Vonivera  (previously known as Veronica.) 

Lady Annabelle's lady in waiting, and friend to Horatio and Phillip.
Unlike the other ladies in the castle, Vonivera is a fairy, and she finds it hard to fit in.

                                                                            Phillip 
                                                                    

The captain of the guards and the only dwarf in the castle. Also 

a friend of Annabelle's who is helping Horatio and Vonivera solve a recent murder.

                                                Detective Inspector Time & Marigold 

From left to right, Detective Inspector Time, Marigold. 

Two detectives who are trying to solve the recent murders of royalty.

                                                             Lady Annabelle 

A princess who is in a coma, who fell unconscious at the same time as Horatio. 

Excerpts-

Vonivera had very annoyed looking expression her face, that she normally had when she was talking about the gossipers and how they talked about Horatio, and the things he had done wrong. 

“I am worrying about it, because I care about you, unlike everyone else in the castle.” she said. 

-from Chapter 10, Vonivera to Horatio. 

“Are you alright?” Vonivera asked. 

“Yes…I’m fine..” Horatio said, as he picked up the burnt fire wood, and swept the chimney, which was sooty but not quite as sooty as it had been when he first cleaned it. 

“Are you sure?” asked Vonivera, who like usual was hanging around where Horatio was working. She rather liked to talk to him… 

“Yes I’m sure…” sighed Horatio, who rather was concentrated on cleaning the chimney… 

“You don’t look sure…” said Vonivera. 

Horatio sighed, “That’s because I’m cleaning the chimney!”

- from unidentified Chapter. (Though I am pretty sure it is after the events of chapter seven though, but I am unsure...since the labeling of the chapters got confused.) 

You can also read the seven chapters that are up here (though I do plan to self-publish it eventually.)

the official story soundtrack- 
Last time I posted songs that reminded me of the story. But now here is the official story soundtrack:


 
You can also listen to it here 

Some of the songs in this are songs you have heard before in the previous post.

A sneak peek at future songs that will be added into the story soundtrack (playlist):


                                       As The World Falls Down by David Bowie. 

You can listen to it here

 This song goes really well with a (romantic) ballroom scene in my book. ;)

Kiss and Break Up by Meghan Kabir 

You can also listen to it here 

This song went perfectly with a scene from my story. 

(I am not going to say what scene though ;) ) 

Money, Money, Money by ABBA 

                                                 You can also listen to it here
                                I am not sure whether this song will be added to the story soundtrack or a playlist describing one of my characters, but either way it still reminds me of what the servants may think of royalty and money.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Have you ever entered your book into the Wattys? Also, how was your Camp NaNoWrimo? 

Love,
Quinley

My camp Nanowrimo novel (2017): The Mystery of the phantom of Dragonspire court

Hi everyone, so I thought I'd share a little bit of my Camp NaNoWrimo novel with you  since I've never posted about it before....

The Mystery of The Phantom of Dragonspire court 

Annabelle finds herself in a very complex mystery actually two! 

it has been rumored the ghost of Dragonspire court is on the loose, 
and will destroy whatever get's in it's way. 

Characters:

Annabelle- The Main detective , and heir to the throne of Dragonspire court. Annabelle is half elf half human with a little bit of fairy , and has an Photographic Memory. 

                      

Phillip- Annabelle's friend , he is a dwarf (who has no beard)  he is the chief the guards in Dragonspire court. 

Detective Inspector Time- An elf police detective who works on the police force in The Kingdom, 

                                             he bumps into things , and trips often and nobody knows why 

                                  

Marigold- Detective Inspector Time's adopted daughter and Assistant.                                  

Other Characters (That Aren't Detectives): 

Annabelle's Father - Annabelle's father often tries to plan things in the books but so far most of his plans have been ruined.

Prince Reginald Dragonstone The Third - A prince from a neighboring kingdom, and is destined to marry Annabelle. 

Excerpt: 

“Well…we don’t. But we could put clues together…finding out where they could have taken her…that might be very Difficult” said Phillip. 

“A detective doesn’t knew the meaning of Difficult!” said Time. 

“Umm…Difficult means hard—“ began Phillip. 

“That’s not what I mean’t” said Time.

- chapter 9, Phillip to Time 



------------------------------

I hope you liked reading it!:)

-Quinley