Here's more about my book:
Title: Of The Dark
Genre: Adult Otherworld Fantasy (with strong Romance-style plot elements)
Status: Finished and ready to rumble
I just had to say how much I love my Fantasy story Of The Dark. I really hope I can convince a mentor and maybe the right agent to fall in love with it as much as I am so we can find an editor who’ll love it and get it published so the whole reading world can have another great book to love and share and fan-fic and cosplay and give me a good reason to go to more conventions and meet other fellow book-lovers.
But most of all, I wrote this story full of love and angst and frustration and growth so that somewhere someone else will read it. I hope that a book of mine can, for a few hours, make someone happy. That’s why I write.
Does my book start in the right place? Of course it does! It starts the moment Our Heroine does something that draws the attention of Our Anti-Hero. Immediately things go SNAFU and that's what makes a book so much fun.
We got a country lass, a journeywoman healer called Adrastea who actually likes her job and her family. Unlike her poor mother, she's respected by the village because Adrastea’s got mad doctorin’ skillz. She’s good at that because she sees how things fit together, how they work.
She sees the lines that connect the universe together, but never gave it much thought because she never realised that few other people could see them as well. One day when she’s got to locate something in the cellar where it's dim, she sees the lines connecting to the object she’s got to find. They look so solid, she wonders if she can touch them.
Ba-da-bing, she can! Level up for discovering useful skill. Minus XP for not ever realising it in twenty-plus years. (Meanwhile, the GM cackles madly, because Adrastea's touching of these lines Has Consequenses. Everyone roll 2D10 against Luck.)
So, not five minutes later, she’s called upon for a bit of help. Some kid’s fallen in a water tank and the rescue’s going pretty bad. He’ll need some serious doctorin’ if he makes it out alive. Scene’s some mad chaos as lots of people try to rescue this kid without any form of organised plan. Panic can do that.
One thing she notices is the local priestess attempting to pull on the lines that keep the tank together. She’s not strong enough, so Adrastea steps in to help, 'cause that's what she does. Helpful lass is helpful.
Success is a matter of a point of view. Water tank comes apart, kid gets rescued, everyone’s covered in mud. Priestess is horrified because there was a chance this day would come, and she hoped it wouldn't. This portends bad things afoot. She tells Adrastea to hie thee hence to the sacred spring and go for a wash. No askin’ politely, no explanations why.
Adrastea, bemused, heads off.
But she’s not alone. Mor-Lath, God of the Dark, appears. The moment she touched those lines, he knew who she was and where. He’s been looking for her for a long time.
Mor-Lath wants a bride. Adrastea’s just the one. It's not so much a proposal, as a tellin' her the way things are going to be.
Adrastea freaks out and runs away. She tells her mother (because sometimes a grown up girl still needs her momma), her aunt and the village priestess.
Everyone's rather concerned about this and keep it hush-hush. After all, he's the Dark One, who haunts all their ghost stories, the one who drags all sinful souls down to purgatory. Also, this village worships the rival god, so there's a bit of the whole Conflict of Interest thing going on. If anyone else finds out about this, we're talking some awkward moments at the next Village Council meeting.
Then someone realises that despite his rather forceful wording, the Dark God's proposal isn't the be-all-and-end-all it seems. Adrastea has a choice. He can't coerce her. He needs her to accept his proposal willingly.
Does she want to become the Dark God's wife?
Her answer is no. Very much no. Her immortal soul is in peril.
(You didn't think it would be that easy, though, did you?)
_______________
Okay, so the story isn't told in that voice. It's more the gently unobtrusive "I Are Serius Fantasy" voice. I've passed this novel through my workshop and even had a freelance editor give it a once-over to ensure I haven't made any Really Stupid Mistakes with it (I hope). I've plotted this tightly, I've done my best to give the characters roundness and life and hope I've tied up all the loose ends that needed tying.
While there are strong Romantic elements in the plotline, I don't know if I would call this a Romance, and I'm not pitching it as such. But the plotline is all about their tumultuous courtship and whether or not Adrastea can deny the God of the Dark his Bride. Sometimes when two people come together, it's not so cut-and-dried that they'll end up together--or if they should.
This story might please readers who thought Bella Swan needed more backbone.
Since we win over the hearts of mentors with the strength of our novel, I'm hoping Of The Dark hits the spot for someone.
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