A Month of Grace

It’s National Novel Writing Month, and since I was going to start work on a new book this month anyway, I figured I might as well do it NaNoWriMo style (though I haven’t officially signed up) — at least, I think it’ll be fun to post daily updates on my progress. I used to take part in “novel dares” a decade ago, when writers would challenge one another to hammer out a rough draft in 30 days, posting progress on our “online journals,” and it was often fun.

(Progress. Right. So far this morning: Uh, I’ve thought about the main character’s name. But it’s not even 9 am yet. Consider this an introductory post.)

The novel is tentatively titled Heirs of Grace, and is about a woman just out of college who inherits a house and a sprawling bit of land in the mountains of North Carolina from a distant relative she never knew she had. When she goes to check out the property, she soon learns all sorts of strange things about her biological family, and herself. (I make it sound like a family drama. It’s a contemporary fantasy with lots of odd magic. Said distant relative was a sorcerer, and left a lot of dangerous bits of magic lying around, and there are other people who want some of the things my main character inherited.)

I’ve been thinking about this book, off and on, for years, and I’m glad I finally have a couple of months to work on it. I’m writing this one entirely on spec, for my own amusement, and it’s also an interesting change to have no deadline or editorial expectations.

Wish me luck — and good luck to everyone else embarking on National Writing Lots In Hopes of Having Something Somewhat Novel-Shaped, Albeit Probably Incomplete, by the End of the Month.