I signed up for NANOWRIMO 2020. What a “perfect year” to hole up for a month to write a novel. And it’s a way to legitimize the diversion for my shiny new idea.
My original thought for Lady Tedey was a YA steampunk novel about a young woman who is a baroness in her own right. My vision was to have her travel to Timbuktu, and I have research and story ideas to that effect. As Lady Tedey and her world evolved in my thoughts, she acquired prescience, the ability to see snippets of the future — but only minutes in advance of actual events. Just enough for her to slip out of the drawing room before an unwanted beau arrives. Then I gave her the same birth date as Princess Victoria: May 24, 1819. More research, and I decided to include Tedey in an actual incident that happened to Victoria and her mother, the Duchess of Kent. Then Lady Tedey was supplanted by a shiny new idea and placed on a back burner.
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I don’t know where this one came from, but I came up with the idea of “Treasure Island” with a female protagonist. So I reread the story and as I was mulling over how to approach it, Lady Tedey raised her hand. I went back to my preliminary work for Tedey and discovered it might work. A little more research and adjusting the cast — and Lady Tedey was sailing for the Caribbean to locate a pirate treasure.
I want to do a little more research on the time period for a modicum of accuracy, but otherwise I have a cast, settings, and major plot points (with thanks to R. L. Stevenson). Enough to launch into a 50,000 word novel on November 1.
Meanwhile, back at my Mac, I returned to “Ma’rama, Emperor’s Emissary.” I’ve been editing the existing pages to get back into the story before heading off into my stack of scene cards.
Mary S. Potter 