Really, I just want to be awesome.

[brightrosefox]

So, I found this meme. And I started trying to answer the questions. And then suddenly I froze and started crying. I'm attributing that to the depressive episode borne out of that postictal state. Or something. Maybe the migraine too.
I may try again tomorrow.

***

What is the working title for your book?

Stormfall.

Where did the idea for the book come from?

During my third year in college (SUNY Purchase), I was at my best friend's house; we were sitting on her bed reading books quietly. Suddenly, very randomly, I fell asleep (I now realize this was an epileptic seizure) and had... a vision. A dream. Something. Crawling naked through the woods away from a burning building. Moving through a cave in a psychic vision. Actually being psychic and doing psychic things. When I woke up, feeling exhausted and funny, I said, "I just had this amazing dream" and my friend looked at me with this very knowing look. Because, you know, she and I had been having psychic dreams and such for a while. I described the dream And I turned it into several scenes in the first chapter. And the rest of the chapter formed around that vision. And suddenly I was writing more chapters, and then I had a novel happening.

What genre does your book fall under?

Future fantasy. Or is it futuristic fantasy now? A sort of science fantasy. It takes place almost two centuries from now, close enough to have streamlined versions of current technologies, far enough to not be anywhere near now. But there is more magic than science, magic in the form of psychic powers, psionics. Lots of it. Very character driven, to the point where I barely have the world around the characters really built.

What is the synopsis or blurb for this book?

Oh gods, I hate trying to do this.
[*deep breath*] In a future world where mild psychic powers have become common, four of the most powerful psychics in the world will test the limits of their powers and the bonds of their love when a fifth powerful psionic seeks to destroy and rebuild reality - but he needs the help of one of the four to do so. When she refuses and he captures her, she finds herself fighting for her life, her friends, and for all existence.

What actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I have no clue. Since it will probably be years and years before a film gets made ... maybe Dana could be played by a red-haired Chloe Moretz or Elle Fanning or Ariana Grande or Tiffany Thornton or Sara Paxton or Alexa Vega or Bella Thorne, with hazel contact lenses? Maybe Kara could be played by Selena Gomez or Victoria Justice or Camilla Belle or Ashley Greene or Elizabeth Gillies or Ariel Winter or Jodelle Ferland, with light blue contact lenses? For Ian and Alex, since they are fraternal twins and have different coloring, perhaps Dave Franco or Jeremy Sumpter or Cody Linley or Drew Roy or Max Theriot or Sean Faris or Johnny Pacar or Nicholas Hoult, with blue-green contact lenses and brown contact lenses? Jeremy could be played by one of those guys, with dark blue contact lenses. *shrug*

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Agency, I hope. If they like me enough.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

First draft? I finished that after college, then ripped apart the whole thing. The ending has been missing for ten years while I put the rest back together. I mean, I have the ending. It's just not put in yet.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I've had such a lifelong love and obsession with psionic/psychic powers and superhumans that I'd been writing such stories since my pre-teens. I suppose that has come out of my being born disabled and wishing I could be more than I was. And also really really loving superhero/superhuman stories. I've loved Marvel's X-Men comics since childhood. Perhaps all the stories I write are allegories for being born with disabilities. Just something you live with. What you choose to do with it is your choice and yours alone. It can boost you and cripple you at the same time.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Um. Any book where the main characters have really strong psychic powers? I guess? Like, telekinesis and telepathy and all the subcategories thereof?

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Fuck, I don't know. The superpowers? The future world? The fact that all my characters are pagan, that polytheism is really really common and running neck and neck with monotheism? Psychic abilities of various levels? Character interaction? A villian who isn't truly a villian but a person who feels wronged and wants to make things right in his own way by destroying the world? A main female character who is disabled but it isn't made obvious? Three other main characters who have mental illnesses that are not made obvious?

(Also, I feel bad that I don't have many POC characters (Kara has heritage that is Navajo, Korean, Welsh. Dana's heritage is Russian, Columbian, Gaelic, Greek. Ian and Alex have heritage that is Celtic, Welsh, Greek. Jeremy has heritage that is Italian, Spanish, Scottish, Belgian)... and many POC characters are tertiary. But, you know, the main characters that came into my head were Caucasian. I don't want to alter their races just to appease social justice warrior readers.)

Comments

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Agreed with EVERYTHING. I just need to accept that I will piss people off. *reads this again and again*

Continued? *folds hands, leans forward*

[naamah-darling.livejournal.com]

Awshite, I forgot to post part II, because Firefuckup crashed on me.



So my characters live in a racist, sexist time, but they treat one another with respect. I don't feel obligated to make anyone horribly racist because that's accurate, even though it is highly likely that Valor, raised privileged, educated at school, physically average, and white as they come, would be intensely uncomfortable around someone like Rutter, who came from a mess of a family, learned his trade by doing and then by teaching himself, is physically impressive and willing to fight if he has to, and very not-white with all the cultural baggage that comes with that -- he's been treated like shit because he's mixed-race, and he's got a chip on his shoulder about it. But I didn't want to do that. I wanted it to not be an issue that caused lots of tension. It causes SOME, Valor doesn't fully understand, but he's respectful, and it doesn't make Rutter scary or unapproachable to him. The characters make it about how they do relate to each other.

For all I know, people will be offended by him, and by his sister and his mom, who are also going to be showing up. And by the Wandering Star's captain, who is Greek/Iranian/German. For all I know, I AM being offensive. Which, you know, okay, I'm not going to argue if someone says it is, because I don't get to decide that, ever, no matter how gross and sad it makes me in my feels.

But it was grosser to me not to try. It's taken me a while to get to where I thought I COULD try, I didn't want to do it before I felt ready, but I do feel like testing the waters now, and I'm willing to take the dunking if I deserve it, and do better the next time.

Anyway. Technology. Could the hovercars work on some sort of magnetic repulsion? They'd only be running along streets or tracks, they couldn't go offroad without deploying wheels, but maybe? The roads could be made with something in them or on them that makes that possible? I'd say that sounds like crazy talk because I have no idea how that would be accomplished, but as you point out, there's stuff we never thought would happen that is happening now. We can print cells with a 3d printer, FFS. The future is happening to us REALLY FAST. I have a friend who is a genius at nanotech batteries. The things he knows about the universe and how it works are amazing, and the things he can do with it are amazing, no matter how small they SEEM. We know so MUCH, it's only a matter of time before we put that knowledge together in ways that do any given remarkable thing.

THERE THAT IS WHAT I WAS GONNA SAY.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Yes. I believe my cars would work on a sort of magnetic repulsion. I'd have to discuss that with Adam, who would know.

Oy. People are difficult, you know??