While I'm not a published author yet, I can and do proudly call myself a writer! Recently I got curious about how many writing projects I've actually finished over the years, so I thought I would share the titles and blurbs of that list with you.
Completed Works
("Completed" doesn't mean that these works don't need revision, by the way.)
The Clock at Fourth Central
Blurb: An unhappy receptionist finds a time traveling clock at a train station and ... goes time traveling. Sorry, it's been so long since I wrote this that I can't even remember the plot, much less come up with a good blurb for it.
Quick facts:
- Genre: Science Fiction
- Word Count: 28,521
- Completed: Age 13
- Status: Shelved indefinitely
I started writing this for my sister while she was in college. (A little context: my oldest sister and I are eight years apart, so when she went to college, I was 10.) The name of her hall in her dorm was "Fourth Central", and I thought that sounded like the perfect name for a train station.
The Princess and the Pea
Blurb: A retelling of "The Princess and the Pea" featuring a clumsy prince, a duke's daughter, and a tureen of pea soup.
Quick facts:
- Genre: Short Story
- Word count: 6,134
- Completed: Age 14?
- Status: Shelved indefinitely
This was a shorter project that still just makes me smile whenever I reread it. I originally meant it to be a video series that I was going to act out with my friends and publish on YouTube, but my vision was a little too big for my means at the time and after I while, I came up with this short story. I don't regret not doing the video series at all!
Tales of Strath and Osk (Formerly "Fortune")
Blurb: When a young highwayman is tasked with stealing an object of great power from a local noble, he accidentally ends up killing the noble and his wife instead–and then caring for the noble's two small daughters. When the girls grow up, they are split apart by a shipwreck and must navigate the different paths they are thrown onto–whether they are traveling back to each other, or growing further apart with every effort, is up to them–and a little dose of Fate.
Quick facts:
- Genre: Fantasy
- Word Count: 48,431
- Completed: Age 16
- Status: Revision in progress, but currently stalled
This story was originally heavily inspired by Cornelia Funke's Inkworld. (The cities in the story, Strath and Osk, still are.) I also wanted to play with the saying "a stitch in time saves nine", taking it quite literally, and what I came up with was a rambling fantasy about a sorceress who weaves enchanted tapestries. (That's what the revision is about, at least; I finished the original project during NaNoWriMo and it was awful.)
Hood
Blurb: Little Red Riding Hood meets time travel and werewolves in this paranormal/historical/science fiction YA novel. Grace's parents disappeared when she was five years old. Now that she's seventeen, can she solve the mystery of their disappearance–and get revenge on who's responsible?
Quick facts:
- Genre: Paranormal/Historical/Science Fiction YA
- Word count: 50,152
- Completed: Age 16
- Status: Revision being considered lazily from a distance. I have some new ideas I'd like to incorporate.
Fun fact #1: This was my second time travel book. Fun fact #2: This was also a NaNoWriMo project.
Quiet Water
Blurb: When Marnie's parents tell her that they're going to Italy for the summer, she's ecstatic–until they tell her that she'll be staying with her boring grandfather in a tiny town by the water. However, as the summer wears on, she realizes that her grandfather isn't boring, he just needs some company, and she forges a friendship with the eccentric antique shop owner in town. Can Marnie bring this unlikely couple together, or will her summer end in leaving her grandfather as sad and lonely as she found him?
Quick facts:
- Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary
- Word count: 19,779
- Completed: Age 16
- Status: Shelved indefinitely
The town in this story, Sandy Creek, is heavily based off of a town in Maryland that I grew up near. This story is sweet, and while my mom and I like it, I doubt anyone else will ever read it.
Antagonist
Blurb: The Author wrote her villain, John Matthew Hack, without a heart. However, when he gets a toymaker in the city to build him one, she must write a new villain into the story–one that won't develop feelings to get in the way of the plot. And one who won't mind getting rid of John Matthew.
Quick facts:
- Genre: YA Dystopian Metafiction
- Word count: 40,957
- Completed: Age 17
- Status: Shelved indefinitely
My dad says he preferred John Matthew Hack without a heart. Can't blame him, tbh. Also, my best friend once made an animatic for this book! Antagonist is very different from anything else I've written, and I think that's exactly why this project holds such a dear place in my heart.
The Hero of the Aiyathane
Blurb: Take a girl without wings who dreams of flying and, five generations later, a boy with wings who is forbidden to fly. Tess, an ordinary girl, longs to see the Winged People who live on the Forbidden Mountain, but after a rash attempt kills her mother, she must become an acolyte in the temple of Adelar, the eagle god. Eventually she escapes from the temple and meets one of the Winged People, a boy named Beto. Since intermingling is forbidden by both of their peoples, they leave for unknown lands. Five generations later, Curran is a member of the rapidly shrinking group of Aiyathane, the Winged People. He feels stifled by their strict regulations induced by Tess and Beto, but when the cruel Tannishar from the north capture his family to make them fight in the Field of Beasts, Curran must break these rules to find a way back to them–or perhaps get them back.
Quick facts:
- Genre: YA Fantasy
- Word count: 60,674
- Completed: Age 17
- Status: Shelved indefinitely
I queried this one to several agents and got some personalized responses, which was cool! However, I think I outgrew this story even as I was writing it. I also want to point out that this is the longest book I've written to date.
Notes of a Forgotten Princess
Blurb: A locked-away princess with a secret not even she knows escapes to mingle in the political and social intrigue of the capital city, but can she discover the secret about herself and learn to control it before it destroys her–and everyone around her?
Quick facts:
- Genre: YA Fantasy
- Word count: 51,470
- Completed: Age 18
- Status: Revision in progress, but currently stalled
I originally wrote this as an epistolary novel (told through letters–or, in this case, journal entries) and I still love that version, but I felt like I wasn't getting deep enough into the story that way. So, I'm currently in the middle of rewriting it almost from scratch! It was going well and then I got tired of it, which means that I need to retrace my steps a little bit ... However, I'm currently working on another project that I'm super excited about, so I'll get back to this later.
The Shining Armor Agency
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| This graphic fits in more with the sequel, which I'm sort of currently working on, but it's perfect for one of the characters in the story. Source: Etsy |
Blurb: When Sam unexpectedly gets to meet his fairy godmother, she takes him to the Shining Armor Agency so he can learn courage from the knights. Soon, however, Sam finds himself trapped in a castle that changes every night with a bunch of aging, cowardly knights whose leader disappeared 50 years ago. With the help of a mysterious girl named Skipper who shows up declaring her intention to become a knight in shining armor, Sam must break the castle's curse–or face being trapped there forever.
Quick facts:
- Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
- Word count: 53,313
- Completed: Age 19
- Status: Actively querying literary agents
If you're a writer, I have a question for you: do you ever write a whole book and then realize that you still haven't told the story you wanted to tell? That happened to me twice with this book before I finally stumbled upon the correct telling! I started working on this idea when I was twelve, so I guess you could say that this book took me seven years to write. I'm very happy with the last version, featured here! This was the book I pitched at the Washington Writers Conference back in May.
And just for fun ...
Yikes! I haven't finished a single project for a few years! I'm thinking maybe I should do NaNoWriMo again this year ...
Next week I'll be joining Top Ten Tuesday, but the week after that I'll follow up on this post with a list of all the projects I haven't finished.
Which story on this list intrigued you the most (if any)?
Thanks for reading!
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