The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

PART 1

SHOUT OUT to my CP, the lovely Deborah Kreiser, for tagging me in this post! If you've read my WIP page, then there is some crossing over, but keep on reading for other goodies.

What is the working title of your book?
INGENICIDE. It used to be called THE ORDOCIDE, but I realized I had a problem when I kept on getting tongue twisted and saying THE ODORCIDE instead. Good rule of thumb for titles: make sure you as an author have no trouble pronouncing the title :D

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
16 year-old Space Manipulator Sibyl Kenschild has only been trained to design the best rooms, but when discontent Normals start massacring the prodigies, she'll have to pull all tricks to survive.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Agency or die. Just kidding :) But I really am aiming for getting an agent. Probably agency or shelving for now.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I wrote the first chapter in November (didn't do Nanowrimo though because I found that I actually need to take my time to write or else I get a complete, rewrite-worthy mess that it still too daunting for me to handle. Then from November to the end of February I wrote sporadically (I am in a period of my life when I have many high stakes to juggle), finishing after four months with 60k. I know, not impressive :(

What genre does your book fall under?
YA...I really want to call it a socio-political adventure but HAH, there's no such genre. I guess...sci-fi? With the lightest touch of dystopian?

Where did the idea come from for the book?
Many things! I will list them because without lists I am one of the most scatterbrained people you will ever meet.
1. MS #1- I refer to my first novel frequently because I've learned so much from it from all the things that did not work. My writer friends used to always say that I was great at writing description, but never did they comment on my action scenes. I don't blame them--I had no action scenes. Um, MS #1 didn't really have a conflict. Once I got over the grief of shoving it onto the back burner, I told myself that I would surprise myself and my reader buddies. I would write the inciting incident in the very first chapter, keep a tight grip on the pacing, and refrain from describing unnecessary details.
2. My Own Life- Yuck, right? I know, real life is often very boring in comparison to the infinite boundaries of the fiction world (check out my post on Real Life in Fiction). Because of that, you should never be afraid to write what you don't know VICE VERSA you should never confine yourself only to the subjects that you DO know. At the same time, there will always be something magical about the writing that flows out of you when you are writing about a subject that you are familiar with, even if it is just a related emotion or a sensation. For example. I'd basically trained since the age of six to become a professional artist. I drew about 1,000 pencil sketch eggs and many more color studies. I won a national gold for a larger drawing:

My parents spent a lot of time driving me to and from art class. I reckon I spent most of my odd childhood focused on this one skill. Then, high school hit, and I suddenly realized that I loved art, but I didn't LOVE art. I didn't love it enough to actually pursue it as a profession, to take daunting risks, to potentially starve. And for a job such as professional art, you really do need to love it. Otherwise, you will have no fuel for your mad creativity. Anyway, when this epiphany hit, my world turned up-side down. Suddenly, I felt aimless. I felt as if I have wasted so many years and the hopes of my parents. I wondered if there was something wrong with me--maybe I was just hitting a "wall". Maybe this was the hurdle I had to pass in order to unlock my full potential. Maybe I was just being a typical teen, wanted to break out of the path that had been drawn for me and explore. Whatever the reason, I felt like I had failed, and that feeling sometimes still chases me to this day. I keep asking myself: Is it right for me to waste a talent by not seeing it to the very end? So I took this element of "prodigy" and decided to weave it into the core of my story.

That's it for PART 1 of the post (I spewed a bit so I'm breaking it up into 2 parts to make the reading more manageable :D).  One of the best things about the writing community is that everyone is united against the forces of rejection/editing/drafting/writer's block/fill-in-your-choice-of-poison that we all look out for each other. So thank you Deb again for tagging me in this blog hop. Now I pass on the goblet! Go check out these whimsically fantastic writers and I will tell you "I told you so" when they become the next big thing:

Elyse Guziewicz
Avon

KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED FOR PART 2--CASTING AND MORE!