Ok, I have officially decided. I’m going to write a new novel this semester instead of simply rewriting The Phoenix of Nova Terra (or Terra Nova?) for English 318.
The working title is Bringing Estella Home, and it is going to have a lot more action than Hero in Exile and Genesis Earth, my last two novel attempts. It starts with a massive invasion of the Hameji (basically, space Mongols) that splits up a family. The rest of the story is their struggle to find each other again and rebuild their lives.
Here’s the basic storyline, as I currently have it conceptualized. The McCoys are a family of local merchants in the Kardunash system. There are three younger siblings who fly on the shipping runs: Ben (the oldest), Estella, and James (the youngest).
When they arrive at Kardunash IV, Ben and Estella leave the ship to have some fun, while James remains with his father to handle the offloading. Within the hour, a massive Hameji war fleet jumps into the system and launches an all out assault on Kardunash IV. James and his father are forced to retreat, leaving Ben and Estella behind.
The Hameji destroy Kardunash IV with mass accelerators and capture or destroy every ship in the system. Ben and Estella survive as prisoners. Ben gets shipped off to a slave world where he is tortured, broken down, and eventually turned into a empathically manipulated slave warrior of the Hameji. Estella is given as a concubine to the new Hameji overlord of the Kardunash system.
At first, Estella is terrified of everything and everyone. She’s treated like cattle, right up until the point where she enters the overlord’s harem. At that point, her captors start to treat her more civilly, and she learns some interesting things about them and their culture. The brutal, inhuman barbarians turn out to be human after all, and she grows to understand them and even sypathize a little. Eventually, she realizes that she has the power and influence to save her people from brutal enslavement in the new order.
James, in the meantime, is completely devastated. He pledges to save his lost brother and sister, and dedicates all of his energy towards that end. However, he learns something frighening about himself; he can’t take a human life without compunction. This is something he must struggle with as he joins up with a band of mercenaries and goes deep into the occupied territory, putting his life at risk.
It’s going to be a fun story to write. I’m going to kill at least one of the siblings, possibly two of them. I still don’t know how it’s going to end, however. That’s still a surprise to me–one that I’m very eager to find out.
My goal now is to finish this novel by the end of winter 2009. I wrote about 70,000 words last semester, and I don’t expect this novel will be much longer than that. I want to keep it short, fast, and brutal.
The best part is that if I accomplish this goal and finish this novel, I’ll have three rough drafts done before the summer. Three! That’s the magic number I’m looking for World Fantasy 2009! That’ll leave the rest of the summer to revise them…difficult work, but at least I’ll have three rough drafts.
Wish me luck!
Good luck!