The final installment I presented last week was not, in fact, where Claire's story ends; however, I don't intend to spend the next year posting 500 word sections of the manuscript...never mind that I never managed to finish the story. The manuscript as I left it is 47,000 words long. I don't remember the reasons why I abandoned it, probably one at least being that I didn't know how to finish it off. It's also possible that other stories were pressing at me as I've been bouncing between various new projects and my old standards of Cimwai's Bay (and its sequel), and The Cure (and its sequels), for several years.
At the point of which I left off, Claire does not leave without Jason. She's too shook up from her narrow escape that she doesn't feel capable of taking off and instead returns to his glamorous penthouse apartment. Over the next several days they plan to scope out, and break into the Homian Power research facility which is located on an island just off the shoreline of the city. I think I managed to get them in and out of that experience (narrowly, of course), but that's where I ran out of steam. I had some intentions of re-introducing Claire to her mother, but never figured out the final showdown between her and the Homain Power, powers that be.
Claire's story came up out of the idea to simply write a story about a girl who could fly (much like how Ava came about from wanting to write about a girl whose hair turned green). I made her a librarian since that is my background as well, and she lives in a city that somewhat resembles Toronto (although when I thought of the library where she works, I more of thought of the Milner in Edmonton than any location in the GTA). At one point I attempted to turn the manuscript from an adult read, to young adult tale, reducing Claire's age to that of a university student, and omitting her habit of smoking (there's still sex, however).
What's next? My blog will probably go back to a casual record of my life in Somerville for the time being. I don't promise any consistent posting schedule since my free time, or more specifically the free time with which I feel like writing, is pretty scare at the moment. I'm currently balancing two part-time jobs, and thus working more hours than I did when I was full time at the University of Alberta. For writing? I'm in the process of writing a straight-up romance about a circus (involving a number of aerial performers, of course). It's actually in the editing phase and I've made a very laid-back goal of trying to submit it to a publisher by the fall. We'll see if I make it.
If you haven't read my short story project, but are now curious, you can head back to Part 1, by clicking here.
Ciao,
Andrea
2 comments:
So, I remember getting busy and not finishing this, and making a note to return to it. Which I've now done! So I'll also say a couple things.
I really like the premise. It starts nicely, with the main character reflecting, and she seems unique, but then we learn may be part of a larger "powered" community. Interesting universe. Claire seems cynical, but then as things are gradually revealed, we see she has been dealing with a lot, so I buy it. The occupation makes sense. Jason's harder to get a read on, what with him being seen through her eyes, though he doesn't seem the type to really think things through. He wouldn't have been able to come up with the "marriage" excuse, which was brilliant, by the way. I'm not sure I buy anything romantic between them in future though. Could be me.
I wonder whether much editing had to be done to break the story up as it was? Because the breakpoints seemed fairly natural, and there was the implication you changed the very end this time. I know I have issues reformatting my old stuff, I'm not able to cut much. At any rate, best of luck with the other writing projects!
Thanks for your comments! I don't know whether I'll ever get around to finishing this one, it's at the end of a long list, I think. I actually took a lot of interior monologue out of these sections to make them shorter and more appropriate for posting. Content wise, I didn't change anything...and no, I don't think you should buy into a romantic future between Jason and Claire. I'll leave it at that.
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