Thank you, Colleen Sayre for inviting me to The Next Big Thing Blog Hop. I'm excited to have the opportunity to share and participate.
Currently, I am an unemployed Senior QA Software Engineer. I've worked for large multi-billion dollar corporations, small credit collection agencies, prestigious colleges and Video On Demand software companies. I thrived in the software industry and enjoyed the challenge of building products out of dreams, poking holes in plans, finding ways to break programs before the customers got a chance and helping find better ways to design our mouse traps. In retrospect, I have found that the vast amount of work that I did revolved around the written word.
The majority of my career has been spent documenting how we would build the products other people dream about, reading or writing functional and design specifications, and looking for the holes in the plans laid out before me, devising and documenting ways to validate or break the program and then using that documentation to help define fixes for the product. I've worked with documentation team to prepare user documents that help customers install, deploy, or upgrade as well as train their employees how to use applications.
Along the way, I realized that the part of my job I liked the best was finding the most illustrative manner in which to convey my message. With that in mind, I decided that while I am out of work, this is the perfect time for me to exercise my passion and talent to write something that others will enjoy, something a little less technical. I want to write fiction.
I started off this month with every intention of diligently participating in the NaNoWriMo challenge to write 50,000 words in the month of November and basically write my first novel. Unlike, many of the other participants, I went into the month without any sense of what, who or where my novel would take place. I hadn't made story idea notes; I didn't have a framework developed; I didn't know my characters names! Hell, I didn't even have any ideas floating around in my head. I'd been working over the summer on a book of travel and roadside adventure stories from my six-week journey around the U.S. either in my car Tug or on my motorcycle Dragon. The Adventures of Dragon Wrider is still in the works and I hope to have it pulled together soon. So when the first day rolled in and out and I didn't really have a clue, I wasn't surprised. Early one morning several days later, I awoke to a familiar voice telling me his part of a story and so it began.
I have been asked to answer a few questions about the newest book I am working on and I'll do my best to answer them in a way that my characters would approve.
What is the working title of your book?
The working title is The Original Crusade. Although I think that Nadan, my favorite character--and the one who keeps waking me up at night to remind me I'm not done--prefers the Genesis of Camelot. Seeing how pushy he can be, I figure Nadan will win. But for now, I'm resigned to the say the official working title is The Original Crusade (The Genesis of Camelot).
Where did the idea come from for the book?
Twenty plus years ago, I began writing a story around a central character named Nadan. He related to me his adventures, and his companions adventures, through several incarnations and reincarnations. Their stories centered around their lives in Camelot in the years after the disappearance of Merlin. I still have the old remnants of this book floating around my office and hope to one day renew it. However, this time Nadan has returned to introduce me to an entirely new battalion of characters whose stories span a much greater time frame. It is a tale that tells of the beginning of the ideas of Camelot not just of Camelot.
What genre does your book fall under?
I am not sure that the vast number of genre that exist in the book community do much to help either authors, or readers find the books they are interested in reading. Instead, I believe they provide critics and publishers a means of stereotyping authors and works into categories, making it easier for them to isolate them for marketing purposes and justify writing off entire groups of writers. That said, I believe that this work would fall into the Literary Fiction or Fantasy genre.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Jesus, Merlin, Arthur, Nadan and Dax: Ewan McGregor
Mary, Guinevere, Gabriela, Angela: Kelly MacDonald or Kiera Knightly
Ilisiador (Druid): Ian McKellen
Mary's Oldest Brother: Eoin Macken
Mary's Middle Brother: Henry Ian Cusick
Mary's Youngest Brother: James McAvoy
Mary Mother, Evelake and Barbara: Cate Blanchett or Charlize Theron
Lamerok: Kit Harrington
Young Merlin: Isaac Hempstead Wright
Narrator: Colin Morgan
What is a one sentence synopsis of your book?
This is an adventure through history that tells how a few several souls continue to reconnect, sometimes across continents, to make a difference and shape the world we all live in, by believing in themselves, one another, love and the goodness buried in the human condition.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
The current intent is to self-publish although, that doesn't mean that if approached I would not consider working with an agency.
How long did it take to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Well...I'll have to answer that question definitively once I have completed the first draft. However, I will say that I am around three weeks calendar time into the writing and feel that I am about halfway finished, although my characters control when and where I go and therefore, how long I will have to write to tell their story.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
That's a truly interesting questions. I have never read anything quite like what I am writing. I am sure there are some out there however, this idea of a soul coming back over and over again has roots in religion, with reincarnation being the theme tying them together. As a child (I still am at heart), like may boys my age, I was intrigued by the stories of Arthur, Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table. It is in this vein, of morals, ethics and pursuit of happiness that I write.
Who or What inspired you to write this book?
Interestingly, complicated questions to answer. Why truly does anyone do anything, but to be happy? I would have to say that for the 'Who' portion of the question, it is first and foremost my mom and author Colleen Sayre. As far back as I can remember, my mom told me stories about far off lands and the chivalry of the knights of the round table. In her spare time, she wrote, always working on some story or song or book, and she would tell the stories to me and share in her passion for storytelling. As I got older and became interested in writing, she encouraged me and acted as my editor on much that I wrote, including that first adventure of Nadan many years ago. However, neither of us ever pursued our passion as intently as we desired. However, in Dec 2011, Colleen Sayre published the first of four books and got me thinking, "If she can do it, maybe I could too." That lead to the 'What.' A few months ago, my mom enlisted my help to publish her fourth book, A Solitary Life. I agreed and set to work doing minor editing and then cover design, artwork and photography for the book. Being involved in such a great work and having the opportunity to help bring it to life pushed me to begin in earnest to pursue my passion for writing as a possible career alternative. Finally, Mom challenged me to participate in this year's NaNoWriMo.
What else about your book might pique the readers interest?
I think that the mingling of the stories of the genesis of Camelot, the life and death journey of joined souls, the connection with Jesus and Mary Magdalene and finally the struggles of a modern day love story, of a family, and of a man raising his son to be the man he wished he could have been all those centuries ago. The message being how to search for a moral and ethical balance to life while pursuing personal happiness and honor.
