At long last I have finished the rough draft of my novel. "What novel?" you ask. Back in July of 2005 I mentioned applying to a masters program in creative writing at Warren Wilson College. Rebecca and I were each going to write our great American novel in the program and become famous authors, but neither of us got in. It was then that I started this novel because I needed the beginning of a manuscript for my submission. After finding out about my rejection, I decided to finish my novel without them. And so now finally I have.
Well, I haven't exactly finished. In a way I still feel like I'm just starting. I've finished the rough draft and it is just that: rough. So now I have to proof and edit it into something polished and spectacular. The editing process can be just as long and tedious, if not even longer than the writing process, so who knows when I will actually be done and ready to send it off to agents and publishers. Still, having passed this first hurtle and actually finishing the manuscript, I feel excited and fueled to press on.
The novel is about a woman named Elledriel, but she never uses her full name preferring Elle (pronounced like the French do and like the letter sounds "L" if anyone has a more Americanized spelling suggestion lay it on me, most Americans pronounce it Ellie.) Anyway, Elle is a successful businesswoman whose life gets turned around when she discovers she's half angel. Not only that, she has a coveted power that has been lost to the angels for ages and she winds up being hunted on both sides by the heavenly angels and the fallen.
I'm also in the market for a better title. Right now it's "Angel of Light" (they call her power "the light") I don't think that's quite as catchy as I'd like, so any suggestions are welcome. I've attached my little one page synopsis, which I am also revising, so please send me all your suggestions, critiques, and ideas to make it better.
Katie
Synopsis:
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days-and also afterward-when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes of old, warriors of renown. Genesis 6:4 (NRSV)
Elledriel Peterson didn't know what an angel name was or why she had been given one, until the day she was shot in a robbery and brought back to life in a hospital waking to new angelic abilities. The angels, to whom she was born, call it simply "the light," but there is nothing simple about the power that arises in Elle after her resurrection. Though the nature of the light goes unexplained, Elle eventually discovers that she is the only being in possession of this coveted power that inspires fear in other angels.
Elle is a driven career woman. She has a penthouse apartment, designer clothes, and an athletic, successful fiancé with brains and ambition to match her own. Though raised Christian, Elle remained agnostic, a believer in the possibility of something greater than herself, but too busy to think about what that might actually have meant. Before she can fully grasp the situation, Elle is torn from the world she knew and thrown into the hidden realm of the angels. She must grope her way beyond the mysteries of her dead human mother and unknown angelic father to a safe haven where she can learn about her past, her parents, her power and why both sides want her so badly.
She is fortunate or perhaps cursed with the archangel Michael as her protector and guide. Even by human standards Michael is gruff and severe. Their reluctant partnership hangs on a tenuous thread of obligation and a lack of other options.
In the midst of swarms of fallen angels intent on capturing or killing Elle, one of the fallen stands out; the charismatic, black-winged, fallen angel Lucien, who saves her life more than once. Despite Michael's warnings not to trust any of the fallen, Elle is drawn to him and his promises to take her away into hiding and tutor her himself.
With little understanding of the powers that are beyond her, Elle is plunged headfirst into a fight for her life, if not her very soul. Will she make it safely to the sanctuary? Is she right to trust Lucien? Can Michael protect her from herself and her own choices? And what does her new found power mean for her future?
The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) in North Carolina has been working with a non-profit orginization called Flashes of hope to go to hospitals and take potraits of kids with cancer and other life threatening illnesses. I went with Michael Mauney to one of these shoots.
One of the best smiles I got was of a little boy with his brother. The boy was grumpy and didn't want to smile or be touched by his brother. Michael asked the boy to stand off camera and makes faces at his brother, while Michael took pictures of his brother alone. This got the boy laughing and I managed to grab a shot of him mid-laugh away from the background. Of course the minute he stepped back up to stand with his brother he went serious again.
So I have this new really cool antique sofa and I've been itching to shoot some fashion stuff with it. Since Jessica and I had a couple of hours to kill, we did a quick shoot with old cameras and a big blue dress. And then it was off to the airport for Jessica.
