The Countdown to Camp Continues

Okay so there's just about 11 hours until the start of Camp NaNoWriMo August session. For those who don't know, Camp NaNoWriMo is a slightly more relaxed version of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) that takes place every November. Camp takes place in the summer time; in 2011 it was July and August, and I can honestly say that I do not recommend doing two NaNo sessions back-to-back. This year they decided to go with June and August.

My favorite part about all of this is that I get two more sessions of writing 50K on a novel in just a month. This is made even better by the fact that my birthday is August 1st. Last year I basically told people that what I wanted for a few hours was to be left alone so I could work on my novel and it was a pretty great birthday present. Unfortunately this year I was unable to request my birthday off from work, so my boss decided to schedule me for third shift both tonight and tomorrow night. What this means is that I start work at 10pm July 31st and get off work at 6am August 1st and then I have to turn around and be back into work at 10pm August 1st. So from 6am until 10pm I need to get a good long sleep, obviously I need to eat food, and then I would like to get a few thousand words written.

I'm still looking forward to working on Holy Water but at the same time I'm just a little frustrated. Typically by this point I have my music playlist created and honestly, aside from going on iTunes and making a new playlist, I haven't done much else. So I have a blank playlist and that is not exactly helpful. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of songs will fit the mood for this story. My main focus will be on two characters: Inara and Kellan. Inara is from our world and in the present day, while Kellan is from a parallel dimension and they don't have all the modern conveniences we have. Based on that I think the playlist will probably jump from pop/rock/metal on Inara's part and then maybe some Celtic/country and some of the softer metal songs, but I have so very many songs to choose from. Also, I don't want to use the same songs over and over again. Granted, yes, they seem to be songs I can really write to, but my novel playlist has to tie in to the events, moods, and emotions of the story. I do also have a playlist called "Writing" which just has songs that help motivated my writing, no matter what the story.

I have made progress with background information for Holy Water and for the whole series. Most of that progress lies in the decision to write two novellas that will take place before the start of the series and will introduce a number of the characters. I have a Kellan story and an Inara story planned, and it may be that between Holy Water and Ritual Sacrifices that I write a Shiloh story as well, and if that seems to work then there may be a Jennsen story by the time I reach Altar. Anyway, the Kellan story is tentatively titled Rebirth through Salvation and will detail what happens to him about three years before the story starts. Then, in Inara's story, Listen to the Prophet, we will get to see a little bit of Inara's life at college and will include some characters who will show up again in the second and third books of the series.

As it stands, here is the series, in order chronologically:
Rebirth through Salvation -- Kellan's prequel novella
Listen to the Prophet -- Inara's prequel novella
Do Not Drink the Holy Water -- book #1
TBA -- Shiloh's prequel novella
Please No Ritual Sacrifices  -- book #2
TBA -- Jennsen's prequel novella
Stay Away from the Altar -- book #3

What I need to do, aside from figuring out the titles for Shiloh's and Jennsen's prequels and writing the whole dang series, is figure out a name for the series as a whole. I am open to suggestions so feel free to post your ideas. If you make a suggestion and I choose to use it I will put you into the acknowledgments and there might be another prize further down the line.

An Introduction to Do Not Drink the Holy Water

Okay, so I said that the month of July I would use to do some planning on my next Camp NaNoWriMo novel, Do Not Drink the Holy Water. Since it is such a long title, from here on out I will just refer to it as Holy Water.

Originally the idea for this novel came to me when I was walking through an outdoor Catholic shrine near a friend's house while in college. Right next to the small indoor church was a huge plastic tank that was filled with holy water. At the water spigot a sign had been posted, saying: Do Not Drink the Holy Water. I took a picture of it on my phone and then an idea began to form. I began to envision what it would be like if even just in one place, Catholics and Pagans could get along. An outdoor shrine seemed like the perfect place. All the natural beauty and features would work well for Pagans, but there were still all sorts of saints along the numerous pathways.

The holy water sign also gave me more of the idea, that the holy water isn't just holy water and that drinking it will awaken the latent abilities within a person. This water is guarded by monks who are not exactly from our realm, because the shrine is located at a point where the veil between our realm and a realm of magic is located.

Now, I'm still working out all the little plot details and such, but I'm finally going to write this story. The idea came to me back in 2007, and it was going to be my NaNovel in November, but then another story kind of popped in and took over. Below I will post the front cover I designed for Holy Water, as well as the story summary from the back cover and the author blurb.

Inara Cooper always dreamed of going on an epic adventure, but she never dreamed that a rule she broke when she was five would be the event that would change her life forever. When the truth comes out, Inara finds that she is swept off from everything she thought she knew, and is set down right in the middle of a resistance trying to protect their realm from a dangerous man calling himself The Hood.

Now, with the help of her Guardian and mentor--a warrior monk named Calder--as well as her Protector Kellan, Inara will have to harness her new abilities and pull together the struggling resistance. If she fails then The Hood will destroy everyone she has begun to care for.

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Danielle Thamasa has been writing with the hopes of someday being published ever since she was in the seventh grade. She was published multiple times through junior high and high school in her county's annual creative writing publication. She further honed her writing skills in college, where she worked on the school newspaper for four years.

In her free time Danielle does a lot of reading and writing, as well as spending a great deal of time with fellow authors she met by participating in NaNoWriMo.

You can find Danielle on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

I have also worked out a little bit of information for the sequel to Holy Water: Please No Ritual Sacrifices. More on that another time.