So my current novel? Is pretty rad. In concept, anyway. My writing could use all kinds of help, but I love the idea of my story.
Here it is, in a nutshell:
Jackson, who has been shuffled between foster homes for the last ten years, turns 18 and inherits his estranged uncle’s old plantation home and the surrounding 100 acres of property — property that includes a massive, unkempt pond and a thick forest of gnarled live oak.
Harper awakes one night at the edge of a dock looking out over an old pond. With no memory of anything up that point, she quickly comes to the realization that she is dead — a ghost trapped on an old plantation property, searching for the memories of her life, and the mystery surrounding her death.
Eh? Not too smelly, right? There’s one small issue: I have never stepped foot on a plantation property. I’ve never been to the deep south. So it’s been rather rough trying to grasp just the right mood and feel for a deep south setting. Google has been my friend… a crutch, actually. Research is not really my thing. It trips me up. I like making stuff up, and there’s nothing worse when you’re on a roll than to have to stop writing and ask yourself, “Hmmm, I wonder if libraries in Louisiana really have basements…” It’s annoying! And yet it’s something that has to be done, the fact checking. Cuz when the book is finished, there will be some person from Louisiana reading it and yelling at the pages, “Hey, idiot, libraries in Louisiana don’t have basements!” And then the story will be ruined for them because of that one small oversight.
So here’s a small list of things I’ve had to try to Google (with varying degrees of success) for my book. If you know the answers to any of these, please feel free to fill me in. (And thanks in advance for helping me look like less of a fool.)
(the one I just mentioned) * Do libraries in Louisiana have basements?
* Will koi in a pond nibble at a dead body?
* How do you go about draining a pond the size of a football field?
* What is a common floor plan for a plantation style house?
* What month do mammoth sunflowers peak?
* What do the stems of giant sunflowers feel like? (I went into a neighbor’s backyard and felt theirs to answer this one.)
* What is the typical weight of a really big catfish?
* Can a greenhouse be altered to be made into a usable art studio? (an artist friend of mine gave me an educated guess about this one.)
* How rare is a first edition of Where the Wild Things Are, and is it valuable?
* Who throws the white sheets over the furniture in a house after someone dies? And does anyone actually do that, or is it only done in the movies?
* What kinds of bugs and flowers are indigenous to the southern coastal states?
* How far inland can hurricanes come? How far inland will the storms still be violent?
* Do city buses run through rural areas of states? How far do they go? Into adjacent counties?
* What are those things called where you pin different species of butterflies to a board?
* How long does it take a body to decompose in a body of water… with and without the help of fish? (I can’t imagine walking up to a knowledgeable person and asking this question… for fear that they would call the police on me.)
So here’s the deal: I’ve got until the 31st to finish the first draft of this story. Because…. (drum roll)… November is NaNoWriMo!! I have to start with a fresh novel for the NaNoWriMo contest. And I don’t dare start another novel until I’m finished with a first draft of the current one. Too much stuff going at once, and none of it will ever see completion. My NaNoWriMo novel idea is a dystopian trilogy about a group of homeless telepathic teens. I’m hoping there will be less fact checking in those stories. I hope. Really. Cuz have I mentioned how I hate the fact checking??
… and that is why I will never, ever write a historical novel.
And now, for your enjoyment, a few internet pictures I’ve been staring at, trying to write about my setting… since I’ve never actually been to anywhere in the deep south.
