Consuming the Soul: The second novel arrives

I'm happy to announce the completion of another milestone in my writing "career". It's only taken me ten months since I started it, but I finally completed the first draft of my second novel! Okay, technically, it's my third novel since I have another one about two thirds completed that I started after "Gangster's Gold", but it's the second I've actually completed.

For the past three Novembers, I have participated in the National Novel Writing month writing event. The goal is to write a 50,000 word in thirty days. My friend, Mackie, told me about this back in 2009, and I decided it was a sign. It told me the time had come to write My Novel. You know, it's that novel everyone has tucked in the back of their head. The one we just know we'll write Someday. For most of us, Someday never seems to arrive, and if Mackie hadn't told me about NaNoWriMo (yes, that's what they call it), I suspect my story would still be loitering in those back alleys of my brain. Thus inspired,  I wrote and actually completed "The Legend of the Gangster's Gold." The following year, I started a second novel about a kid who sees ghosts, forced to work in a carnival, and eventually has to save the souls of dead children who were murdered in an abandoned mine, and finally the year after that, my third, "Consuming the Soul".  If all goes well, I'll start a new story come November 2012.

I'm excited about this newly completed novel. Its current working title is "Consuming the Soul" and is based on an old New England supersition. In the early eighteen hundreds there were those who believed that when a number of people, especially those in the same family, died from consumption (aka tuberculosis) it wasn't due to disease but due to an evil force inhabiting the body of the first victim. That force subsisted by consuming the life energies from living souls. Some believed if you dug up the body of that initial victim, you would find fresh blood in his heart or liver. You must then burn the organs and feed the ashes to those afflicted by the disease. This would supposedly cure the ill and stop the deaths. Needless to say, not many adhered to this "Yankee vampire" supersition, although for awhile, it was somewhat popular in the backwoods of Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire. Regardless, it was the inspiration for this book. A "vampire" book without vampires!

This novel was a actually lot of fun to write. It's a young adult novel and my first attempt at writing in first person. There are historical aspects, danger, mystery, and even a little romance. I'll have to admit, romance isn't really my thing. I usually prefer the thriller stories where romance doesn't get in the way of a good old-fashioned gunfight. I'll take a fun-filled fiery explosion over gooey mush any day.  Yet, I threw some in just the same. However, we are definitely not talking "Fifty Shades of Grey"!

So, now that the first draft is completed,  I've put the story away for the time being. I'll let it simmer for awhile and eventually go back and start the editing process. As I have learned, that can be a long, drawn out process. In the meantime, I'll start thinking about my next story. November is only a few months away!