Introduction to Me

I am a woeful writer. Woe is me.

I'm kidding, of course. I'm actually not terribly woeful. In fact, I'm usually a fairly happy person, in my own way, which typically involves staring off into space creating characters and worlds in my head that I won't remember the next day (but will probably pop up five months into the future in what I will think is a sudden burst of literary genius). But anyway, the title of my blog isn't important (or at least I hope not, because if it is I'm kind of screwed at this point). It's the content that matters. After all, if you're only here for the title... why bother?

Drat. I'm being wordy again. Oh well.

Anyway, on to the important point: my writing. I am a writer with a wide range of interests, which leads to a wide range of formats for my writing. I write poetry (which is horrendous), short stories (which never seem to go anywhere), single page scenes from stories I may or may not write someday (which are usually okay), and novels. Well, a novel, really. Or, more specifically, the first book in a quartet. It is called The Last Alchemist (the title of the quartet, if you were wondering, is The Stone Quartet). Yes, I know, this is a rather precocious (or presumptuous, if you'd prefer that word) undertaking for a "beginner", but since I am cocky enough not to see myself as a beginner, because in actuality I have been writing for eight years, though admittedly not very well, I do not particularly care.

The plot of my book is not easy to explain, mostly because I am horrible at plot summaries and partly because it keeps changing direction on me. But I shall make a valiant attempt.

The book includes a girl, who is the main character. Geminia Neerica Samari (pronounced gem-ih-NEE-ah NEER-i-kah sah-MAH-ri). Also known as Gem. You may have noticed that I have stolen my online name from her. That is because she is loosely based upon myself at 13. Which, by the way, is her age in this book.

The book also includes a boy (because I happen to like male characters more than female ones. Perhaps I'm sexist. Perhaps I just identify with them more, even though I am a girl. We may never know). No, he is not a love interest. His name is Faren (pronounced FAIR-en) Grey. He is also thirteen, and is the secondary main character who is present throughout all of the books in the quartet. Well... kind of.

This story also includes magic, a wide variety of magical creatures (some purely from the imagination of yours truly and some taken from old folklore and legends, as most magical creatures are), a couple of worried parents, a stone, a boy with a secret and bright blue eyes, a walking lizard, an annoyed not-sorcerer, a small dragon, an overly-formal elf, and a tree-dwelling race of pacifists. Among other things.

It's fantasy, in case you couldn't tell.

I thought up The Last Alchemist when I was eight years old. In the shower, if you must know. Granted, back then it was called The Stone (now the title of the series), Gem's name was Monea (or was it Monia?), Faren didn't exist, and the plot was considerably different, but it was the seed that grew into this huge, annoying tree with too many branches. Which isn't a very good analogy, but you get my point.

I have, over the years, attempted several times to write this monstrosity, and each time I've had to start over because I simply grew up too much and didn't like what I'd written when I was younger. But now, I feel ready. I have three full-fledged chapters, and seven more already sketched out using the old drafts that need so badly to be rewritten. But after that, it's the edge of the map and I have only the faintest clue where I am going. In fact, for many things, your guess is as good as mine. But I am looking forward to the journey, and hope to record it within this blog. Which is why I made it in the first place, of course.

Now that this overly long introduction is complete, I suppose I'll be going until I have some writing news of actual merit to report. So, until then, happy living.