Hello!!! I have been inactive for a very long time 😭
This is a real quick introduction to my new (?) WIP, Where There’s Smoke. It has some of the bones™ of my previous WIPs, but I’m trying to persevere with this story. If I succeed, WTS will be the first novel I’ve completed in over a year!
I’ve made a new cover, and have some posters based on the four main characters’ (so far? it might go up to six I’m not sure yet) first chapters, all of which I’ve finished as of yesterday! (At least for the first draft.) Morpho, Viper, Gemini, and Glare are all codenames, as these characters are pretty involved in the world of urban fantasy espionage.
A quick (kinda) introduction to these four knuckleheads:
Morpho (“I just think we should give women the space to be insane. as a treat”) is a self-preserving con-artist, headhunted and sought after by many for her exceptional talent at forging documents with the help of her illusiomythia. Illusion magic can extend further than forgery — shapeshifting, invisibility, and conjuring among them — but Morpho doesn’t use her powers for evil. She doesn’t want to hurt people. She just wants to make her money and move on. She wants stability, a close network, to be able to sleep without keeping one eye open, but realistically, that was never going to work. People like her didn’t get happy endings like that. Morpho is running away from... something bad.
She wasn’t sure how to feel when he betrayed her. Offended, surely. Impressed was next on the list, annoyingly. There was another emotion swirling within her, but she refused to acknowledge it.
Viper (“sorry! you have to be at least a Level 4 friend to unlock my tragic backstory!”)is a spookily observant assassin, returning from a four month vacation and looking to get back in the game. His experience with magic has been a rocky road — family blessing, or family curse? — and prior to the story’s beginning, he was voluntarily Sealed, his magic locked away inside his soul for good. He does thorough research on his targets before deciding whether he kills them or relocates them (without the one who paid for their death knowing). Luckily, he’s usually sent to kill some pretty bad people. But Morpho’s not the only one running from her past.
Normally, other people where the ones who waited for him. His time was valuable. He had schooled his features into neutrality before walking into the building, but he couldn’t deny the boredom was starting to get to him.
Gemini (“god gives his toughest battles to his weakest soldiers. dear lord, please stop giving me battles”) is a talented coder and siren who wears her heart on her sleeve. Siren song is something special, and she doesn’t appreciate as being seen as little more than a pretty voice (a pretty voice that can convince the world around her to bend to her will, but that’s not the point). Besides, she hasn’t sung properly or in front of anyone in years, preferring to work her way up the ranks by working virtual magic rather than vocal. Maybe she could get back into music, into using her voice for the greater good... just as soon as she finishes this code that she hopes will find her long lost twin brother.
The red ‘ERROR’ message on the screen was disheartening enough, but the fact that this was the ninety-seventh time it had happened was downright upsetting. She could feel hot tears welling up, and she buried her face in her hands. Four years, seven months, two weeks, and five days.
Glare (“my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined”) is a strong field agent who grew up in espionage, but now she’s faced with an entirely new challenge. Her magic is unstable. She’s always been able to control most of the things in her life — how she appears to others, her work — but this magic has thrown a spanner into the works. It’s interfering with her job, making it difficult to get things done, and if word got out it could ruin her career moving forward. She never asked for this. She never wanted this. But getting Sealed is out of the question — openly rejecting her magic would get her kicked out, and she could be fired for not being in control of her new abilities. Caught between a rock and a hard place, she needs a solution: and fast.
Her heartbeat spiked. She felt the control over her magic thin, then snap entirely. She squeezed her eyes shut, but the flash was bright enough to turn the insides of her eyelids red.
So yeah! That’s them, pretty much. Plot lmao what plot is something I’m working on at the moment: I’ve got some beats I’m looking forward to writing, but other than those moments, I’m not sure what connects them (very professional, I know). I’m using Campfire Write and I’m finding it pretty useful!
That’s all from me for now. I’m posting this partially because I want to try and be more active, and also I’m participating in NaNoWriMo* for the first time and I’m excited about it! I’ll try and remember to post an update next week :)
*I’m not going for the 50k WC challenge, so... is it still NaNoWriMo? Either way, I’m going to (ambitiously) aim for 15k, since most of my chapters average at around 2k words each!
