What made you write your WIP?

Hi Gwendy - Haven't seen you around for a while - good to see you back. My novel, which is no longer a work in progress, was written to preserve little known (and sometimes less well understood) actual history about people and events in the early days of Ohio. Puma

Title: None yet.
Setting: Golden Age of Piracy with some cheese.
Status: Still mostly researching.
Reason for Writing: I got annoyed at Captain Feathersword and fantasized about him meeting with some less than friendly pirates. I told my sisters about it. I did a little research on pirates for better, more authentic fantasizing. I later made pixel dolls of those pirates, and they came to life. They were no longer generically cheesy pirates; these guys were distinct (if still cheesy) characters in their own right. They needed stories of their own, so I set them in the Caribbean and I'm going from there.

P.S. I am not making this up!

Working Title: Storm's Fury
Setting: The American Revolution -- from Lexington to the Bahamas and back again.
Reason for writing: I've always been very patriotic, and being American is almost defined by rooting for the underdog. When I saw a special on the Continental Marines (which I'd never heard of), I knew I had found something that needed expanding upon. There are few records of these men, men that were willing to pick a fight with the largest naval power in the world, and no stories sing of their heroism...though a few mentions are made (unfairly) of disgrace. Underdogs. When I researched the incident at Lexington and Concord, and took into account that there were three equal factions (for war, against war, and against choosing a side), and that most fought to amend our standings with King George III, and gain more rights, I felt I could depict what this truly was, instead of what the history books force-fed us in school: a civil war of Englishmen, fought among Englishmen, that led to the birth of a new nation. It didn't hurt that I imagined a Bourne Identity element to it, too...

Play Title: Wakan Tanka’s Holy Warrior

Setting: Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota

Status: Researching, translating, writing dialogue, and completing event timeline

Reason for Writing: I currently live and teach on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota. I am non-native, but due to my theatrical background I was asked to write a play about Sitting Bull. The goal is to create a play that can be preformed each summer and bring tourists to the area (as well as honor Sitting Bull). I’ve been researching and I still am, but I have begun putting dialogue pieces together and confirming my main character’s motivation for seeking out Sitting Bull.

Title: The Scourge of Rome
Setting: Ancient Rome
Reason for Writing: I've always been fascinated by Rome, and by the Republican era in particular. It was a fascination that led me to major in history, much to the consternation of my parents (who still pester me about getting an MBA). Academia only fueled my interest, and since graduating I've continued devouring anything and everything I can get my hands on. But back in 2002, one book literally reached out and seized my imagination - Scipio Africanus: Greater Than Napoleon by B.H. Liddell Hart (who was also the major British contributor to armored warfare theory in the years before WWII). Up to that point, I was familiar with the Second Punic War (aka the War with Hannibal), but more for its ramifications than for its actual circumstances. The more I read, the more enraptured I became. A civilization pushed to the breaking point, but holding on nonetheless, grinding through with dogged determination. Political intrigue. The rise of two of Rome's most prominent figures - Fabius Maximus and Scipio Africanus. I got hooked, and when I decided to sit down and write a novel...I for some reason decided to tackle the biggest and most daunting of my ideas - the Second Punic War.

Working Title: Fortune is a Fickle Goddess
Setting: Ancient Rome
Reason for Writing: Simply put, I'm not ready to set the story or the characters aside. The Scourge of Rome only covers the first two years of a sixteen year conflict. I toyed around with breaking away and writing something else entirely, but started getting too focused on the "getting published" side of things instead of writing for the love of writing. So, back to basics...and if TSOR does get picked up, I'll have its sequel well underway.

Working title: A Family Affair (a romantic comedy)
Setting: England, 1812

Reason for writing: having realised, while working on my 3rd novel, that what I really like to do is write comedy. And having become utterly fed up with the garbage that gets published in the guise of 'Regency romances', I decided to see if I could do better. Well, I know I'm no Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer (alas) but I have sure had a lot of enjoyment from trying! And I have discovered, not entirely to my surprise, that to craft a good tale with wit, sound research, and elegant language is a big, big ask. I'm LOVING it. But a 'bodice-ripper' it ain't. Sorry.

Title: Rocamora to be released 30 October and WIP is the sequel.
Setting: 17th century Spain and Holland
Reason for writing: Many mysteries in my MCs life that are not explained: How and why he became Dominican confessor and Spiritual Director for the teenage Infanta of Spain when he was only five years older than she.
Why did he disappear from Court at age 42 when there is no evidence he was denounced or arrested by the Inquisition?
Why did he then declare himself to be a Jew yet not practice the religion for the next 4 years?
He became a physician at age 46 and married a 25 year old who bore him 9 children over the next 11 years.
He lived to the age of 83, and no book, monograph or article has been written about him according to my research.

To sum up why I chose Vicente de Rocamora as my subject, I had an opportunity to play historical detective and fill in the large gaps in his life with some logic and much imagination.

Book title: Escape From Manitou Island (third in the series, and there'll be a fourth)
Setting: Various, but focuses mainly on pre-/early-contact Woodland/Great Lakes area (Indians)
Reason for writing: I live in this area, I've been insanely interested in this topic for years now, and nobody else is writing any fantasy-type stories utilizing Ojibwa mythology! If I can't find them to read elsewhere then I'll write my own!

That, and I just wanted to 1. entertain people with something I'm insanely interested in and 2. maybe interest some likeminded person into befriending me. *crosses fingers wistfully*

Current Work: Livia: In the Shadow of the Sphinx
(Part one of a Trilogy - hopefully)

I feel a rant coming on, so I'll keep it short.

I am writing my current WIP because I am bloody sick and tired of the popular misconception (fuelled by the excellent Robert Graves) that the Empress Livia, wife of Augustus, was a poisoner. It's as simple as that. That this magnificent women has been maligned through recent decades in popular memory, when there is not a shred of historical evidence to condemn her, sets my teeth on edge. It's about time someone wrote the story from her point of view. And what a story it was! Her early life, when she was forced to flee for her life from the man she would eventually be forced to marry is great stuff, and has never been told. I want to do that for her, and can only hope I've done her justice.

I am attracted to people who sparkle. Livia was such a person; a woman torn between duty and independence in a male dominated society. I love her to death, and I want everyone else to love her too.

That's about the meat and bones of it.

Wow, Clio - that sounds like a great story you're writing.

I've read a few of your posts and I want to shout out a big WELCOME to you! I'm glad you're here. It sounds like you'll be a great addition, and I'm sure Doogs will be happy to have another ancient Rome writer among us.

I hope you're enjoying things so far.

Maybe you'll share some of your work with us at some point?

c.e.

c.e.lawson said:

Wow, Clio - that sounds like a great story you're writing.

I've read a few of your posts and I want to shout out a big WELCOME to you! I'm glad you're here. It sounds like you'll be a great addition, and I'm sure Doogs will be happy to have another ancient Rome writer among us.

I hope you're enjoying things so far.

Maybe you'll share some of your work with us at some point?

c.e.

Click to expand...

Thanks, C.E. I certainly hope to get to know Doogs, as he loves Scipio - another person who sparkles! I've read the excerpts of his Scourge of Rome with interest.

I am enjoying reading through all the threads - so much so that I haven't been able to do any work on my WIP for a couple of days. Still, that's all to the good, as it's at a final revision stage, and distance often helps, I always find.

I will certainly share with you all in the very near future. And don't worry - I have broad shoulders and can take it as it is. Having read through several threads in the SYW section, I realise that there are some very knowledgable people here, and I would welcome all their views.

My published novel was inspired by a pair of ancestors on my husband's side (discovered while doing family roots research) who lived on the frontier in colonial Virginia. As I delved into this time and place in American history that I knew so very little about, a story began swirling in my brain that combined the lives led by the different kinds of people (I hesitate to call them average, for in my estimation, they were not) who braved the unknown and pioneered America's westward expansion.

My almost finished WIP being published in April is inspired by a longtime fascination with the American Revolution. Again, the focus is on average folks coping with and living through the extraordinary events of their time. This book takes place in New York City, 1775-1777, when the city switches from being a bastion of Loyalism, to being the main base for Washington's Continental Army, only to then become occupied by the British Army and Navy.

Both of these settings allow for plenty of action, adventure, mayhem and and romance to ensue!

Working Title: Caught between two WIPs – Spark of Vengeance/ Willow Creek

Setting: Australian 1809 – 1816 / 1820

Reason for writing: I grew up in the area and became fascinated with the history of it years ago and spent many years playing with Spark of Vengeance set during a turbulent and brutal time in Australia’s past. After making the decision to place it into a draw one more time and leave it there, I decided to continue the story from soon after it ended, which is Willow Creek. Now as I write the second one I can see places where I should have went with the first one.

I have two works in progress, though one is temporarily set aside.


Working Title: Britannia
Setting: Roman Britain/ancient Rome
Reason for writing: Because my favorite thing to do is to find gaps in history and fill them up with my idea for what happened. In this case, when reading about the Boudiccan rebellion, i wondered what happened to the daughters. I thought it was an interesting idea, a place where I could really come up with something.


Working Title: The Last Vlois
Setting: a few years pre-Revolution in France
Reason for writing: Again, there was a gap. Oh, plenty had been written and said about the affair of the diamond necklace, even by those who participated (these people were in love with writing memoirs). But no one really knows the whole story. So I used my imagination . . .