I hadn’t intended to do the #5amwritersclub this morning on Twitter. It’s my day to sleep in a little, and I planned to make use of it. Then I ended up waking up around 6:00 and crawled out of bed at 6:30, so it sort of happened anyway. I can’t complain, this book is moving along nicely so far, and I don’t want to interrupt its flow.

Project: The Seeking

Each Seeking, the magic that protects the city of Carra must be renewed, which means the children of the High Family must go into hiding. Whether it be through disguise or bribe, through trusted friends or perfect hiding places, every child of the Priest family must avoid capture for the full day.

When things go wrong with the renewal, it’s up to seventeen-year-old Dahlia, the middle child of the Priest family, and her girlfriend, Bisa, to escape Carra and find the magical beings responsible for the protection. They must learn who would require such a cruel game to be played every year and if the protection of the Gray People is really worth such a deadly cost. What they will discover is far worse.

THE SEEKING is a YA dark fantasy novel

Current Word Count: 37,696

Progress:
An action scene inspired by one of my favorite horror stories. I won’t say what though. 😉

Next Up:
Safety is one thing, but being captured is another.

Commentary:
It’s interesting how the feeling of a building or of a room or just about anything can be changed with just context. A building isolated out in the snow can be seen as a wonderful safety from the cold of the night. If it’s a romance flick, you know that cozy building is probably going to be how our two love birds will meet. But when you realize you’re watching a horror flick, you expect that house to be the hunting ground for some killer. Everything about it changes. Suddenly the shadows are darker, the candles look a little too cozy, and that fireplace is too big, something bad is going to happen with it. The relief you felt dissipates into the need to escape.

Horror plays on these feelings often, luring you into a feeling of relief for the characters, and then turning those feelings upside-down. Of course usually you know when you’re going to watch a horror film, so you know that the cozy house must have something wrong with it. You’re waiting to see what is wrong with the serene premise. In real life, you don’t get that luxury. You get no warning of what to expect. That cozy house in the snowy woods could be a Romance or a Horror, you just don’t know. Even though I’ve labeled this book as a YA Horror novel, I try to go against expectations at times. I try to capture that feeling of the unknown, of whether to trust things or not, because let’s face it – that’s what’s truly scary.